Seymour Stern: American Film Critic, Guardian and Prophet

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This entire incident and the follow-up dialogue over the artistic and commercial interests priorities in any work of art has since become generally acknowledged as the first and foremost attempt to preserve the artistic rights and license of the filmmaker.

Stern's attacks in this regard were seldom on balance; the bitterness that he intentionally interjected into the Sinclair-Eisenstein situation made it into an incident of international proportions, a fact that many scholars note did more harm than good.

Stern, on behalf of Eisenstein, lost the battle of words with Sinclair.

His own loss may have been far more profound. This incident, however widely reported, still carries with it a certain mystery that will never be completely cleared up.

But such mysteries were to become part of the Stern legend which was now increasing.³³

D.W. GRIFFITH

Of all the mysteries surrounding Stern, the most widely known and least understood was the eagerly awaited omnibus work, Griffith: Master Of Cinema, first announced by Stern in 1939 but never completed.³⁴

Since 1921, when Stern, along with all the other residents of Larchmont, New York, watched on the sidelines as Griffith directed scenes for his ORPHANS OF THE STORM, Stern's devotion to his idol became all-consuming.

In 1924 Stern worked as an extra, a drummer-boy, in Griffith's AMERICA, and subsequently saw the completed film 25 times.³⁵

In 1921, Stern also had the opportunity of seeing THE BIRTH OF A NATION for the first time during a revival. He would continue to cover and report on such revivals literally up until the day he died.

During the 1930's, Stern and Griffith had become close correspondents and Stern confided his desire to his idol of writing the definitive volume on the Griffith legacy, a work that he referred to as a ".. . long-dreamed literary epic. . ."³⁶

An epic in the making' brought with it that certain inner glow that was to allow Stern to survive the numerous disappointments and failures that were to be so unfortunately characteristic of his later years.

But the "epic" and the failure to bring it forth was a failure that was to haunt Stern.

From an envisioned 4-volume set, pressure from prospective publishers reduced it to a single volume; yet it still did not come to print.