The Craving (1918)
directed by Francis Ford
starring Francis Ford, Mae Gaston
Undercrank Productions
Mixing anti-war sentiment and a prohibition propaganda with flights of fancy and experimental special effects is an odd combination, but Francis Ford manages to pull it off and create the captivating and quite entertaining 1918 silent feature The Craving, newly released on Blu-ray from Undercrank Productions.
A silent melodrama about the evils of drink and horrors of war may sound like a slog, but in the hands of director and star Francis Ford it becomes a pulpy delight. Chemist Carroll Wayles (Francis Ford) is working on a new explosive, and a rival chemist from India, the sinister All Kasarib (Peter Gerald), is quite willing to exploit his young ward Beulah (Mae Gaston) to aid his nefarious plans. Kasarib, who has raised young Beulah since her parents were killed in an uprising against the British in India, exerts a Svengali-like control over the young woman and forces her to lure Wayles into Kasarib’s orbit. Wayles confesses his weakness to alcohol, which includes a flashback to an incident where Wayles hallucinates fairies coming out of an absinthe bottle. The fairies spend some time frolicking in a cocktail glass before beckoning Wayles into the empty booze bottle to show him the true evil of drink. Unfortunately, as Wayles enters the bottle we are slapped down by the dreaded “scene missing” notice with a description of the scene, but this was the big moment of the film, and the missing footage really is a bummer as the special effects work in this sequence is excellent. Kasarib abuses his newfound insight, and soon Kasarib has the formula, leaving Wayles a broken man who delves deeper into the bottle. While in the throes of the demon drink, Wayles has an out-of-body experience (enhanced by double and triple exposure photography to create multiple versions of Ford on screen), where he observes the downfall of men on the battlegrounds of World War I, succumbing to various deadly sins and their horrific consequences. Shaken by these visions, he returns to rescue Beulah from Kasarib with fisticuffs and explosions. With the evil doers vanquished, true love blooms between Beulah and the newly teetotaling Wayles.
Despite being quite entertaining, The Craving suffers from thematic and narrative elements that are simultaneously overstuffed and underdeveloped. The striking set piece on the war atrocities doesn’t really seem to link up with either the personal battle with alcoholism or the Fu Manchu style eastern mysticism, but Francis Ford just keeps things moving quite briskly, gliding over the plot holes while delivering a zippy piece of escapist fun. The special effects are quite well done, and the fairy sequence is on par with similar effects in Bride of Frankenstein nearly two decades later, but I still want to see what was in the bottom of that absinthe bottle.
For decades The Craving was presumed lost, but a 35mm print with Dutch intertitles survived and was preserved by the EYE Film Instituut in the Netherlands. Undercrank Productions has released this version of the film with new English intertitles and musical score by Ben Model. The Blu-ray also compiles some other Francis Ford shorts and a short video essay, Francis Ford, Film Pioneer.
