Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927 film)

Uncle Tom's Cabin
Film poster
Directed byHarry A. Pollard
Written byHarvey F. Thew (continuity)
A. P. Younger (continuity)
Walter Anthony (intertitles)
Based onUncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Produced byCarl Laemmle
StarringMargarita Fischer
Arthur Edmund Carewe
George Siegmann
CinematographyCharles Stumar
Jacob Kull
Edited byGilmore Walker
Daniel Mandell
Byron Robinson
Ted Kent
Music byErno Rapee
Hugo Riesenfeld (1928 re-release in Movietone)
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • November 4, 1927 (1927-11-04)
Running time
112 minutes (13 reels)
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSound (Synchronized)
(English Intertitles)

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a 1927 American synchronized sound drama film directed by Harry A. Pollard and released by Universal Pictures. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Western Electric sound-on-film process. The film is based on the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and was the last version filmed without audible dialogue. This film is important historically as being Universal's first sound feature.

In this version of the film, all of the major slave roles, with the exception of Uncle Tom himself, were portrayed by white actors. Actress Mona Ray played the slave Topsy in blackface while the slaves Eliza, George, Cassie, and Harry were all presented as having very light skin coloring because of mixed-race heritage. This film was released on DVD in 1999 by Kino.[1]

The title role was originally played by the notable stage actor Charles Gilpin, but he quit amid onset dissatisfaction with the depiction of the role and was replaced by James B. Lowe, reshooting the scenes already filmed with Gilpin.[2]

Mute print of the sound version.

The film was rereleased in 1958 with sound added and narration by Raymond Massey.[2]

  1. ^ Progressive Silent Film List: Uncle Tom's Cabin at silentera.com
  2. ^ a b Pines, Jim (1975). Blacks in Films. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. ISBN 978-0289703267.