| Isn't Life Wonderful | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | D. W. Griffith |
| Written by | D. W. Griffith |
| Based on | "Isn't Life Wonderful?" by Geoffrey Moss |
| Produced by | D. W. Griffith |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography |
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| Music by |
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Production company | D.W. Griffith Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
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Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
| Budget | $260,000[1] |
| Box office | $400,000[1] |
Isn't Life Wonderful is a 1924 American silent romantic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith for his company D. W. Griffith Productions, and distributed by United Artists. It was based on the short story "Isn't Life Wonderful?" in the 1923 book Defeat by Geoffrey Moss, and it was released under the alternative title Dawn.[2]
After World War I, displaced families flood Berlin, including a Polish professor (Erville Alderson) and his relatives. Food is scarce. The family finds housing but can barely afford to eat, sometimes surviving on one potato per person and horse turnips.
Paul (Neil Hamilton) and his cousin Inga (Carol Dempster) want to build a life together. Inga finds work collecting household basics. Paul builds a hut and plants a garden, growing enough potatoes for winter.
A group of starving workers, led by one man (Hans Adalbert Schlettow), follows them during harvest and steals the entire crop. Another worker (Paul Rehkopf) helps with the theft. Paul and Inga lose everything.
Inga tells Paul that despite the loss, they still have each other, and life still has meaning.[3]
Most of the scenes were filmed in Germany and Austria. Only one was filmed in New York at the studio. The film stars Carol Dempster and Neil Hamilton. The film was a failure at the box office, and it led to Griffith leaving United Artists shortly after its run in theaters.[4]
The film did receive some positive critical notices at the time, and its stock has risen considerably since its initial release; it has for some decades been considered one of Griffith's great films.[5]
The title of the film was spoofed in the Charley Chase comedy Isn't Life Terrible? (1925).
Prints of Isn't Life Wonderful are held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Cinematek (Brussels, Belgium), Filmoteka Narodowa (Warsaw, Poland), Museum of Modern Art, Arhiva Națională de Filme (Bucharest, Romania), George Eastman Museum Motion Picture Collection, and Danish Film Institute (Copenhagen, Denmark).[6]
Among the thousands of refugees who flocked to Berlin was the family of a Polish professor, and the days following the war show them in a terrific struggle for mere existence. They manage to get a place to live, but their combined resources and the high prices of food result in their only being able to get a potato apiece, and for long periods they have to subsist on horse turnips. Despite this, the love of one son, Hans, for his cousin Inga is so great that they determine to overcome all obstacles. Inga works overtime in another place and collects a pitiful supply of things for their new home, while Hans alone builds a little hut and finds a little allotment where he grows enough potatoes to keep him through the winter. All is rosy and they start out to harvest their little crop, but are followed by workmen who, temporarily made beasts through their hunger and suffering, and the suffering of their families, rob them of all. The world looks black, but Inga rises to the occasion and makes Hans realize that they still have each other, and that after all "Isn't Life Wonderful."
