Budgets surpassing $1 million and nudity are so frequent in movies right now that it is simple to overlook that there was as soon as a time when each ideas had been unfamiliar to filmmakers and audiences alike. In actual fact, each traits originated with a single movie: the 1916 silent movie A Daughter of the Gods, directed by Herbert Brenon. The three-hour fantasy epic stars legendary Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman as a younger goddess focused by an evil witch and a grieving sultan seeking to resurrect his son from the lifeless. In its most well-known shot, Kellermann frolics bare close to a waterfall. Regardless that her lengthy hair covers most of her chest, it’s however considered presumably the primary “nude scene” in cinematic historical past.
Sadly, the movie in its entirety has lengthy been misplaced. Nonetheless, a number of stills from the movie, together with a trove of major sources from 1916, present an interesting glimpse into the movie’s manufacturing and reception. Satirically, its record-breaking price range appears to have prompted better controversy than its unprecedentedly express imagery.
Why Did the Movie Finish Up Costing a Million {Dollars}?
A Daughter of the Gods
A Daughter of the Gods is a silent movie directed by Herbert Brenon, that includes a sultan who makes a pact with a malevolent witch to resurrect his deceased son in alternate for the destruction of a mystical magnificence. The movie, which stars Annette Kellerman, explores themes of sacrifice and energy.
- Launch Date
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October 16, 1916
- Runtime
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180 minutes
- Solid
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Annette Kellerman
, William E. Shay - Writers
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Herbert Brenon
- Producers
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William Fox
The behind-the-scenes reporting on A Daughter of the Gods, which was shot primarily in Jamaica, depicts a very costly manufacturing. Based on a November 1916 article in Movement Image Information, over 21,000 folks had been concerned in making the movie, lots of them extras enjoying mermaids and harem dancers. William Fox, head of Fox Movie Company, established a complete municipality in Jamaica to accommodate the large solid and crew. Moreover, the crew spent months constructing a whole Moorish metropolis, the development of which price $350,000 alone, that will get destroyed within the movie’s climax.
Whether or not the movie’s $1 million price range was deliberate upfront or had ballooned to that quantity over the course of manufacturing is unclear. On the one hand, a Motography article recounts that the $1 million price range was Fox’s concept from the beginning. Nevertheless, movie historian Frank Thompson writes in his e book, Misplaced Movies: Vital Motion pictures That Disappeared (1996), that Fox was livid that the manufacturing prices had surpassed $1 million, to the purpose that he allegedly eliminated Brenon’s identify from the movie’s credit (though Brenon efficiently sued to have his identify restored). It due to this fact appears doubtless that the dialog between Fox and Brenon within the Motography article might need been fabricated (both by the writer or by the studio) for the movie’s advertising.
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In actual fact, the manufacturing itself may not have price $1 million within the first place. A Selection article from 1925 clocks the movie’s complete manufacturing prices at solely $850,000, solely surpassing $1 million when together with the distribution prices. In different phrases, identical to Fox and Brenon’s presumably apocryphal assembly, the million-dollar determine might need additionally been made up for advertising functions.
How Did Individuals React to the Nude Scene?
Annette Kellerman was fairly well-known earlier than she appeared in A Daughter of the Gods. At simply 18, she was the primary girl to swim the English Channel. She was additionally notorious for her endorsement of a brand new kind of bathing swimsuit that may liberate girls from the cumbersome clothes and pantaloons that they had been anticipated to put on on the seaside and whereas swimming. Kellerman pushed for the one-piece bathing swimsuit, and there is a story that she was arrested for sporting it in 1907 on Boston’s Revere Seaside. As soon as these fits grew to become socially acceptable, they had been branded as Annette Kellerman Solar-Kist swimsuits from 1914 by way of the Thirties.
Kellerman’s persona was intertwined with water, and proper earlier than A Daughter of the Gods, she swept the nation together with her efficiency within the titular function of the movie Neptune’s Daughter, additionally directed by Brenon. That movie was made simply two years earlier, in 1914, and had a price range of $50,000; it made greater than $1 million on the field workplace. Thus, A Daughter of the Gods may very well be seen as constructing on this profitable template, however throwing one thing new into the combination — nudity.
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One may anticipate that the primary nude scene in a Hollywood movie would have provoked large backlash and censorship. Nevertheless, that does not appear to have been the case. In actual fact, in keeping with Movement Image Information, not solely did the Nationwide Board of Evaluation approve the movie with out requesting any modifications, they even despatched Fox a letter praising him for adhering to their tips. (It is value noting right here that the notorious Hays Code, which strictly prohibited overtly sexual content material in American movies, wouldn’t be formulated for one more six years).
Moreover, in keeping with The Moving Image World, the movie was considered and loved by many high-society figures, together with then-President Woodrow Wilson and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who known as it “an exquisite image.” Given the shortage of censorship and its distinguished viewership, plainly, total, the general public was fairly receptive to the movie’s risqué content material. Whereas A Daughter of the Gods will doubtless stay misplaced for the foreseeable future, a number of stills and promotional supplies for the movie may be discovered on-line. You’ll be able to watch a few of it under: