The Scar of Shame is a silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

, which was filmed in 1926 and released in 1927

1927 in film

-Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...

.

It was produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia, in one of the earliest examples of "race movie

Race movie

The race movie or race film was a film genre which existed in the United States between about 1915 and 1950. It consisted of films produced for an all-black audience, featuring black casts....

s", in which an entirely black

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 cast performed a feature film specifically for a black audience. The film was produced and written by David Starkman

David Starkman

David Starkman was an Austrian immigrant who helped to found the Colored Players Film Corporation, an independent silent film studio, as well as write and produce the film company’s most famous film The Scar of Shame....

 and was directed by Frank Peregini, both white.

Introduction

The Scar of Shame was a black silent melodrama with black actors written for a predominately black Audience. Melodramas were the genre of choice for early 20th century black filmmakers. This film emerged during a time of great breakthroughs in not only African American film but all art with the Harlem Renaissance when “a new sense of black consciousness emerged” likely after witnessing the bravery of African American soldiers in World War I. This was a collaboration of a “black cast, white crew and interracial production team” produced by the conspicuously named “Colored Players” who were mostly white, in 1927. The Scar of Shame was one of the only three films produced by this company which was founded in 1926 in Philadelphia by a generous investment.
In Jane Gaine’s article on “Skin Color and Caste in Black Melodrama,” she claims that the film mostly takes it’s substance from D.W. Griffith’s films: Intolerance (1916) and Broken Blossoms (1919). There are undeniable similarities between the films with scenes such as Spike beating Louise matching up remarkably with paternal beatings of the character Lucy in Broken Blossoms and so forth.

Social Insight and Significance

In essence, this is a film detailing the struggle to advance from the depths of black urban life representing bluntly by the ghetto environment, to fabled high class society seen when Alvin visits his mother’s house in the suburbs. With the new emergence of a black bourgeois class, the film provides “a manual for those on the make,” embodied in Alvin Hilliard, but also “a caution to the weak willed who might be diverted from success by urban temptations,” such as Louise who is tempted by the opportunity of a “big break” as a cabaret singer and also her father, Spike, who is unable to resist alcohol.
The message is not so straightforward however and we see those who strive for more ending up hurting those they care about when Alvin gives Louise “the scar,” and deserting those less fortunate of the same race just by a desire for success. The Scar of Shame gives us insight into a “detailed anatomy of the conflicting strata of black urban life,” so that we see those that would be called “strivers” in conflict with those who feel unable to leave their place in society or are resentful towards strivers who abandon them.
There is also the problem of moving up simply by being assimilated into white culture, seen when Alvin seems to only compose “white music” on the piano, and losing track of one’s black heritage. There is no clearly distinct skin color differentiation that sets some characters above others even though commonly a darker skin tone is associated with lower class whereas those more close to white skin are higher class in film. The message here is that it is not the skin that determines the character’s fate but rather the ambition in their hearts. Though this may be as true as we hope it is, if one wants to split hairs, it could be found that Alice is slightly more white and portrayed in more alluring camera shots than Louise and Spike, one of the more base characters in the film and the butler at Alvin’s mother’s estate are darker than the rest.
Though this film is a commentary on the anatomy of black social stratification, it cannot shut out the racism of its era. Wealthy white investors hiring black crews only added to the stark divide between races in the film industry. The reality was, the more “white blood” one inherited, the more successful they were thought to be. Later more emphasis would be put on income, education and achievements of course but this idea of darkness as a marker of insignificance still somewhat permeated the film.
A common theme throughout the film is the conflict between the top and bottom classes and their role in the degradation of black women. It seems that the lower classes were thought to act as sort of a whirlpool, dragging others down with their sinful temptations and clubs of ill repute and loose morals. Simultaneously there was a top class that tried so hard to separate itself from the rest that it ended up not allowing for those trapped below to move up by “holding up impossible hurdles.” The peak of this conflict is seen during the plan conceived by Eddie to kidnap Louise while Alvin is distracted at his mother’s. Louise is caught in the middle in the house while Eddie and Spike, here representing the lower class, sneak up on her and Alvin, coming back from the suburbs and his mother who is “concerned with caste” represents higher class. She feels somewhat shunned from Alvin’s side after reading his mother’s letter, which expressed her desire for him to marry another, more sophisticated girl while she is simultaneously drawn in by the allure of a business deal with Eddie. The scar, which she receives during the ensuing gunfight, marks and makes final her decision to become corrupted by the lower class. Just as Louise feels oppressed by high class and unable to be on the same level as Alvin, Alvin feels as if he is being dragged down by the shame of his past and unable to open up to Alice, his high-class love.
What allows some to move up while most are trapped then? The drive to succeed seems not to be enough on its own. One wonders after seeing the first title card, which puts so much importance on childhood as a determining factor of success in life, how is such a fate determined so early? What does the “knowing hand” know that is so critical to success in life? If we apply this to main characters we see that Alvin had success in life and his mother impressed on him from an early age the importance of staying in one’s “set,” that is to say avoid the suction of the lower class. Though it is true Alvin married Louise, there was never a time when love was apparent. The desire seemed to come more from Alvin’s gentleness and protective attitude, almost pitying Louise. Later, Alvin pulls a gun on her with Eddie and tells them to hold still “the two of you.” Clearly there was little love lost in the breakup. If Alvin had heeded his mother’s advice, his life might have turned out differently for it was almost ruined by the touch of the ghetto. The dealings of Eddie and Spike get him stuck in jail and force him to live the life of an escaped convict for the rest of his life. This ideal of self-preservation is the justification for suppressing the lower class and making wide divides between the black urban strata to minimize the risk of the ill effects of associating with low class culture.
The image of childhood dreams appears again when Louise decides to leave Alvin. Alvin drops Louise’s childhood doll down to the floor as he leaves for his mother’s and she leaves it there as a neglected victim of a poor environment. Gaines argues that the doll or “child” rather, is not a victim of caste but rather of “class prejudice,” and that it is the grudges of high-class black society and the resentment of low-class society that are the root of this system that is cause of the demise of so many lives.

Plot Synopsis

The film begins with a foreword of warning about knowledge during childhood: “Surroundings, childhood training and companion often is the deciding factor in our lives. – It shapes our destinies and guides our ambitions. –If early in life some knowing, loving hand, lights the lamp of knowledge and with tender care keeps it burning, then our course will run true ‘til the end of our useful time on this earth, but, if that lamp should fail through lack of tender care, through lack of loving hands to feed its hungry flame – then will come sorrow and shame!” This remarks on the lack of education available to African American children during this time and urges more care and tenderness be given to avoid the alternative “sorrow and shame.”
As the cast is introduced, their values are related to music: Louise, whose “music is all in discord,” can be seen struggling sporadically and unsuccessfully to escape a birth into low class black society, though she is unable to conjure up the same drive and ambition to succeed seen in Alvin. Music symbolizes refined taste and high class; therefore an appreciation of it helps distinguish people of different “sets” throughout the movie.
The scene is set in the city though right away we see stark contrasts. Alvin’s room is bright and has a portrait of Frederick Douglass, a model of social mobility, while just out the window the setting is darker and less prim. This is the juxtaposition of the ghetto and “finer living” which is an important theme throughout the film.
As Louise is introduced, a quote comes up on a title card for our digestion: “One half the world doesn’t know how the other half lives.” There is no prompting or explanation for it but it just appears. It could be taken as referring to ignorance between white and black races or relegated just within the black social strata. Taking it to mean the latter, the association with Louise makes sense. Throughout the film she tilts from one side: higher class with Alvin, to the other which eventually pulls her down and that is the influence of the ghetto with Spike and Eddie. This half and half between high and low class represents the primary problem that eventually leads to her death.
Alvin sees Louise being beaten by Spike outside while practicing piano and knocks him unconscious, rescuing the damsel in distress then brings her back to Lucretia’s house. It should be noted that Alvin had to descend from his room down to the level where Louise and Spike were, representing a descent into the ghetto. Alvin comments on the injustices that “women of our race are subjected to” and places the blame on lack of education. Lucretia, the owner of the boarding house where Alvin is residing allows Louise to stay, to protect her, in return for chores around the house. Eddie meets with Spike, who is sporting a splendid black eye he claims to have been caused by a trolley car, after the incident and attempts to convince him to let Louise work as an entertainer for him. Spike doesn’t seem enthusiastic and shows regret for beating her, which he would later credit to alcoholism. Spike has some desire to allow his daughter to escape the kind of life he is stuck in but is unable to change any of his actions without being sucked back into his old lifestyle by booze given to him by Eddie.
Eddie represents one of “two sides of black ambition: the urge to flee the ghetto or to control it” Since it seems Eddie is in his element working poker games in the club and also as we see his need to control Spike we can assume that he represents the latter of the fore stated dichotomy of black urban life which is the group aiming to control the ghetto. Eddie learns the truth about the confrontation between Alvin and Spike during dinner at Lucretia’s and we learn something more about Eddie. We see a stark contrast between the refined manners of Alvin who pulls the chair for the women guests and refrains from eating until they are seated and Eddie who helps himself to food without acknowledging the arrival of the women. Later in the evening, Eddie forcefully attempts to bring Louise back to her “old pappy” but again Alvin intervenes. We can assume that Eddie has an ulterior motive. Drunk again off Eddie’s liquor, Spike continues to harass Louise who contemplates suicide if it continues, foreshadowing events to come. Alvin proposes to Louise in a touching scene on the bed after rescuing her again form the altercation claiming that she wouldn’t need to worry about harm if they were married. Here we see a different side of Alvin. Instead of the anti-social, striving for him only mentality, women soften his heart. An important theme is the care and uplifting of women. Characters like Eddie who we are meant to dislike, use women and degrade them while characters we are meant to admire like Alvin bring women up and care for them. After he defends Louise from Eddie at Lucretia’s house, Alvin exclaims, “I’ll teach you to treat our women like that!”
Over more alcohol, Eddie schemes with Spike to distract Alvin with a fake telegram announcing his mother’s illness while they kidnap Louise. Alvin cannot take Louise with him because he hasn’t informed his mother of their marriage which she would not have approved of because of her concern with castes. Louise laments her lot in life and finds a letter from Alvin’s mother urging him to marry another woman who is “part of our set,” referring to the same level in black urban social stratification. She proceeds to rip the letter and then the marriage certificate. Louise “symbolically abandons respectable black values” embodied in her doll as she crushes it remarking: “you too had to be a victim of caste.”
Before they go through with the plan, Spike once again shows hesitance, remarking that she is better off away from people like him. It is hard to make anything of Spike’s feelings of lament even as he doesn’t take part in the plan but cowers against a fence. It could be interpreted as his surrender to the plight of those trapped in the ghetto with nothing like music to pull them out. Alvin comes back to confront Eddie after learning he had been tricked, and that his mother was visiting friends out of town. The scene is cut back and forth between Alvin in the car in the suburbs and Louise tearing up mementos of their marriage. This crosscutting shows a direct link between the importance Alvin places on the caste system and his loyalties to his mother and the inability for their relationship to work. Eddie breaks into the house and entices Louise with long shot possibilities of becoming rich. As Alvin enters and guns are pulled, someone accidentally shoots Louise in the neck leaving a scar. Louise becomes in cahoots with Eddie in his gambling schemes while Alvin is in prison. Eddie refers to Alvin as a “dicty sap” which insults his ambitions to move up the rungs of the caste system.
Alvin escapes prison by filing the bars in his cell and re-establishes himself as a music instructor with a false name. Alvin seems to be consistent in his role as an escapist; first striving to escape the ghetto through music and now escapes prison to re establish himself as respectable in society. Alvin falls in love with his student, Alice, but “lives a daily lie” because he has hidden the secrets of his past. Louise is involved with Alice’s father so Alvin meets her after dropping an urgent note to Alice’s father. Alice’s father unknowingly pairs the two together for a dance. Later that night, Louise makes advances on Alvin, threatening to expose him and he gives in for a moment but in a later scene Alvin rejects her and leaves. This scene stands in contrast to the multitude of times when Alvin saved her because this time it is Alvin throwing Louise to the ground. This has an element of symbolism in that he is no longer going to save her from the “gutter” or low class dragging her down. In distress, Louise kills herself after writing a revealing letter of repentance and apology. In it she confesses that it was really Eddie who shot her neck and he wouldn’t allow her to tell the truth during the trial. Alvin feels compelled to let Alice and her family in on his secrets after hearing of Louise’s death and they forgive him. Alice’s father’s lament mirrors the earlier foreword, in blaming the environment and Louise’s lack of education, finishing with the statement: “our people have much to learn.” This seems to be a fitting end, however in that it shows how one can strive and have ambition like Alvin or be doomed to misery like Louise. The setting of her death is also worth noticing. A burned down candle is there to be noticed as representative of Louise’s failure in life to do anything of importance. Her choice to abandon her hope of rising above poverty that lied in Alvin led her to a life of low class depression and emptiness. There once was a girl who fought against men like Eddie and Spike with fire but in the end her weakness prevailed, extinguishing the flame, or the “lamp of knowledge” due to lack of “tender care.”

Library of Congress

The film has been preserved by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, but it is not on the National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 preservation list. On all Library of Congress VHS/DVD prints, The Scar of Shame is accompanied by a 1923 short film, in which Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...

 sings jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 tunes while Eubie Blake

Eubie Blake

James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...

 plays the melody on the piano. The short film, called "Sissle and Blake" by the Library of Congress, is one of the earliest examples of sound-on-film

Sound-on-film

Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...

technology.