Sadly, The Patriot is a lost film, one that
has been missing for about seventy years now. Only fragments of the film are
still known to exist, and the UCLA Film and Television archive has only about
one-fourth of the film’s (reported) original footage. No complete copy is known
to exist, but the trailer can be viewed here on YouTube. So many
films from the silent era are gone—for various tragic reasons—but The
Patriot is the only nominee for the Academy Award for Best Picture that
no longer exists in any complete form.
The basic plot can be pieced together through various
descriptions in books and online. In 18th Century Russia, Czar Paul
I is a weak, mad, volatile ruler who trusts only his Prime Minister, Count Pahlen
(Lewis Stone). Pahlen has so much influence over the czar that even when the
leader’s son, Crown Prince Alexander (Neil Hamilton), tries to warn his father
about a plot to take control of the country, Paul I imprisons his own son. Pahlen
himself—the so-called “patriot” of the title—has been plotting to rid the
country of the czar because the ruler has become so crazed in his actions and
attitudes. Pahlen claims to be looking after the greater interests of the
country in his conspiracy to overthrow the czar.
Pahlen enlists the reluctant aid of his mistress, Countess
Ostermann (Florence Vidor), and Stefan (Harry Cording), a guard whom the czar
has brutally whipped for not having enough buttons on his gaiters—certainly an
odd reason for attacking another person but undoubtedly meant as a sign of the
czar’s madness. The Countess, upset that her lover is using her as a pawn in
his conspiracy, tells the czar of Pahlen’s plot, but Pahlen reassures the czar
long enough for Stefan and the other guards to kill Paul I. Stefan then shoots
Pahlen, and the Countess tells her lover before he dies, “I may have been a bad
friend and lover—but I have been a Patriot.” The shift from thinking of Pahlen
as being patriotic to seeing the Countess as the “real” patriot must have been
quite a moment in the film’s narrative.
The Patriot was the only silent film nominated
for Outstanding Picture for 1928-29 and the last silent film to be nominated
until 2011’s The Artist (which, to be fair, is not a fully or “true”
silent film). The Patriot was filmed without dialogue and had
sound effects added later. By this point in film history, silent films were
becoming increasingly rare as the studios attempted to respond quickly to the growing
desire of audiences to hear as well as see their favorite performers. So many
films from this period have disappeared due to a lack of interest at the time in
preserving a style of filmmaking that was on its way out. The studios and
filmmakers had no idea just how much later generations would like to see their
artistic achievements from the silent era.
The loss of The Patriot means that we do not
get to experience the performance as Czar Paul I by Emil Jannings, who won the
first Oscar for Best Actor the year before for his performances in The Last
Command and The Way of All Flesh. We also don’t get to see
the only Oscar-nominated performance by Lewis Stone, who is probably better
known today for playing Judge Hardy in all of those movies with Mickey Rooney. It
was also the first film directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch to garner him a
nomination for Best Director, an honor he never received despite some marvelous
comedies and musicals he directed later in his career. Finally, the surviving
trailer and set photos clearly indicate why The Patriot was nominated
for Best Art Direction with its massive and impressive sets. At a budget of
nearly a million dollars, it was a huge and very expensive production.
Oscar Win: Best Writing
Other Oscar Nominations: Outstanding Picture, Best
Director, Best Actor (Lewis Stone), and Best Art Direction
