films indexed: 1909, 1909, 1910, 1913, 1918, 1923, 1925, 1929.
I was frustrated with the lack of information regarding the status our earliest Les Mis film adaptations, so I thought to make an index compiling all avaliable information for anybody interested, as well as where/how to watch them if at all possible.
This will include both lost, semi-lost, and avaliable films, and I will mark them accordingly and give as much information I can about the lost ones, as well as press photography when avaliable.
I've also included a google document with footnotes and sources, as well as curiousities and reviews of the films of the times for anybody really interested:) the most particular adaptation choices are written in the post itself.
(As for the short film adaptations preceeding these ones, they are avaliable for viewing on youtube linked here:)Â
1909:Â The Price of a Soul, The Ordeal, A new life:Â presumed LOST.
director: Edwin S. Porter
company: Edison Manufacturing Company
archive: N/A
status: The film is considered public domain, and was released as a short film trilogy. The first part apparently shares a reel with the film âFurnished roomsâ.
idiosyncrasies: Bishop Myriel is particularly praised in this movie.
----> REVIEWS OF THE TIME <----
â.... Not more than a small fraction understand them because they have not read the story, or, if they have, it has been in such a cursory manner that it made little or no impression upon them. And yet, the portion who have read them and who appreciate them when reading them enjoy all the more fully the pictures which reproduce them.... âÂ
surviving stills, (scenes depicting Cosette and her new doll, as well as Valjean escaping with her)
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1909:  The Galley Slave, Fantine, Cosette, Jean Valjean : presumed LOST.
director: J. Stuart Blackton
company: Vitagraph / Warner.Â
archive: N/A. While it is possible the reels may lie housed in the Warner Archive lot, there is no record to show it, and they have declined contact.
status: Four films for separate viewing. It is not registered to any archive nor is it available for viewing.Â
idiosyncrasies:Â Widely regarded as the first American feature-length film. Significant changes have been made to Javertâs character as he has been fused with Bamatabois, and his motivation is now that Fantine spurns his romantic advances. Despite the film being silent, and presumably, texted, reviewers of the time have trouble spelling character names. The focus on the film is presenting scenes loosely, so you would have to know the novelâs plot beforehand to follow it. Once again the problem rises that the majority of the audience does not understand the film.
According to the Moving Picture World synopsis, this one got rather gruesome:Â âIn the sewer he encounters Thenardier, who permits him to escape from the locked gate by means of a false key, at the same time cutting from Marius's trousers a portion of one leg as a means of identification.â
----> REVIEWS OF THE TIME <----
â...It seems to the writer as though it would pay if not more than one in the audience understood the pictures.... â
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1910: Aa, Mujou: Presumed LOST
director: N/AÂ (It was common practise not to credit director or actor.)
company: Kinen Daishokan / M. PatĂȘ
archive: N/A
status:Â Believed lost.
idiosyncrasies: Â It is believed that the film follows a theatrical âone-scene, one-shotâ formula while the scenes were explained by a live narrator. Following this tradition of Japanese cinema which resembled theatre, it is likely all the roles were played by men.
idiosyncrasies: Credits include minor characters such as Bousset, Feuilly, and Combeferre. The film was viewed favorably with the exception of the love story between Cosette and Marius:Â
â...About the single dull period of the film is the love portion between Cosette and Marius. These roles were taken by Le Petite Frommet (sic) et M. de Gravonne. Mlle Frommet wasn't nearly as nice to love as a grown up as the child who took the same part 15 years before. De Gravonne was very serious, in mind and action, and with a timid little mustache, he scarce looked a fevered lover... â
The film was heavily promoted and hyped as The Greatest film of all time, so much so that the reels shipment to America constituted Ad-worthy news. (Pictured below)
[trans.] Picture of a shipping boat. âComing on Wire at Once: On Tuesday, April 1, the French Line Steamer âLa Touraineâ will arrive in America with the Greatest Motion Picture Ever Made <<Les Miserables>>â
idiosyncrasies: Fantineâs role is credited here as âFantine Thernadierâ, possibly meaning she is a niece of theirs in this film.
status: The original reels are presumed lost in a fire. Partially preserved, in process of being digitized. This film was alleged to be preserved by the AFI, but as stated by an employee of the institute at the time, this preservation was botched. A 65 minute version still exists at Filmoteka Narodowa, with the reels are in good condition and in the process of being digitized(which may take anywhere from one to ten years, according to contact). They are avaliable for viewing in place!
---- REVIEWS OF THE TIME ----
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1923: Aa, Mujou- Dai ippen: HĂŽrĂŽ no maki, Aa Mujou-Dai nihen: ShichĂŽ no maki: Partially LOST
director:Â Ushihara Kiyohiko, Ikeda Yoshinobu
company: Shochiku
archive: National Film Archive of Japan
idiosyncrasies: The film is set in China. They are two adaptations, one details Valjeanâs story up until Petit-Gervais. Reviews of the time rate are unfavorable, particularly bashing the acting, as well as the fact that Fantine seemed too pretty and made up.
status:Â This movie was partially aborted halfway through production as only 2/4 of the movies were made. About 9 minutes of these reels survived, are digitized and are avaliable for viewing at National Film Centre of Japan in Tokyo.
idiosyncrasies: At over 6 hours, this version is possibly one of the most complete adaptations of the story, including a lot of footage of Marius as a child, as well as small jokes from the book. A lot of effort and love was put into restoring the film from the reels and original scripts, and the whole process took over 3 years.
â Magnon was a sort of fashionable woman in the sphere of crime. She was careful about her toilet. She shared her lodgings, which were furnished in an affected and wretched style, with a clever gallicized English thief. This English woman, who had become a naturalized Parisienne, recommended by very wealthy relations, intimately connected with the medals in the Library and Mademoiselle Marâs diamonds, became celebrated later on in judicial accounts. She was called Mamselle Miss. â
Mary Ellen Snodgrass how, in the year 1995, did you publish An illustrated dictionary of little-known words from literary classics and seriously write that the name of the antagonist from Les Miserables was named Valvert ???
I have entered an alternate dimension.Â
Did they just call Marius a grisette? Who is this about? I feel like there are lots of examples from the book that would have been more illustrative than thisâŠ
Agreed with better examples for sure, but there is actually a random girl who comes by to say how handsome Valjean is lol. in marius chapter one of book six:
â-- If he had worn a decoration, Marius would have said: âHe is an ex-officer.â He had a kindly but unapproachable air, and he never let his glance linger on the eyes of any one. He wore blue trousers, a blue frock coat and a broad-brimmed hat, which always appeared to be new, a black cravat, a quaker shirt, that is to say, it was dazzlingly white, but of coarse linen. A grisette who passed near him one day, said: âHereâs a very tidy widower.â His hair was very white. â
marius! marius my boy! the money (six-hundred-thousand francs) is cosetteâs! the (bead money) fortune (made from glass beads) is herâs to live in luxury (glass beads i spent years producing)! marius- you must listen (SIX-HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS FROM BEADS), this money came from my factory (glass beads) which had great success (bead money made from being better than german black glass) and had grossed (âBerlin Jewelryâ my ass) high sums! MARIUS (twelve hundred beads)! you must enjoy this money (bead money from my bead factory), marius!
This is an extract from a three page article that is currently being for sale on ebay. Apologies for cropping out the photo to the original seller.
For those interested, the excerpt here essentially talks first about how transformed Perkins looks in his costume, proceeds to gush over his handsomeness, and continues by outlining the difficulty in catching him for this talk (apparently Perkinsâ family took priority in everything ;)
Everything in Les Mis BBC is like either cringe or a hate crime but the lazy racism of BBCÂ âcolorblindâ casting aka always casting antagonistic or background inconsequential roles as black is like. Stunning. Been talked about to death but Thernadier might be the last straw like heâs famous for not writing well and being a lazy grifter drunk deadbeat but to top it off his ending in the book is becoming a fucking slave master in america. No words. Above that Toussaint. Cosetteâs maid Toussaint really. Doubly nefarious when Toussaint is the name of the hero of the Haiti slave rebellion aka the very famous name of one of the few famous and the most widely known black historical figures in the French Revolution (arguably the most important figure overall) itâs like...........Â
Iâm crying ⊠this reviewer from 1862 asks Victor Hugo, VIRGINITY lover, are you proud of how you depicted Marius and Cosetteâs love so sensually and passionately? This book should be banned for young girls!! ⊠what did he write that was so passionate?? Â
She did get pushed up against a wall but they only kissed once before marriage⊠perhaps they were enraged when he wrote the line about an angel winking and hushing you on their wedding nightâŠ
Yes I think it actually is the wedding night thing because he wrote about the kiss and wasnât that mad but he is very upset about the âsmugnessâ of the wedding night passage.
Iâm crying ⊠this reviewer from 1862 asks Victor Hugo, VIRGINITY lover, are you proud of how you depicted Marius and Cosetteâs love so sensually and passionately? This book should be banned for young girls!! ⊠what did he write that was so passionate?? Â
She did get pushed up against a wall but they only kissed once before marriage⊠perhaps they were enraged when he wrote the line about an angel winking and hushing you on their wedding nightâŠ
