If My Country Should Call

If My Country Should Call is a 1916 silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and starring Lon Chaney, Jack Nelson and Dorothy Phillips.[1][2] The film was written by Ida May Park, based on a story by Virginia Terhune Van de Water. The film's theme was very topical at the time, since many American men were then signing up to fight in World War I and Mexico.[3]

If My Country Should Call
Directed byJoe De Grasse
Produced byRed Feather Photplays
Written byIda May Park (screenplay)
Virginia Terhune Van de Water (story)
StarringDorothy Phillips
Lon Chaney
Jack Nelson
CinematographyKing D. Gray
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • September 25, 1916 (1916-09-25)
Running time
5 reels (50 minutes)
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent

The film survives incomplete at the Library of Congress and the National Archives of Canada/Ottawa. Only reels 2, 3 and 5 survive of the five original reels. The incomplete print was found in Dawson City, Canada during an excavation in 1978, along with an incomplete print of another 1916 Chaney film, The Place Beyond the Winds.[4]

Plot

The wealthy Margaret Ardrath's husband Robert enthusiastically goes off to war in Europe at the breakout of World War I, upsetting Margaret immensely. But when she learns her son Donald is planning to enlist in the armed forces to fight the Mexican army down at the border, she decides she has to take matters into her own hands. Margaret steals a small bottle of a heart depressant from the medical bag of Dr. George Ardrath (Lon Chaney) while he leaves it unattended. She begins slipping very small doses of the medication into her son's drinks, which causes him to develop a slight heart murmur, so that he will not be able to qualify to join the army as he had planned.

After the military rejects him, however, the young man develops other medical problems which causes his fiance to leave him, and he becomes an alcoholic. When the doctor discovers the vial missing from his medical bag, Donald realizes what his mother has done to him (although it was for his own good), and he hates her for it. Margaret suddenly receives a telegram that her husband was killed in Europe, and overwhelmed by grief, she takes a drug overdose to kill herself. Suddenly, she wakes up and realizes it was all just a bad dream.

Cast

Reception

"This rather harrows the feelings at times, but it is modern and dramatic. It presents problems that have been threshed out in the hearts of many women during the past two years. The presentation is acceptable throughout. The cast is pleasing." --- Moving Picture World[5]

"The biggest fault of this offering is the lack of any dominating personality, and there is no character which holds the sympathy perfectly." --- Wid's Film Daily[6]

References
  1. "Silent Era: If My Country Should Call". silentera. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
  2. The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..If My Country Should Call
  3. Mirsalis, Jon C. "If My Country Should Call". Lonchaney.org. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  4. The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:..If My Country Should Call
  5. Mirsalis, Jon C. "If My Country Should Call". Lonchaney.org. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  6. Blake, Michael F. (1998). "The Films of Lon Chaney". Vestal Press Inc. Page 65. ISBN 1-879511-26-6.
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