Patria (serial)

Spies from Japan conspire to steal the Channing "preparedness" fortune and invade the United States, beginning in New York, then allying themselves with Mexicans across the border. They are stopped by the efforts of munitions factory heiress Patria Channing and U.S. Secret Service agent Donald Parr.

• Irene Castle as Patria Channing, the heroine of the serial (billed as "Mrs Vernon Castle"), and a lookalike dancer in Episode 4 named Elaine
• Milton Sills as Captain Donald Parr
• Warner Oland as Baron Huroki, the villain
• Dorothy Green as Fanny Adair
• George Majeroni as Senor Juan de Lima
• Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa
• M.W. Rale as Kato
• Allan Murnane as Rodney Wrenn
• F.W. Stewart as Edouard
• Leroy Baker
• Floyd Buckley
• Nigel Barrie
• Charles Brinley
• George Lessey
• Rudolph Valentino

Patria was financed with "about" $90,000 from William Randolph Hearst. The plot implied that the United States might soon be at war with Japan, despite Japan being an ally of the United States at the time. The original plot involved a Japanese spy ring operating in the United States and seeking gold and munitions. President Woodrow Wilson asked Hearst to modify the serial and remove anti-Japanese material. As a result, Warner Oland's character name in title cards was changed to "Manuel Morales," and the character was shown more frequently dressed in a suit, though the Japanese characters retained their kimono in early episodes. The action was also moved across the border to Mexico beginning in Episode 11, though as is sometimes erroneously stated, Pancho Villa did not appear in the film, Baron Huroki and a new character, General Nogi, continued on as adversaries to Patria and Captain Parr until Huroki's defeat and suicide in Episode 15.

The serial was based on the novel The Last of the Fighting Channings by Louis Joseph Vance.[1] Jacques Jaccard directed scenes in California while Leopold Wharton and Theodore Wharton directed from Ithaca, New York.[1] Following the serial's release, Edgar Wallace was commissioned to write a 15-part "novel" for The News of the World newspaper, which published the first weekly instalment on 9 December 1917.

The production was investigated by a Senate committee as German propaganda after World War I. A German propagandist, whose articles had appeared in Hearst newspapers, had written a letter to Franz von Papen explaining the scheme to use a motion picture to deprecate Japan. Captain G. C. Lester of US Military Intelligence, testified that "Patria exploited the very idea which was set forth generally in (the propagandist) Fox's statement."[2]

• Zimmermann Telegram, a German plot for the Mexican invasion of the United States
• List of film serials
• List of film serials by studio

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patria (1917 film).

• Patria at IMDb
• Patria at AllMovie
• Patria at Cinefania Online
• Museum of Modern Art photograph from Patria