by Jim Hitt

As literature, Harriet Beecher Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN may lack greatness, but few novels can claim  its historical importance. When President Lincoln met the diminitive author, he supposedly said, "So you're the little lady who started this great big war."  Yet the novel still holds the power to move readers, and since it first saw the light of day, has never been out of print. While the book has proven enormously successful, the film adaptations have enjoyed far less approval from the public. By today's standards, most of these adaptations are offensive and degrading. Of the existing versions of this film, only one has made it to DVD.

1. Uncle Tom's Cabin
Edison, 1903, silent, b&w, directed by Edwin S. Porter

                                            A  scene from the 1903 Edison Uncle Tom's Cabin

    
4. Uncle Tom's Cabin
Vitagraph Co. of America, 1910, silent, b&w
(released in 3 parts)
cast:
Miss French
M. Roubert
Carlyle Blackwell

• 
  Sam Lucus and Marie Eline  in the 1914 Uncle Tom's Cabin

6. Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Famous Players-Lasky Paramount Pictures, 1918, 5 reels, directed and scenario by J. Searle Dawley.
cast:
Marguerite Clark (Little Eva St. Clair / Topsy)
J. W. Johnson (Haley)
Florence Carpenter (Eliza Harris)
Frank Losee (Uncle Tom)
Walter Lewis (Simon Legree)
Thomas Carnahan, Jr. (George Shelby Jr.)
Henry Stamford (Mr. St. Clair)

Marguerite Clark and Frank Losee
in the 1918 Uncle Tom's Cabin

When circumstances force plantation owner George Shelby to sell his slaves, Eliza Harris escapes across an ice-filled river with her child.  Uncle Tom, however, is sold to a Southern slave owner who takes the old man deeper into slave territory. When Tom rescues Little Eva from drowning, her father buys him. Little Eva becomes such close friends with Uncle Tom, and another slave child Topsy that she convinces her father to set them free. Before this can happen, Little Eva dies followed closely by her father. The estate sells Uncle Tom to brutal Simon Legree, who constantly beats the old man until he is near death.  A mistreated slave girl kills Lagree. Just as George Shelby, Jr. arrives to buy the old man back, Uncle Tom sees a vision of Eva beckoning him to join her in heaven, at which point he expires.

The Motion Picture World said that "the different elements of suspense, pathos, humor, and strongly drawn characters are handled with great skill."

               
                                                            Lobby Card for the 1918 Production

6. Topsy And Eva
United Artists, 1927, 8 reels, silent, b&w, directed by Del Lord, scenario by Lois Weber based on the play by Catherine Chisholm Cutting.
cast:
Rosetta Duncan (Topsy)
Vivian Duncan (Little Eva)
Gibson Gowland (Simon Legree)
Noble Johnson (Uncle Tom)
Nils Asher (George Shelby)
Mytle Ferguson (Aunt Ophilia)
Henry Victor (St. Claire)

Topsy is offered for sale on the Shelby estate by Simon Legree, but  when no one bids, Little Eva in company with Uncle Tom buys her for a nickel.  When St. Clair finds himself unable to pay off his debt to Simon Legree, the later tries to  reclaim his slaves, including Topsy. Topsy escapes, plowing through greats drifts of snow.  She finds a pair of skis and later outfits a horse with snowshoes, all the time trying to get away from Lagree and his dogs. She finds sanctuary in a graveyard where runaway slaves have taken refuge. Later she learns that Eva is ill, and she prays for her recovery.  Eva recovers, and the two girls are reunited at end.

The Duncan sisters, both white, played the roles of Eva and Topsy. The director Del Lord, who later helmed many of the Three Stooges' shorts, introduced odd bits of humor. As the story opens, two storks are delivering babies. The white stork delivers Little Eva to her mother's bed, the black stork drops Topsy into a trash barrel. In its review, the New York Times (August 8, 1927), said that the film had its "ups and downs. Sometimes it strives for tears and on occasions it becomes broad farce. So one can take one's choice as to which are the ups and which are the downs."

             
                    Vivian Duncan as Little Eva and Rosetta Duncan as Topsy in Topsy and Eva

7. Uncle Tom's Cabin
Universal, 1927, 13 reels, silent, b&w, directed by Harry Pollard, scenario Harry Pollard and Harvey Thew.
cast:
James Lowe (Uncle Tom)
Virginia Grey (Eva St. Clare)
George Siegmann (Simon Legree)
Margarita Fisher (Eliza)
Eulalie Jensen (Cassie)
Arthur Crew (George Harris)
Adolph Milar (Haley)
Jack Mower (Mr. Shelby)
Mona Ray (Topsy)
John Roche (St. Clare)
Available on DVD

Slaves George Harris and Eliza are about to marry when Edward Harris, George's master, forbids the union. When the Shelbys incur debt, they sell Eliza's child and Uncle Tom to Haley, a cruel taskmaster.  Eliza escapes with the child, but their pursuers capture them.  Haley sells the child to another slave owner, which almost drives Eliza to her own destruction. St. Clare and his daughter Eva intervene to rescue Tom, but Eliza is sold to Simon Legree, who takes her for his woman, displacing an older woman who is actually Eliza's mother. When St. Clare and Eva both die, Uncle Tom also winds up property of Lagree. Eliza and her mother flee, hiding in Legree's attic, and Legree beats Tom to death in an effort to discover their whereabouts. He finds them in the attic, but drunk and haunted by visions of the Christ-like Uncle Tom, he stumbles and falls to his death. A party of refugees comes along, and among them is George with the child in tow.

This adaptation cost more than 1.5 million and took nearly two years to complete. At a whopping 144 minutes, it incorporated many scenes not found in the novel, including Lincoln reading the Emancipation Proclamation, an event that occurred eleven years after Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.  The New York Times (Nov.5, 1927) said that the director Harry Pollard had "presented some scenes with unusual skill" but that "the hardships and cruelty are never depicted with the slightest idea of restraint."

 

8. Uncle Tom's Cabin
France/Italy/West Grman/Yugoslavia, 1969, 170m.,  color, directed by Geza Radvanyi, screenplay by Geza Radvanyi andFred Denger.
cast:
Herbert Lom (Simon Legree)
John Kitmiller (Uncle Tom)
O. W. Fisher (Saint-Claire)
Gertraud Mittermayr (Little Eva)
Rhet Kirby (Topsy)
Catana Cayetano (Eliza)
Charle Fawcett (Mr. Shelby)
Thomas Fritsch (George Shelby)
Avilable on video

When Mr. Shelby incurs debt, Simon Legree demands ten slaves as payment, including Eliza and Uncle Tom. Eliza escapes with her child, but Legree takes the others in chains to his estate. Little Eva convinces her father to buy Uncle Tom, but she dies, and Legree kills Saint-Claire because of his benevolence. When Legree tires of his slave mistress and tries to kill her, Tom intercedes, which costs him his life. President Lincoln frees the slaves, who then overrun the plantation.

The music in this film is an odd mix: Jerome Kern's "Old Man River" paired with Aram Khatchaturin's "Sword Dance."  Yugoslavia fails to look like the American South, and Serbians fail to impress as black slaves.  A truly atrocious film with a laughable performance by Herbert Lom.

Herbert Lom as Simon Legree in the 1969 Uncle Tom's Cabin

                          
Two parodies of Uncle Tom's Cabin

                                                 
                "Uncle Tom's Caboose "--A silent short              "Uncle Tom's Cabana"-A sound MGM cartoon