Patria

PATRIA (pronounced PAY-tree-uh), a 15-episode "preparedness serial" filmed by the Whartons in Ithaca, New York, in 1916, cast the Japanese, with whom we were not at war, as the villains in a spy story. Warner "Charlie Chan" Oland plays the chief villain, Baron Huroki, who is determined to gain munitions factory and "defense fund" heiress Patria Channing's vast wealth for Japan. 　　Irene Castle and her husband Vernon were famous dancers in their era and introduced syncopated dance steps inspired by ragtime music into their act. Milton Sills, a popular silent movie leading man, did not live long enough to make it into sound films. Mike Rale, playing Huroki's right-hand-man Kato here, was a Wharton studio regular, and before filming PATRIA had just finished portraying the evil Master in THE MYSTERIES OF MYRA. The exploding boat scene was filmed on Cayuga Lake in Ithaca. 　　Only reels from Episodes 2, 3, 4 and 10 plus a fragment from a later episode are known to survive of this serial. This video includes a summary of Episode 1 and the near-complete Episode 2. Some title cards, and the letter and telegram, not present in the found footage, have been reconstructed from the original novel. Also, Warner Oland's character name has been restored to "Baron Huroki" -- it was changed to "Manuel Morales" and he was referred to as a Mexican in a revised release produced due to a complaint by Woodrow Wilson regarding the portrayal of the Japanese in the original version of the serial. It was implied then in the revision that his army was also Mexican -- although clearly they were not. So to avoid the awkwardness of presenting scenes of actors in kimonos named Manuel and Juan, this restoration is being presented in a fashion more closely resembling the original release.