I saw this short in the last year around July 4th. It is the type of film that is best seen at the time of the more patriotic holidays (either Independence Day, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, or even flag day - especially as Betsy Ross (Enid Bennett) is a central character. But to me my interest was finally seeing Francis X. Bushman in a silent film. Bushman (in his high point) was a major Hollywood star, but his highpoint was as the villain Messala in the silent classic BEN-HUR (that starred Ramon Navarro). I have seen parts of the chariot race sequence from that film, but nothing else. Otherwise Bushman was a supporting actor who I last saw as a foolish businessman dealing with Frank Gorshin's "The Riddler" on a two part BATMAN episode in the 1960s. So when I watched this I was actually finally seeing Bushman when his name meant something to the film going public. BEN-HUR was made roughly about the same time as this film.
It's a short subject - a reminder of emotional growth and change in our views of other nationalities. As such it actually has a better message than it's time of production would have allowed it - the 1920s (with the rise of anti-Semitism, race riots, the rise of the K.K.K. in the south and mid-west) was a leading period of bigotry in our history. It was in 1924 that the immigration quotas were finally set to prevent further influxes of Eastern and Southern immigrants (read Jews, Russians - supposedly Communists, and Italians - supposedly gangsters) into the country. These quotas were to have deadly effects on European Jews struggling to get away from the Nazis in the late 1930s. But they were very popular - even our labor leaders (like Gompers and William Green) were against unlimited "cheap" labor from Europe undercutting the incomes of American workers. This was also the period when Sacco and Vanzetti would become martyrs to American bigotry in a prejudiced filled criminal trial that people still debate.
Here though the story suggests we can forgive and forget. Bushman is George Washington, and he visits Ross to ask her to sew an official American flag. She is helped by a young female friend (Edith Brandon - played by Alice Calhoun). But Edith has a secret that her friend Betsy is aware of. She married Charles Brandon (Johnny Walker) who is a British soldier. Edith is pregnant and Charles is determined to return to Philadelphia and see his wife give birth.
The story follows how Brandon comes and is hidden by Edith and Betsy. But General Washington notices some odd things at the Ross house, and gradually realizes someone is being hidden. Finally he confronts Betsy and the Brandons, but then he realizes why Brandon is there (it is not a spying mission but a family matter). Washington decides, after listening to Betsy's special pleading, to allow Brandon a special permit to remain with his wife until the baby is born.
The story sounds trite given this description, but it actually builds up from there. Bushman's performance is "overripe" by 2008 standards, but for 1927 it's quite restrained. It is rare to see Washington in a fury, and his confronting an unrepentant Brandon is a sight to see, but he does realize what is important here - and it is not the normal war matters. It helps that the film had early Technicolor (which the creation of the flag requires), as it adds some reality to a story we can't hear the dialog to (one wonders if whether the film would have been made as a talkie had it been shot in 1928 or 1929). And it's conclusion reaffirms national growth of character.
For in the conclusion the audience is reminded that in time the anti-British emotions of the American Revolution's period, and the British anti-French feelings in that same period, dissolved - and that in 1917-1918 the descendants of the three nations fought side by side against a common foe (Wilhelmine Germany). Our last image in the short is of a "Tommy" a "Sammie" and a French Poilu marching in step, rifles at the ready, to face that enemy until they gained final victory together. Perhaps too militaristic today, but for 1927 (with the bigotry I mentioned earlier) it was light years ahead of the time about international friendship.
