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Sally of the Sawdust Photos

View All Photos (9)

Movie Info

When her circus mother dies after being disowned, young Sally (Carol Dempster) is raised by Professor Eustace McGargle (W.C. Fields), a juggler and small-time con man. McGargle trains Sally to dance for his opening act, and the pair joins a carnival based in Green Meadow, Conn. Sally's grandparents, the Fosters, still live in the area, but neither the young girl nor stern Judge Foster (Erville Alderson) and his wife (Effie Shannon) know they are related.

Genre:

comedy
Director:

D.W. Griffith
Producer:

D.W. Griffith
Writer:

Dorothy Donnelly, Forrest Halsey
Release Date (Streaming):

Feb 16, 1999
Runtime:

1h 31m
Production Co:

Paramount Pictures
Aspect Ratio:

Academy (1.33:1), 35mm

Cast & Crew

Carol Dempster
Sally

W.C. Fields
Professor Eustance McGargle

Alfred Lunt
Peyton Lennox

Erville Alderson
Judge Henry L. Foster

Effie Shannon
Mrs. Foster

Charles Hammond
Lennox, Sr.

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Sally of the Sawdust

All Critics (11) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (2)

Just about the most amusing comedy that you will recall this year.

August 19, 2013 | Full Review…

TIME Magazine
D.W. Griffith is down to common picture making in this one.

March 26, 2009 | Full Review…

Variety Staff
Variety
Its interest would be no more than historical were it not also the movie that launched WC Fields. His show-stopping performance as Eustace McGargle, conman and sideshow juggler, contains the seeds of all his later glories.

June 24, 2006 | Full Review…

Time Out
Griffith stresses the story's melodrama, making Fields an unusually sentimental figure, though the star still manages to showcase some of his juggling routines and even kick a dog.

January 10, 2004 | Full Review…

J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Sally is minor Griffith, but it demonstrates that, whatever the ostensible genre, he remained (and, pace Steven Spielberg, remains) the master manipulator of human emotion.

April 9, 2002

J. Hoberman
Village Voice
Griffith again lays on the mother-sentiment too thickly in places. But, all in all, Sally of the Sawdust is good entertainment.

May 8, 2018 | Full Review…

Iris Barry
The Spectator
Sally of the Sawdust is a victim of the same sloppy editing (by the same sloppy editor) that had marred Griffith's Way Down East five years earlier.

August 19, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

TV Guide
Griffith uses the climactic chase to teach editing to Eisenstein in the year of Potemkin

April 1, 2010 | Full Review…

Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
... the pic that propelled W.C. Fields's movie career and was a rare comedy directed by the austere Griffith... .

November 27, 2008 | Rating: B- | Full Review…

Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Quote not available.

June 25, 2005 | Rating: 4/5

Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Beyond being a Fields vehicle, it's a showcase for Griffith's direction, using of beautifully pastoral location shooting that gives Sally an almost-luminous glow.

May 12, 2004 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

View All Critic Reviews (11)

Audience Reviews for Sally of the Sawdust

Jan 28, 2012

A fantastic, heartfelt, and funny dramatic film with a great cast and a somewhat simple, yet very exciting emotional story. I really liked it. It has that suspense of the audience knowing that this girl really belongs to a rich family but this guy is pretending to be her father to keep her in the circus business. You're not sure to have sympathy for him or not throughout, but the ending is very good. I recommend this movie.

Aj V Super Reviewer