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6.3/10
Archivist John
Senior Editor
A definitive 6.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Toilers remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have an hour to kill and don't mind a bit of 1920s grime, The Toilers is actually pretty decent. It is great for anyone who likes seeing silent stars get genuinely dirty, but if you hate slow plots where people stare at each other for way too long, you will probably hate it.
Jobyna Ralston plays this girl who runs away from a 'house of ill fame.' The movie doesn't really explain what happened there, but she looks completely exhausted when she shows up at the miners' shack.
She meets Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and his two buddies. Doug is so young here he barely looks like a grown man, more like a teenager playing dress-up in work clothes.
The shack they live in is tiny. You can almost smell the old coffee and unwashed socks through the screen.
There is this one guy, played by Wade Boteler, who spends most of his time just looking confused by the woman in his house. I felt a real connection to his confusion.
The middle of the movie is kind of just them hanging out and the miners being awkward. It is a bit like a very dusty version of Snow White but without the singing or the birds.
I noticed a small wooden bird on a shelf in the background that never gets mentioned. It is just there, gathering dust while everyone emotes at each other.
Then the fire happens and the movie finally finds its legs. The transition from 'domestic drama' to 'disaster flick' is pretty jarring but welcome.
The special effects for the fire are mostly just... a lot of smoke. Like, a lot of it.
You can tell the actors were probably actually coughing. It looks way more uncomfortable than the polished stuff we see in Fires of Youth.
The rescue scenes have this frantic energy. People are running around with pickaxes and looking generally terrified in the dark.
One guy trips over a bucket in the background and I am pretty sure it wasn't scripted. He just keeps going though, which is total pro behavior.
It is definitely more engaging than Phantom Justice, which felt like it would never end. This one at least knows when to quit.
The ending is super abrupt. One minute they are trapped, the next everyone is fine and shaking hands in the sunlight.
I wish we got more of the aftermath, but I guess they ran out of budget or time. It is a weirdly personal little movie for being about a giant mine.
It is worth a watch just to see Doug Jr. before he became a huge star. He has this nervous energy that is really fun to watch. ⛏️
Also, the makeup on the miners is so thick it looks like they fell face-first into a coal bin. It makes their teeth look incredibly white when they smile.
IMDb —
1922
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