Melochroma

A century later, Sparrows presents not only an exegesis on the nuances of biblical faith and biblical hope but also a classic American cinematic interpretation of these feelings as melodramatic conventions. As the title suggests, this analysis examines how color theory is an immensely important aspect of melodramatic cinema. The Queen of the Movies, Mary Pickford, understood this well and assured that her character’s warmth would foil Seyffertitz’ coldness in the analyzed sequence (Jesus takes Molly’s sick lamb; 00:28:32-00:00:45:10) where editing and music coalesce with a complementary color scheme to design a triadic lyricism that emotionally (and autopoietically re)defines color, climaxing with Jesus’ superimposition in the barn- “calling forth ‘pure,’ ‘vivid’ emotions.” (Jenkins 2024) Jesus’ appearance- cinematically and religiously- epitomizes the “extraordinary” reaction to intense feelings or emotions (death as the maximal negation of both) required from melodrama, so this sequence naturally functions as a synecdoche for the aesthetic imperatives of the entire film. Hopefully, there is enough space below to fully and articulately discourse on Pickford’s melodramatic yet subtle redefinition of yellow in this sequence (symbolizing Molly’s redefined role as a young woman- the emblematic center of melodrama- by the end of the narrative).

Melochromatic (Re)Definition

If melodrama is simply music and drama, then melochroma is music and color. Their interaction in constructing Sparrows’ melodramatic conventions clearly helped to lay the foundation for melodramatic color theory in American cinema. The tripartite colorscheme (blue, yellow, and grayscale) creates stark differences in the viewers’ emotional perception of the environments; blue and yellow segregate a gloomy and stormy outdoors with a warm and comfortable indoors. For melodramatic cinema, a simple dichotomy of colors is never enough; environments need colorful emotions. The storm and its bluescale were both introduced with fear (00:28:08): a Gothic shot of Mr. Grimes’ house included the sinister music first heard at the very beginning when he checks the mail and crushes the doll mailed for one of the children. The next shot of the storm (00:30:08) is again reminiscent of the Gothic, but with a somber piano playing off Molly caring for the sick baby. The interchange of fades and hard cuts is very important too. The first two fades- Mr. Grimes’ yellow kitchen into the yellow barn; the blue barn into the blue kidnapping scene- contrast the kidnapping house’s blue outside fade into its yellow insides. The blue shots outside the kids’ barn and Mr. Grimes’ house were both surrounded by hard cuts; this fade into the kidnapping house clearly buttresses the break-in that the intertitles foretold. This is further buttressed by the deceptively gentle music- carrying over from the barn- that quickly becomes tense, suspenseful, and rather terrifying (although not as terrifying as Mr. Grimes’ signature sound). We are quickly and chillingly dragged into their emotional wreck of a world then brought back to Molly’s light and warmth. So why does this warm yellow- which soon symbolizes the Son of God- not contradict the tense overlay of kidnapping music? Or the kids’ sickness and starvation, reminding us they are even more emotionally wrecked? Because Molly’s likeness of Christ is just as yellow as Mr. Grimes’ likeness of the Devil is blue.

If yellow were defined in relation to blue, then it would always stand in contradiction to Mr. Grimes’ malcontent/malintent; however, yellow and blue are given melodramatic (lyrical) definition in relation to characters, not other colors. Colors cannot be cinematically given “vivid emotion,” by comparing two emotionless colors to each other. Ostensibly, for the sake of both form and plot, Pickford must deceive us. The entire goal of the narrative is to place its viewer in the perspective of someone whose hopes are always constantly dashed away by an alleged benefactor: consistent deception. Music is certainly one of the strong tools for cinematic deception, but Pickford clearly had her sights on color theory. Combining images of a gloomy nighttime storm in blue in order to juxtapose them with images of the dry indoors in yellow is naturally a recipe for subconscious attraction to both the indoors and yellow. The audience now needs to understand, though, that the yellow in Mr. Grimes’ house is deceptive unlike Molly’s; both the baby’s liking of Molly and the house’s warm lighting makes it easy to momentarily forget the baby’s origins and Mr. Grimes’ habitual malintent. The sequence’s dramatic irony foreshadows dualistic situational irony: Mr. Grimes’ attempt to murder the girls and Molly’s employment as a live-in nanny. This type of foreshadowing- in which a future event is both “prefigur[ed by] and fulfill[s]” the anterior referent necessary for its posterior fulfillment- is reminiscent of a biblical “simultaneity-along-time” or across time, as Benedict Anderon and Erich Auerbach postulate (Anderson 24). It is thus natural that the scene ends- as Molly carries the new baby through the rain in a potato sack- in simultaneity with the kidnappers who had just carried their victim inside the kitchen in a blanket. At that age, that baby could have also easily fallen ill and died- like the other baby soon does- from the rain had Molly been left with no other options after Mr. Grimes snatched away the blanket. Molly certainly knew and was prepared that Mr. Grimes was capable of murder. Apparently, Jesus- her real benefactor- also knew.

In the barn, the next scene is nearly an adaptation of Mary’s birth of Jesus. This is alluded to in the prior barn scene when Molly tries to uplift the kids’ spirits by likening them to Jesus in the manger. The light so clearly shone on baby Jesus in the book (as well as his hair; 00:35:58) foretells the light that shines on the new baby when Molly reveals her to the barn kids (00:40:48). In the name of motif, though, there must be deception in this heartwarming scene- an equally opposite reaction to counterbalance the melodramatic introduction of life. There must be death, and there is nowhere better to imbue the motif of biblical hope and biblical faith than at the scene of death. I only wish even more melodrama could have gone into a baby’s death, but perhaps that would take away from the primary exegesis. Molly refuses grief or sadness because she has been completely sustained with faith in the Lord, shown not with her explicitly corny looking at the sky, but with the light of God literally shining upon her from the pasture. The superimposition itself is supposed to be read as temporally nondiegetic but spiritual- especially with Molly sleeping and the other kids’ absence- so yellow light shining from the pasture is no surprise; what is a surprise, however, is the yellow light shining through the barn window when Molly picks up her sick child (00:41:53). 

Why is light shining outside at night? In both Mr. Grimes’ and the baby’s houses, the windows appeared naturally dark inside; outside, they shone blue light. This makes technical sense, as the house’s lighting is overlaid with the bluescale of the storm. Clearly, though, the colors have also assumed emotions no longer tied to the primary environment of the baby farm: namely, the anxiety and dread within the baby’s house is of the same substance of the evil residing in Mr. Grimes’ house. The primary characters have also assumed the characteristic properties of their environments; whereas Grimes has assumed the devilish character of his literal environment- the swamp- Pickford has assumed the godly character of her psychospiritual environment- the (innocence of the) children- while both also being emissaries of their benefactors spiritual will. Again, music and editing are just as important for reading this text’s melodramatic conventions as color. When Molly initially takes the new baby into the barn (00:40:28), the music is gentle and upbeat, but then briefly ominous once she steps outside into the blue rain and remains ominous while we briefly watch Grimes still looking evil in the yellow warmth of his house, and then returning gentle when Molly reveals the new baby to the children. As music and color help visualize emotion in melodrama, Pickford understands that these cinematic tools’ sources must appear both as elusive and intense as human emotions feel given the situation of the scene or sequence. We never know where exactly blue comes from, but we know that Mr. Grimes’ radiates its indiscriminate bitterness as intensely as a nighttime storm in a swamp. We never know where exactly yellow comes from, but we know that Molly radiates its warmth as much as the hand of Jesus comforting a murdered baby.

Molly’s Little Lamb

Despite never knowing the sources of these colors, all we need to know is that they are supernatural, which is dramatized and visualized very clearly. Despite the yellow light source appearing to be the lantern for several scenes, we finally learn (00:41:53) that there is actually light shining through the storm, and that this is the same light shining from Jesus’ pasture. Is it a lantern of hope, or a lantern of faith that illuminates Molly’s face in the first yellow barn scene? (00:21:54) The distinction is both subtle and unnecessary- both are essential habitual emotional states for an emissary of God. While the distinction is made when the light of Jesus illuminates both Molly’s backside and frontside when tending to her sick lamb, the light of faith illuminates her for the entire movie, melodramatically visualizing spiritual enlightment to foretell her role as baby farm’s Moses.

Works Cited

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Verso, 2006.

Pickford, Mary, director and performer. Sparrows. Mary Pickford Company, 1926, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n18-BoEgWMw.