And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

Man: More, more, Mr. Walsh!

Got to kill them all!

The last thing in the world you want

is to be captured by those heathen redskins!

Man: Rush to him, Miss Sampson,

rush to your protector!

Seek the shelter of his manly arms.

True love, Adrian-- true love laced with

heart-rending devotional gratitude.

And... cut!

That's a cut, everybody!

- Next setup, Charlie. - Yes, Mr. Griffith.

Let's have the tent in now, babe.

Get another couple of rolls for you, Carl.

Teddy, go get those horses.

I know you're freezing, but we're all freezing.

There he is, Frank.

Ask him over, gently.

Very good, my dear. Very good, indeed.

Mr. Griffith, sir?

Mr. Aitken's in the car and he'd like to have a word with you.

- Ah, Duffy, how are we getting on with Mr. Walsh? - Oh, hello.

- Hello. - I want it a bit higher than usual.

About there.

Be a bit more generous with the blood this time, lay it on thick.

He's over there, sir, he says that it's important.

When will Mr. Aitken understand

that when Griffith is filming,

nothing is of greater importance to Griffith?

Harry.

Sorry, David, but we need to move fast on this,

if you think it's worth moving at all.

Eli Morton in our Texas office

went to some kind of press conference

just over the border,

pulled together by this Pancho Villa fellow down there.

- "Vee-ya." - The Pancho Villa?

Right, according to Eli, Villa is offering

"exclusive rights to any motion picture company

interested in filming his revolutionary army,

the División Del Norty--"

Del Norte.

",,,in action against the federal forces of--" who he calls,

"the despotic president of Mexico, Victorio"...

"Victoriano Huerta."

Huerta, right.

Villa's terms as follows--

he's asking for $25,000 in advance

against 20% of the profits.

And he wants the money in gold!

Quite the horse trader.

Isn't he supposed to be some kind of "Injun" or something?

He's mestizo, it's a racial mix.

Where'd you get all this stuff?

Is it worth a shot?

No story, no actors,

just shooting an actual military scrap?

Just that, and that alone?

Just filming men at war?

Being allowed to place cameras in the thick of battle?

This may prove as much a revolution for motion pictures

as the one Villa's waging on the ground!

Real death, real blood.

People would get sick to their stomachs

at that kind of show, wouldn't they?

Hold it a minute, Harry.

Give her your gloves, will you?

Excuse me.

Miss Sampson?

Hello.

I'm Frank Thayer, I'm with the Mutual Company.

Mr. Griffith said that, uh...

You're in charge of gloves, are you?

Griffith: ...but the historian's pen over time

will be no match for the image

the moviemaker captures in the eye of his camera!

20% of the profits for some guy who's never done a movie before!

There's not a day that passes, my dear Harry,

where this guy is not featured

on the front pages of the world press.

The man is a star!

And stars are the mother's milk of the box office!

You wouldn't consider going down there

and try getting us a better deal?

The bird hasn't been born yet that D.W. Griffith couldn't charm down off a tree.

Be serious-- with all I've got to do setting up the California studio?

Just how competent would you say he is?

Do you think he's ready to do something useful?

Who? Who are we talking about?

Your nephew.

Frank?

Anyone else bidding on the rights, Mr. Morton?

- Let me help you. - Oh, thanks.

Any other movie companies-- any other movie companies

showing an interest that you know of?

Oh, we got the inside track.

Money does a whole lot of talking around here,

and the heavier it is, the better it's heard.

Right.

You gotta keep your wits about you around here.

Yes, sir.

First number one thing to remember, when you meet him,

never look Villa straight in the eye.

You forget that, you wake up deader than a doornail.

And making any sudden moves around him,

that's another real good way to get your scalp creased.

When do we actually meet? What's the plan?

Villa calls the shots.

We gotta work out how to slip over the border

and find out wherever he's hiding out.

We have to be smuggled into Mexico?

Ain't no "we" in that equation, Mr. Thayer.

Eli Morton's got a wife and kids to think about.

That's not, uh, gunfire, is it?

Step right this way, Mr. Thayer.

Let's get you boys a ringside seat at the revolution!

Morton: Come on up.

This way, Mr. Thayer.

Come on, fellas, let's get a look.

Just go right up to the front, come on.

Just go right up here.

Excuse us for a sec-- Colonel.

How you doing, do you mind?

Thank you very much, these guys are from back East,

they've never seen-- thank you very much.

Come on, step right up.

- There you go. - ( gunfire, explosions )

Thank you.

It feels almost like watching a show

from up here, doesn't it?

Well, it's a bit more than playacting, sir.

What you're watching is a dictatorship

in the throes of dying,

yielding up one life at a time.

John Reed, "Metropolitan" magazine.

Frank Thayer, Mutual Film Company.

You're taking the bait, Mr. Thayer?

You're gonna film the battle?

I'm going to try.

Have a peek at your picture show.

- Hey, it's my turn! - Don't push!

Look at that. To your left!

Hope you don't have any stock in Doheny Oil, Mr. Thayer.

My God.

British man: It shows you what Pancho Villa

thinks of Americans owning Mexican oil.

Bastard doesn't care whose property he burns.

There he is.

There's your bloody Robin Hood of Mexico!

( Villa shouting in Spanish )

General!

Donde?

Sí--!

What's he doing? He's only taken half the town.

D.W. Griffith!

- Good night, fellas. - Good night, Frank.

Get some sleep!

Wait, wait.

Wait, I've never been on a horse!

You will like it.

Come on.

He wants to know why the movies sent him such a clown.

He wants to know, was Charlie Chaplin too busy to show up down here?

Dónde está Señor Griffith?

- He wants to know-- - Griffith, he wanted to come, he truly did,

only he's kind of involved right now.

And this guy's just fucking around down here, right?

He says he don't trust nobody

that don't look him straight in the eye.

I was told that he would kill a man for doing that.

That's a pile of crap.

They don't stop telling stories about this guy!

What's that all over your tie?

It's my school emblem.

- ( translator speaks Spanish ) - My college's.

Sí, college.

To which college do you go?

Did, sir. Harvard. Harvard in Boston.

Oh, sí, that's the school where you make presidents, sí?

A few have attended, yes, sir.

One day, Pancho Villa

will send his son to Boston, Harvard.

He says he's knocked out enough sons

to fill every college in America.

Is that the gold?

Cash would have been a lot lighter, I can assure you.

The last person tried to give him cash,

Pancho cleaned off his glasses with a bullet.

El contrato.

Yes, sir, it's right here, sir.

Those are the glasses.

One for you, one for me.

Hey.

Those actresses you work with,

they're like nurses, right?

They gotta have it all the time, don't they?

I'm not sure that's really true.

Yeah, right.

Like you're not jazzing your brains out, are you?