D.W. Griffith, Frank Powell, Henry Walthall, Arthur V. Johnson, Billy Bitzer, silent film, silent movie stars, free classic film, old movies, silent film streaming, silent era, archive films, rare films, silent social drama

   Arthur Johnson on the floor of the exchange

Directed by                       D.W. Griffith
Scenario                            D.W. Griffith, Frank E. Woods
Based on                            the novel The Pit (1903) by Frank Norris
Cinematography              G.W. Bitzer
Starring                             Frank Powell, Henry Walthall, Arthur Johnson
Distributed by                   Biograph Company
Release date                      December 13, 1909
Country                             United States
Running time                    14 m. 

"Corner in Wheat" is a short social drama, directed by D.W. Griffith, featuring Arthur Johnson and cinematographer Billy Bitzer, stars of Silent Hall of Fame. 

A greedy speculator decides to "corner" the wheat market, artificially raise the price on the market and profit from this.  He is successful and makes a huge amount of money, but his action has disastrous consequences in real life, where the price of bread doubles, many people cannot afford it any more, wheat growers are ruined and the supply of charity bread is drastically reduced.

Arthur Johnson has a prominent role on the floor of the exchange.  Robert Harron also gets credit for the film as a trader, but it is hard to spot him there.

"Corner in Wheat" was added to the National Film Registry in 1994 as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

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   Arthur Johnson helps another trader