The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra (1928)
An aspiring actor arrives in Hollywood full of hope, only to be stamped with the impersonal number 9413 and ground down by casting-office rejection while others around him rise to stardom, his despair ending only when death frees him from the number altogether.
Shot for a reported $97 using cardboard and cigar-box miniatures in the filmmakers’ own homes, The Life and Death of 9413 became, in historian Brian Taves’s words, the film that “initiated the avant-garde” in American cinema, and gave a young cinematographer named Gregg Toland an early credit. It entered the National Film Registry in 1997.
Background
The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra was made in 1928 by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich as an experimental short. It was produced on a very small budget with cardboard and cigar-box miniatures, shot largely in the filmmakers’ own homes, and it has become a landmark of American avant-garde cinema. Gregg Toland, who later became known as the cinematographer of Citizen Kane, received an early credit on it. The film entered the National Film Registry in 1997, and it is a useful example of how independent makers used film technique to comment on the studio system.
What to watch for
Watch the use of cutouts, miniatures, and superimposition to suggest a crowded Hollywood. The protagonist is reduced to a number, 9413, stamped on him at the casting office, and the film visualizes his dehumanization through repetition and abstraction. The rejection scenes are built from quick cuts and rhythmic montage, which gives the story a sense of relentless pressure. The short runs about fourteen minutes and ends with death freeing him from the number, a bleak conclusion made possible by the film’s inventive technique. Its willingness to abandon conventional realism is what makes it a lasting work of avant-garde filmmaking.
