A Corner in Wheat (1909) on Netflix
A tycoon known as the wheat king corners the market in wheat and doubles the price of a loaf of bread. Farmers and the poor can no longer afford it.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/103,065 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
In the fields, two men sow wheat by hand while a third drives the plow. A tycoon called the wheat king settles on a plan to corner the market in grain and sends his underlings to buy and sell in the wheat pit. A ruined man, broken by the manipulation, comes to plead with him and is turned away. With the wheat held, a loaf of bread that cost five cents costs ten, and those who cannot pay go without. Police drive a crowd of angry men back from a baker's door at gunpoint, and the people who grow the grain line up for charity.
Cast
- William J. Butler
- Charles Craig
- Frank Evans
- Edith Haldeman
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Corner in Wheat (1909)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Griffith may have drawn on a real event: six months before the film, James A. Patten had cornered the wheat market, and in some cities bread prices doubled from five to ten cents, just as in the movie.
- Before A Corner in Wheat, Griffith avoided political statements in his work; after its success, he began making bolder statements about society and politics, later championing white supremacy in The Birth of a Nation (1915).
