Los Angeles on April 17, 1916. Cast Howard C. Hickman as Count Ferdinand Herschel Mayall as The King of Wredpryd George Fisher as The Christ Enid Markey as Katheryn Haldemann Lola May as Queen Eugenie J. Frank Burke as Luther Rolf, the peace advocate Charles K. French as The Prime Minister J. Barney Sherry as The Blacksmith Jerome Storm as The Blacksmith's Son Ethel Ullman as The Blacksmith's Daughter Kate Bruce as A Mother Gallery Popular response The film was a popular success when it was released in 1916. The Democratic National Committee credited the film with helping to re-elect President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. After the United States's entry into World War I, the film was pulled from distribution. Film director Yasujirō Ozu claimed that he first decided to become a film director when watching Civilization. Critical reaction Among critics, the reaction was mixed. Positive reviews In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a newspaper reviewer called it a "masterpiece" and the "Biggest Spectacle in History of Motion Pictures," surpassing even D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: The photoplay and the spoken drama will be united for the first time in...the million dollar masterpiece of Thomas H. Ince...Civilization is an encyclopedia of the emotions. It is inevitable to compare such a picture, epic in its scope, including battles and the upheaval of a nation, to a similar picture, Griffith's Birth of a Nation. Ince has excelled his predecessor in the art of suggestion. In the vivid battle scenes of Civllization, there are four suggestive flashes for every one Griffith gave us. The conception is classically correct. No theater could be conceived that would be adequate in space or speed of action to carry across to an audience what was conveyed in this film. In Indiana, a reviewer emphasized the film's spectacular effects and its depiction of Jesus: 'If Christ Should Visit Verdun' would make a good subtitle for Civilization, for that is really its theme...Pictorially, and in the spectacular effects that can be achieved within range of the camera, as well as in the sheer beauty of many of its scenes, it is a masterpiece indeed. Days of peace in the little town of Wrepryd, which is its locale, and in the peaceful country thereabout, might have been posed by the artist Millet, so strikingly do they stand out. In Fairbanks, Alaska, a reviewer wrote that, if the film had been