Notable as being among D.W. Griffith’s earliest attempts to blend cinema and politics, the 1909 short film “A Corner in Wheat” depicted the rise of the “Wheat King,” a speculator who manages to corner the commodity market on wheat. His success brings him great wealth that is spent on opulent entertainment for his friends, while the farmers who grow the wheat are stuck in hardscrabble lives and the lower classes who cannot afford the price gouging by the Wheat King – the cost of bread loaves is hiked from five to ten cents, forcing many to go hungry. However, the triumph of his business ruthlessness occurs moments before a freak accident where he crushed to death in a grain silo.
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