True Heart Susie (USA,1919)

With a plot that was already outdated to its own era, reflecting the recurrent theme of D.W. Griffith of portraying Victorian, virginal young heroines, this film gets to touch the audience and make them nostalgic about an era gone a long time ago. An era of good country people, a more peaceful interaction with nature, and without all worries that come with a more urban environment.
In addition to it, the fate of two actors who played important roles in this film proved to be dramatic, as both actors Robert Harron and Clarine Seymour died young, not too long after this film was launched.
Actress Lillian Gish -in a surprisingly stiffy and exaggerated acting -is True Heart Susie, her love interest is her old childhood friend, William -played by her brother in law in real life - Robert Harron. Susie has always loved William since they both were very young, but William has never seen her in the same way. However, Susie was a completely innocent girl and kept her hopes high that someday William would correspond to her love. She lived with her elderly aunt, her mother having previously passed away and there was no mention to her father.
William has always dreamed about attending college, but his ambitions were not encouraged by his family, who thought he would do better if he focused on farming. His father even claimed: “A good farmer is better than a poor lawyer or preacher”, as it is written in one of intertitles.
Once, when both William and Susie made a trip to the village, it was evident how he enjoyed flirting with the more “modern”, “flirty”, “better-dressed”, “not too innocent” girls along the way. This fact per se must have alerted Susie that William was not really interested in her, but her love remained. Fortunately, Susie had a “sister” called Daisy who liked her much more. It was actually a cow she loved as her sister.
Touched with William’s dream to further his education and determined to help him, Susie decided to sell many of her belongings, including her beloved cow, to help sending William to the country college. Lillian got the money and made William believe that the money for his tuition plus a sum for extra expenses came from a philanthropist.
After a hard adaptation period at college, William graduated and returned home being a different man. This was inevitable, as time passed and he broadened his social and intellectual horizons. He eventually became the minister of the village and married Bettina, a gold digger and city girl. In addition to Bettina has never loved William she was too used with the bright lights of the big city and could never adapt to the life in a village. Their marriage, as expected, quickly deteriorated and both William and Bettina regretted their decision. Bettina felt trapped and bored and Willian did not have a domestic goddess at home, somebody who would take care of him as he liked.
Susie continued with her life and kept in touch with both William and Bettina, always being polite and self-contained, never disclosing her love to William to anyone although her sorrow hunted her mind all along.
After a while, Bettina could no longer avoid the parties she loved so much. One night, she told Willian she was indisposed and used it as an excuse to sleep in a spare room, but she actually left to go to a party with her friends behind William’s back. Bettina’s home key ended up being dropped at the party without her realizing it and after she left the party, she was caught in a rain storm. She only realized her key was gone after she was on her doorstep and she took shelter at Susie’s house. Susie took care of Bettina, but both the strain and the rain ended up making Bettina seriously sick.
Bettina had told William before dying that she had taken with a neighbor a reference book William needed and she had also seen Susie and they both got caught in the rain that night. Having believed that Bettina died while doing him a favor he vowed that no other love would ever come to his life. However, without knowing about it, Susie’s aunt inadvertently delivered to William the receipt of his college tuition, claiming Susie had sacrificed herself so much to get the money. William got very touched, but he still wanted to stick to his vow. However, things changed when one of Bettina’s friends visited William because she had a guilty conscience that Bettina had passed away because she had attended her little party and asked for William’s forgiveness. Thus, the truth was suddenly revealed to William.
Having realized he loved Susie all his life, William proposed to her and in the end the audience is led to believe that they both got to recover the bliss they both enjoyed back to the time when they were two country youths.
This film does not really solve the everlasting enigma if men marry plain, simple girls or those who put on paint and powder on their faces, but it definitely provides a beautiful witness of self-sacrifice and romantic love. Perhaps due to the fact we do not see such deep manifestations of love that often nowadays, it makes us miss that simple, past era, when material comfort was not abundant but it seems for some people it was easier to give themselves that much. It might be the biggest appeal of this film, even greater than the good production values.

A Trap for Santa Claus (USA, 1909)

A simply story of humanity and feelings, a story of simple people…

Revered, controversial, famous and complex, American filmmaker David Llewelyn Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) had an undeniable influence in early cinema and his name is familiar to anyone who has studied cinema at an academic level and even people who are not very familiar with earlier cinema. Many great actors and actresses blossomed under his tutelage, including Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. Loved and hated, nobody could ever imagine that a struggling actor who started his cinematic career at American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1908 would reach such mythical heights at his own lifetime.

Being known for feature films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), the short films he directed at the beginning of his career are sometimes overlooked. Although they are clearly not as lavish and elaborate as his feature films, they represent valuable tools to understand Griffith’s style, especially when it comes to storytelling. Then we can see and assess his style in its pure form, without many resources but with careful production.

Before describing the plot of the film, you should forget about naturalistic actresses such as Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford and Mae Marsh. The Gish sisters would not enter films for a couple years. Mary was beginning her cinematic career at that studio in 1909, but is not in this film, Mae wasn’t in Biograph yet either. Acting here is much more stagey and exaggerated, particularly when it comes to women. It was Victorian-era acting in its final breath.       

This film has a quite touching story, that retains its appeal regardless of time and place. This is early 20^th century, United States, but it could have happened even before that or nowadays and in virtually all corners of the world.

The father of the family is unemployed and the whole family is in a quite bad financial situation. Both husband and wife are despondent. As an intertitle says, the father is “crushed in spirit” and then he finds comfort in drinking. In addition to drinking, he also attended bars with other men who looked quite tough, which were definitely not appropriate places for a family head and father. After a while, he returns to his home entirely drunk, which only increases the despair of his wife and two children (a boy and a girl). 

After a particularly stressful argument, the father leaves “the house of sorrow”, an euphemism that means he abandoned his family. Anyway, euphemisms apart, it becomes 100% clear that he was leaving his family out of shame because he left a note to his wife before going away, claiming they would be better without him. But considering that the husband was usually the family's sole breadwinner in the early 20th century, his departure was a dreadful shadow over the future of the family he left behind. How the wife would support her children, then? After reading the note, the woman gets understandably desperate, throws herself on a chair and nearly faints, which was typical melodramatic acting of that time. 

After leaving his family, the husband's alcoholism probably worsened, unsurprisingly. One day, the wife goes to the city with her daughter, leaving her son alone at home, trying to find a job. Unfortunately, she wasn’t successful. While the boy was alone at home, he found some food and ate it. It was probably the last food the whole family had to fall back on and when the mother arrives back home with her little daughter and finds it out, she gets very sad.

Anyway, divine providence exists and God helps the ones who suffer and one of the wife’s aunts left her a good inheritance. The woman becomes wealthy and all her troubles are solved and she moves with her children to a fine house. Unfortunately she still doesn’t know the whereabouts of her husband. 

So it comes the night before Christmas. In an interesting plot twist, it is said in an intertitle that “There is no chimney, so Santa Claus will come through the window”. The children don’t want to sleep, they want to see Santa Claus but, with some effort, the mother made them to pray and go to the bed. But the children get to run away from bed after a short time and they set a trap for poor Santa. As a matter of fact, the mother is going to dress up as Santa Claus. 

While it all happened inside the house, we can see the father nearby and he was forced to “desperate deeds”. In other words, not having any job and having a drinking habit, his only option was robbery and he attempts to burglarize a house. It was the house where his wife and children were living. After he enters through the window, the husband is immediately caught red-handed by his wife. She recognizes him, starts overacting like crazy and the husband wonders what on Earth is she doing in that sophisticated house. 

The woman realizes her husband has become a petty criminal and the man, out of shame, begs his wife to forgive him and also starts overacting as much and she does. He tries to run away, but the wife begs him not to. His family is wealthy now and he doesn’t need to steal anymore. They both hug and reconcile. 

Then the wife has the idea of the husband making a surprise to his children by dressing up as Santa Claus. After he is dressed up, the wife calls the children to see Santa and everybody gets very happy. It’s Christmas and family is united again.

According to Kevin Brownlow[1], some of the characteristics of D.W. Griffith’s films (which in my opinion can all be seen in this film in a way or another) are the following ones:

• The use of melodrama amid settings of complete reality;
• The exaggerated, yet still truthful characters;
• The fascination with detail;
• The accuracy of dress and behavior;
• The sentimentality;
• The attitude toward religion;
• The outrage over social injustice.

And you, dear reader? After reading this article, do you see any of those aforementioned characteristics in the film? Only some of them? None of all? Feel free to leave a comment and say what you think.

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[1] The Parade Has Gone by, Kevin Brownlow, University of California Press, 1968, first edition, reprinted by permission

The Lesser Evil - 1912

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: D.W. Griffith

Writer: George Hennessy

Stars: Blanche Sweet, Edwin August and Mae Marsh

Release Date: 29 April 1912 (USA)

Also known as: El mal menor (Spain)

Filming Locations: California, USA

Production Co: Biograph Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Rescue | Smuggler | Smuggling | Boat Captain | Kidnapping  | Melodrama | Ship | Sailor

Genres: Short | Drama

A young woman has a peaceful existence, living near the sea and enjoying a romance with a simple, hard-working fisherman. But she finds herself in sudden danger when she happens upon the crew of a boat while they are ashore in the act of smuggling. She is abducted and forced aboard their boat. While the fisherman races to organize a rescue mission, the crew of the boat decides to seize her from the captain, in order to have their way with her. 

Connections

Edited into Spisok korabley (2008)  

Avenging Conscience (The) - D.W. Griffith - 1914

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages - 1916

Country: USA
Release Date: 5 September 1916 (USA)
Director: D.W. Griffith Writers: Hettie Grey Baker (titles - uncredited); Tod Browning (uncredited); D.W. Griffith (scenario); D.W. Griffith (titles - uncredited); Anita Loos (titles); Mary H. O'Connor (titles - uncredited); Walt Whitman (poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"- uncredited); Frank E. Woods (titles- uncredited)
Stars: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh and Robert Harron
Also known as: Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (USA - original title); Intolerance Germany / Sweden (imdb display title) / USA (short title); Intolerância (Brazil / Portugal); Intolérance (France); Intolerància (Spain/ Catalan title); Intolerance: A Sun-Play of the Ages (USA - copyright title); Intolerancia (Spain - imdb display title); Nietolerancja (Poland); Suvaitsemattomuus (Finland); Türelmetlenség (Hungary); The Mother and the Law (USA/working title)
Filming locations: Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA; Fine Arts Studio - 4500 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Babylon set); Fine Arts Studios - 4516 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (studio); Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA; Saint-Mihiel, Meuse, France (World War Front: Modern War sequence); Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA (Babylon set)
Budget: $385,907 (estimated)
Filming Dates: 17 October 1915 - April 1916 Copyright Holder: David Wark Griffith; 24 June 1916; LU8570 / David Wark Griffith; 5 September 1916; LP9934
Runtime: 163 min | UK: 178 min (2000 video release) | USA: 197 min | Spain: 197 min (DVD version) | Spain: 123 min (TV version) | Argentina: 175 min | Portugal: 210 min
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia: The inspiration for this film came from D.W. Griffith's surprise at the loud protests against his previous film, The Birth of a Nation. In response to those attacks, he wanted to illustrate the problem with intolerance to other people's views. The massive life-size set of the Great Wall of Babylon, seen in the fourth story, was placed at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard (in Hollywood, California) when the movie was completed. It became a notable landmark for many years during Hollywood's golden era. It actually stood on the lot of the studio on Prospect Avenue near the Sunset & Hollywood Boulevard junctions in the eastern end of the city. It was the first such exterior set ever built in Hollywood. Falling into disrepair, it was eventually torn down. Years later, this same Babylon set was replicated as the central courtyard design for the new Hollywood & Highland complex in Hollywood, which opened in 2001. After filming wrapped, the Los Angeles Fire Department cited the Babylonian set as a fire hazard and ordered it to be torn down. D.W. Griffith discovered that he had run out of money and was therefore unable to finance its demolition. The set stood derelict and crumbling for nearly four years until it was finally taken down in 1919. By then it had fallen apart enough for it to be dismantled at a sufficiently low cost. The marriage scenes in the life-of-Christ part of the film were staged and shot according to Jewish tradition, under the supervision of Rabbi Myers. He was the father of Carmel Myers, who played a slave girl in the Babylonian scenes. During filming of the battle sequences, many of the extras got so into their characters that they caused real injury to each other. At the end of one shooting day, a total of sixty injuries were treated at the production's hospital tent. A major sub-plot, dealing with a real-life assassination, was cut from the French story before the film's release. The role of the second Pharisee is credited to Erich von Stroheim. However, von Stroheim did not play this role. D.W. Griffith decided to use von Stroheim's name as a pseudonym for actor William Courtright, who actually plays the role. This has caused much confusion over the years. Von Stroheim's only work on this film was as a production assistant for the Babylon sequences. Ruth St. Denis is listed by some modern sources as the Solo Dancer in the Babylonian Story, but she has denied this in an interview. D.W. Griffith was forced to re-shoot the sequence of the crucifixion because certain organizations were saying that Griffith shot too many Jewish extras around the cross, and not enough Romans. Griffith then burned the footage and re-shot the scene with more Roman extras. Jenkins and his foundation are modeled after John D. Rockefeller and his own foundation. The massacre of workers at the beginning of the movie is modeled after the Ludlow massacre of 1914, in which Rockefeller was involved. Joseph Henabery was hired to shoot some additional scenes of semi-nude slavegirls when the front office declared that the film needed "more sex". The title and some lines from the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by Walt Whitman are used as intertitles in the movie. The intertitle during the strike which states that the National Guard has retreated and the workers "now fear only the company guards" was added to the re-release of the modern story, The Mother and the Law, but it is utilized by present versions of the original film. The Babylonian orgy sequence alone cost $200,000 when it was shot. That's nearly twice the overall budget of The Birth of a Nation, another D.W. Griffith film and, at the time, the record holder for most expensive picture ever made. Cameraman Karl Brown remembered a scene with the various members of the Babylonian harem that featured full frontal nudity. He was barred from the set that day, apparently because he was so young. While there are several shots of slaves and harem girls throughout the film, the scene that Brown describes is not in any surviving versions. D.W. Griffith's penchant for revising and re-cutting his films has caused the loss of several scenes from this (and other) films. Some still frames of the scenes, although badly damaged, do at least survive. On 9 November 2001, the newly-built Kodak Theatre Complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland (in Hollywood) had its grand opening (it is the new permanent home for the Annual Academy Awards event and began with the 74th Annual Academy Awards on 24 March 2002). The tall archway standing in the Babylon Court of the complex is copied from designs from this film, as are the elephant statues, each of which weighs 33,500 pounds. The prison chaplain in the modern scenes is played by a real priest. D.W. Griffith invested more than $2 million on the film, an unprecedented amount of money at the time. "Intolerance" never even came close to earning back its budget - audiences in 1916 were completely unused to seeing films which ran in excess of 3 hours. Even when it was re-cut and released as 2 separate features, "The Fall of Babylon" and "The Mother and the Law", it still failed to make money. 2007: The American Film Institute ranked this as the #49 Greatest Movie of All Time. During the late 1910's, this film was a huge hit in the Soviet Union, however D.W. Griffith never realized any financial gain since the copies being shown were pirated, and distributed without his consent. The construction of the prison gallows seen in the final portion of the Modern Story were overseen by Martin Aguerre, a former warden of San Quentin. Many sources claim that the walls of Babylon were actually life-size, at 300 feet - about 25 stories - high. However, assistant director Joseph Henabery said that the walls, which were made of lath and plaster with a lumber frame, were only 100 feet high, as 300-foot-high walls of that material would have blown over with just a light wind. In fact, even at 100 feet high the walls were guyed with steel cables because a fairly stiff breeze would have blown them down. The extras in the Babylonian scenes were supposedly paid $2.00 a day, per head, an astronomically generous sum at the time. They were also each given a box lunch and had temporary latrine facilities built for them. The staging and art direction of the Babylonian scenes were largely inspired by the works of 19th century painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Anita Loos claimed that, when writing 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,' she had been inspired to give lead character Lorelei Lee a brief movie career after watching her friends on the set of Intolerance playing Babylonian slave girls. Howard Gaye, an English actor who played Jesus Christ, got involved in a sex scandal involving a 14-year-old girl and was deported back to England. Because of the scandal, his name was removed from prints of the film at the time. D.W. Griffith invented false eyelashes for this film in 1916 because he wanted Seena Owen (who plays Attarea, the Princess Beloved, in the film's Babylonian segment) with lashes luxurious enough to brush her cheeks when she blinked. In collaboration with a wigmaker, who did the actual fabricating, the solution Griffith is credited with involved weaving human hair through a fine strip of gauze, creating false eyelashes. One of the intertitles is a quote from "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde i.e. 'And wondered if each one of us/ Would end the self-same way,/ For none can tell to what red Hell/ His sightless soul may stray'. Including among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Goofs: Anachronisms: Tire tracks during the chariot race sequence.
Continuity: The position of the Mountain Girl's head when Belshazzar arrives at the marriage market. In one shot her head is bowed, in the next, she is looking up at him, and in the shot after that, her head is still bowed and then she looks up at him. In the opening of the Babelonian story, shortly before the intertitle reading "Dearest one - in the ash heaps of my back yard...etc." (spoken by the Rapsode), a group of extras behind the Mountain Girl are shown get up and walk off to the left. In the next shot, when the Rapsode puts his face up to the Mountain Girl's ear to speak his line, these extras are shown to still be seated in their former places. During the Babylonian bacchanal, the same extra, dressed as a slave girl, is standing behind both Belshazzar and Beloved. She is looking in different directions and has her arms in different positions in each shot. In the modern story, when Jenkins stops outside the dance hall, he picks up a coin in one hand. In the next shot (a close-up of the coin), it is in the opposite hand. In the scene where Monsieur La France is shown with the puppies in his belt 'pocket', the long shot shows his arms in the air, but the next close shot shows a hand under the 'pocket' the puppies are in, and then cuts back to him with his hands in the air. Crew or equipment visible: Director's assistant clad in coat and tie. As the Jenkin's factory militia goes to attack the striking workers, the shadows of a camera and two cameramen, one on either side, are cast onto the ground in front. Camera shaddow durring the tracking shot of the walls of Babylon, right before the Mountain Girl is introduced. Factual errors: Alexandre Édouard de France (later King Henry III) is referred to as "Monsieur La France," when he should be called "Monsieur de France."
Revealing mistakes: An extra out of character, fumbling with his costume, in the Belshazzar feast sequence. While the vestal virgins of uplift are at the party given by Ms. Jenkins, and are indoors the whole time, the feathers on their hats flutter and their dresses are blown as if by a breeze. This sort of thing occurs in numerous indoor scenes throughout the film, since interiors were shot on outdoor sets.
Crazy credits: Constance Talmadge is credited as 'Georgia Pearce' for her performance as Marguerite de Valois in the French Story. She is credited under her own name in the role of The Mountain Girl in the Babylonian Story.
Plot keywords:  Intolerance; Reformer; Jesus Christ; Marriage; Huguenot; Judea; Massacre;  Auction; Moll; Gang; Desecration; Prison;  Elephant; Robbery;  False Accusation Of Murder; Royalty; Strike; Child Custody; Frame Up; Battle; Gangster; Nurse; Political Corruption; Female Nudity; Hanging; Father Son Relationship; Charity;   High Priest; Flirtation; Harem; Torch; Naivety; Gun;  Gay Stereotype; Confession Of Crime; Drunkenness; Trial; Chase; Metaphor; Factory Worker; Infanticide; Priest;  Flamethrower; Justice; Governor; Train; Duplicity; Court;  Partially Lost Film; Treachery;  Tyranny; Attempted Rape; Remorse; Protestant; Wedding; Rehabilitation; Worker; Actor Playing Multiple Roles; 16th Century; Machine Gun; Public Domain; Marriage Proposal; Goat; 6th Century B.c.; Beating; Jerusalem; Military Invasion; Orgy; Goose; Sword Fight; Galalee; Execution; Factory; Miracle; Slave Market; Multiple Story Line; Murder; Dance; Decapitation; Conspiracy;  Father Daughter Relationship; Militia; Jealousy; Organized Crime; Police; Crucifixion; Religious Persecution; Morality; Crossbow; Babylon Babylonia; Mill; Injustice; Adultery; Hypocrisy; Saved From Hanging; Poverty; Hypocrite; Jew; Chicken; Multiple Time Frames; Parade; Infidelity; Concubine; Paris France; Slave; Dancing; Chariot; Impalement; Prayer; Great Wall; Medicis; Suicide; Dancing On Table; Kiss; Usurper; Debutante; Self Sacrifice; Spinster; Dead Body; Catholic; Feast; Slum; Party.

A poor young woman is separated from her baby and husband by prejudice. Her story is interwoven with three other stories of intolerance - one in ancient Babylon, one in Judea, where the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ and one in 1572 Paris where a young couple prepare for marriage on the day of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. two young Huguenots prepare for marriage.

Isn't Life Wonderful - 1924

Country: USA
Language: English
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writers: D.W. Griffith, Geoffrey Moss (novel)
Stars: Carol Dempster, Neil Hamilton and Erville Alderson
Release Date: 5 December 1924 (USA)
Also known as: Como a Vida É Bela! (Portugal); Dawn (USA - working title);
Hát nem csodálatos az élet? (Hungary); Ist das Leben nicht wunderbar? (Germany).
Production Co: D.W. Griffith Productions
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Inflation | Poland | Poison Gas | Based On Novel
Genres: Drama | Romance
The story follows a Polish professor and his family who have become refugees in the aftermath of World War I. They try to survive in Germany during the period of the Great Inflation. Carol Dempster is Inga, a Polish war orphan who struggles to provide for the family that has taken her in, while accumulating a meager dowry from the rubble of depression-stricken Berlin so that she can marry Paul. Returning to his family, weakened by the battlefront's poisonous gases, Paul invests in his and Inga's future by tending a secret garden which he hopes will provide the resources for them to live, and which serves as a symbol of optimism for the two young lovers.

The Battle of Elderbush Gulch - 1913

Country: USA
Language: English (intertitles)
Release Date: 28 March 1914 (USA)
Filming Locations: San Fernando, California, USA
Production Co: Biograph Company
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writers: D.W. Griffith, Henry Albert Phillips
Stars: Mae Marsh, Leslie Loveridge and Alfred Paget
If you can get by the stereotype Indians, this is one of the better of D.W. Griffith's Biograph pictures.The battle scenes are quite well done and precursor to hundreds of such scenes to come. Drunken red Indians carouse in pagan revelry, whipping up their appetite for dog meat. In search of supper, a party of Indians attempts to kidnap the pets of some nearby pioneers. The settlers shoot the Indians which instigates a war. Will the isolated town of settlers survive the onslaught of the savages long enough for the cavalry to arrive?

The Avenging Conscience - 1914

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 24 August 1914 (USA)
Also Known As: The Telltale Heart
Production Co: Majestic Motion Picture Company
Runtime: 78 min | 56 min (DVD version)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writers: Edgar Allan Poe (stories) (poem "Annabel Lee"), D.W. Griffith
Stars: Henry B. Walthall, Spottiswoode Aitken and Blanche Sweet
Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man turns to thoughts of murder. Experiencing a series of visions, he sees murder as a normal course of events in life and kills his uncle. Tortured by his conscience, his future sanity is uncertain as he is assailed by nightmarish visions of what he has done.

The Gibson Goddess - 1909

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 1 November 1909 (USA)
Filming Locations: Highlands, New Jersey, USA
Production Co: Biograph Company
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writer: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Marion Leonard, Kate Bruce and Frank Evans
A pack of admirers won't leave a beautiful woman alone at a seaside resort, so she devises a plan. She appears in a leg-revealing swimsuit, but the stockings have been stuffed with cotton to make her limbs appear misshapen. All but one of the men is driven off, and regret it when she removes the misleading leggings.

The Red Man's View - 1909

Country: USA
Language: English (intertitles)
Release Date: 9 December 1909 (USA)
Filming Locations: Mt. Beacon, New York, USA
Production Co: Biograph Company
Plot Keywords: Ethnic | Native American
Genres: Short | Western
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writer: Frank E. Woods
Stars: Owen Moore, James Kirkwood and Kate Bruce
An Indian village is forced to leave its land by white settlers, and must make a long and weary journey to find a new home. The settlers make one young Indian woman stay behind. This woman is thus separated from her sweetheart, whose elderly father needs his help on the journey ahead.

Romance of a Jewess - 1908

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 23 October 1908 (USA)
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writer: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Florence Lawrence, George Gebhardt and Gladys Egan
A pawn shop. A man arranges a marriage with the owner's daughter, but she declines for love. The couple is cut off, and opens a book shop; some years later, he dies in a fall from a ladder. She is despondent; her daughter goes to seek help, and ends up a customer at her grandfather's pawn shop, not knowing the connection.

The Unchanging Sea- 1910

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 5 May 1910 (USA)
Filming locations: San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA; Santa Monica, California, USA
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writer: Charles Kingsley (poem)
Stars: Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson and Gladys Egan
In this story set at a seaside fishing village and inspired by a Charles Kingsley poem, a young couple's happy life is turned about by an accident. The husband, although saved from drowning, loses his memory. A child is on the way, and soon a daughter is born to his wife. We watch the passage of time, as his daughter matures and his wife ages. The daughter becomes a lovely young woman, herself ready for marriage. One day on the beach, the familiarity of the sea and the surroundings triggers a return of her father's memory, and we are reminded that although people age and change, the sea and the ways of the fisherfolk remain eternal.

The Voice of the Violin - 1909

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 18 March 1909 (USA)
Filming Locations: West 12th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writer: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard and Frank Powell
A music teacher is in love with Helen, one of his students, but she rejects him. In his anger he joins a communist group who plan to blow up a rich capitalist's house. When he realizes it's Helen's house, he tries to stop the plan.

Ramona - 1910

Country: USA
Language: English (intertitles)
Release Date: 23 May 1910 (USA)
Also Known As: Ramona: A Story of the White Man's Injustice to the Indian USA (alternative title)
Filming Locations: Camulos, California, USA; Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA;
Piru, California, USA; Rancho Camulos, Piru, California, USA; San Gabriel,California, USA
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writers: Helen Hunt Jackson (novel), D.W. Griffith
Stars: Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall and Francis J. Grandon
Ramona, a young girl growing up on her adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian lad Alessandro. When Ramona is denied permission to marry Alessandro, the two lovers elope, only to find a life of great hardship and unhappiness amidst the bigotry and greed of the white landowners.

One Is Business, the Other Crime - 1912

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 25 April 1912 (USA)
Filming Locations: California, USA
Director: D.W. Griffith
Writer: George Hennessy
Stars: Charles West, Dorothy Bernard and Edwin August
Griffith intercuts between the lives of two couples married on the same day. One couple is rich, the other is poor. Time passes, and in desperation over joblessness, the poor husband attempts to burgle a home, only to be captured a gunpoint by the mistress of the house. It is the home of the rich couple. While holding the poor intruder at gunpoint, the rich wife accidently discovers evidence implicating her own husband in a bribery scheme . . .

Enoch Arden - 1911

Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 8 April 1915 (USA)
Director: Christy Cabanne
Writers: D.W. Griffith, Alfred Lord Tennyson (poem)
Stars: Alfred Paget, Lillian Gish and Wallace Reid
Seamen Enoch Arden returns home after a long absence marooned on a desert island. At home he finds his wife married to another, and though he loves her, he cannot bear to disrupt her current happiness.

Swords And Hearts - 1911

A poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter. During the Civil War she helps him escape capture by Union soldiers. After the war, with his fortune gone, she confesses that she loves him.
Cast
Wilfred Lucas ... Hugh Frazier
Claire McDowell ... Irene Lambert
Dorothy West ... Jenny Baker
William J. Butler ... Old Ben
Charles West ... The Suitor
Francis J. Grandon ... Jennie's Father
Verner Clarges ... Hugh's Father
Kate Bruce ... At Lambert House
Donald Crisp ... At Frazier House / Bushwacker
Frank Evans ... Bushwacker
Guy Hedlund ... At Frazier House / Union Soldier
Florence La Badie ... Undetermined Role
J. Jiquel Lanoe ... Union Soldier / Bushwacker
Charles Hill Mailes ... Bushwacker
W. Chrystie Miller
Alfred Paget ... Union Soldier
W.C. Robinson ... Bushwacker
Directed By D. W. Griffith
Written By Emmett C. Hall
Cinematography By G. W. Bitzer
Details
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: August 28 1911 (USA)
Filming Locations:Coytesville, New Jersey, USA
Production Co: Biograph Company

The Sealed Room - 1909

American movie. In this movie suggested by Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado", The king constructs a cozy, windowless love-nest for himself and his concubine. However, she is not faithful to her sovereign, but consorts with the court troubadour. In fact, they use the king's new play chamber for their own lovecraft. When the king discovers this, he sends for his masons. With the faithless duo still inside, the masons use stone and mortar to quietly seal the only door to the vault...
Cast
Arthur V. Johnson ... The Count
Marion Leonard ... The Countess
Henry B. Walthall ... The Minstrel
Linda Arvidson ... A Lady-in-Waiting
William J. Butler ... Nobleman at Court
Verner Clarges ... Nobleman at Court
Owen Moore ... Nobleman at Court
George Nichols ... Workman
Anthony O'Sullivan ... Workman
Mary Pickford ... A Lady-in-Waiting
Gertrude Robinson ... A Lady-in-Waiting
Mack Sennett ... A Soldier
George Siegmann ... Nobleman at Court
Directed By D. W. Griffith
Cinematography By G. W. Bitzer
Written By Frank E. Woods
From The Story By Honoré de Balzac "La Grande Breteche"
From The Novel By Edgar Allan Poe "The Cask of Amontillado"

The Golden Louis - 1909

American movie. Directed and Written By D. W. Griffith, Cinematography, Arthur Marvin. As a frail young girl is outside begging in the snow, she collapses from weakness and from the cold. A well-dressed gentleman passes by and sees her, and he leaves a valuable gold coin in the shoe that she was using to collect alms. Meanwhile, at a gambling house nearby, another man is having a bad night and is becoming desperate. He walks outside, and he notices the girl and the coin. He could easily take it, but he is torn between his need and his pity for the girl. Written by Snow Leopard
Anita Hendrie ... The Mother
Adele DeGarde ... The Child
Owen Moore ... The Good Samaritan
Charles Inslee ... The Gambler
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Linda Arvidson ... Reveller
Kate Bruce Gladys Egan George Gebhardt ... Reveller
Arthur V. Johnson ... Gambler
Florence Lawrence Marion Leonard ... Reveller
Wilfred Lucas Mack Sennett ... Gambler / Reveller
Dorothy West ... Reveller
Herbert Yost ... Gambler / Reveller

The Country Doctor - 1909

Film directed by David Wark Griffith, produced by Biograph Studio, Manhattan, New York City, in 1909. Prints of the film exist in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress
With:
Kate Bruce ... Poor Mother
Adele DeGarde ... Poor Mother's Sick Daughter
Gladys Egan ... Edith Harcourt - Daughter
Rose King ... Maid
Florence Lawrence ... Mrs.Harcourt
Mary Pickford ... Poor Mother's Elder Daughter
Frank Powell ... Doctor Harcourt