The Griffith Project Volume 3: Films Produced in July–December 1909 9780851707495, 9781838710767, 9781839020087

Citation preview

FI ÏF GRIFFITH PROTECT

Publishing

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT VOLUME 3 FILMS PRODUCED IN JULY-DECEMBER

1909

IN MEMORY OF JAY LEYDA

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT VOLUME 3

Films Produced in July-December 1909

GENERAL EDITOR

Paolo Cherchi Usai CONTRIBUTORS

Eileen Bowser, Ben Brewster, André Gaudreault, Tom Gunning, Steven Higgins, J.B. Kaufman, Charlie Keil, Patrick Loughney, Russell Merritt, Scott Simmon, Kristin Thompson ASSISTANT EDITOR

Cynthia Rowell

(ffh Publishing

First published in 1999 by the British Film Institute 21 Stephen St, London W1P 2LN The British Film Institute is the UK national agency with responsibility for encouraging the arts of film and television and conserving them in the national interest. Copyright © Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 1999 Set in Italian Garamond by Ketchup, London British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-85170-749-5 eISBN 978-1-83902-007-0 ePDF 978-1-83902-008-7

CONTENTS Foreword Notes on Contributors Note on Layout

vii viii X

1 169. Jones' Burglar 170. The Mended Lute 3 171. The Indian Runner's Romance 6 172. With Her Card 9 12 173. The Better Way 14 174. His Wife's Visitor 16 175. They Would Elope 176. The Mills of the Gods 19 21 177. "Oh, Uncle" 178. The Sealed Room 23 26 179. Pranks 28 180. The Heart of an Outlaw 181. "1776" or, The Hessian Renegades 31 34 182. The Little Darling 183. In Old Kentucky 36 184. Comata, The Sioux 39 42 185. Getting Even 186. The Children's Friend 44 46 187. The Broken Locket 188. The Awakening 49 189. Pippa Passes or, The Song of Conscience 51 54 190. A Fair Exchange 57 191. Leather Stocking 60 192. Fools of Fate 63 193. Wanted, A Child 65 194. A Change of Heart 68 195. The Little Teacher 71 196. His Lost Love 74 197. The Expiation 77 198. The Gibson Goddess 199. Lines of White on a Sullen Sea 79 200. In the Watches of the Night 82 201. What's Your Hurry? 85

202. Nursing a Viper 203. The Light That Came 204. The Restoration 205. A Midnight Adventure 206. Two Women and a Man 207. The Open Gate 208. Sweet Revenge 209. The Mountaineer's Honor 210. The Trick That Failed 211. In the Window Recess 212. The Death Disc 213. Through the Breakers 214. The Redman's View 215. In a Hempen Bag 216. A Corner in Wheat 217. The Test 218. A Trap for Santa Claus 219. In Little Italy 220. The Day After 221. To Save Her Soul 222. Choosing a Husband 223. The Rocky Road 224. The Dancing Girl of Butte 225. Her Terrible Ordeal 226. The Call 227. On the Reef 228. The Last Deal 229. The Honor of His Family 230. The Cloister's Touch 231. The Woman from Mellon's 232. The Duke's Plan 233. One Night, and Then-

87 90 93 96 98 101 105 107 111 113 116 119 123 127 130 142 144 146 148 150 152 154 157 159 161 163 165 167 171 173 176 178

Bibliography Index of Titles: July-December 1909 Cumulative Index of Titles: 1901-December 1909

181 182 184

FOREWORD

This is the third installment of a multi-year research project commissioned by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival at Sacile, involving the analysis of all the films where D.W. Griffith was credited as director, writer, producer and supervisor. As in the case of Volumes 1 (1907-1908) and 2 (January-July 1909), contributors to The Griffith Project were asked to analyze groups of consecutive films, listed here in their shooting order. Please note that it is the last day of shooting that determines the chronology and perimeters of each volume. Every entry is preceded by a plot synopsis taken from the actual viewing of the print, and by summaries or reviews published at the time of release. The primary source for filmographie information on the Biograph period is D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company (Cooper C. Graham, Steven Higgins, Elaine Mancini, Joâo Luiz Vieira. Metuchen, N.J. and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1985), by far the best factual source on the subject. We gratefully acknowledge its authors and publisher, with special thanks to Steven Higgins - a longtime friend of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival - who patiently revised the text and provided invaluable advice on various aspects of the overall project. Various contributors to The Griffith Project have added or amended information contained in the Scarecrow filmography. The Griffith Project would not exist without the generous help of all the individuals and institutions involved in the preservation of Griffith's work. Our special thanks go to Mary Lea Bandy, Anne Morra and Steven Higgins (The Museum of Modern Art, New York), David Francis, Patrick Loughney, Madeline Matz and Mike Mashon (Library of Congress), who are currently in charge of this massive undertaking, initiated several years ago by Iris Barry and Eileen Bowser at MoMA and by the staff of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Congress. The Board of Directors of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Davide Turconi, David Robinson, Piera Patat, Livio Jacob, Lorenzo Codelli, Carlo Montanaro, Piero Colussi and Lorenzo De Giusti) was instrumental in turning the Griffith retrospective into a unique opportunity to reassess the extraordinary contribution of D.W. Griffith to the art of film. A condensed version of the debate within the Pordenone team before the project started in October 1997 can be found in Griffithiana, Vol. XXI, Nos. 62-3, May 1998, 4-37. Paolo Cherchi Usai Rochester, April 1999

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

EILEEN BOWSER is a film historian and curator emeritus of the film archives, Department of Film and Video, the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is cataloguer of the D.W. Griffith Collection of papers at the museum, author of The Transformation of Cinema: 1907-1915, co-author (with Iris Barry) of D.W. Griffith (1965) and editor of Biograph Bulletins 1908-1912 (1973). BEN BREWSTER is the assistant director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He is co-author (with Lea Jacobs) of Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film (1997) and author of many articles on early cinema in Screen, Film History, Cinema Journal, and Griffithiana. PAOLO CHERCHE USAI, senior curator of the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman House, is associate professor of Film at the University of Rochester and director of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, established in 1996. Co-founder of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and Domitor (Society for Early Cinema Studies), he is an adjunct member of the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress, and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). A revised and expanded version of his book Burning Passions: An Introduction to the Study of Silent Cinema (1994) is forthcoming from BFI Publishing. ANDRE GAUDREAULT is professor of Cinema at the Département d'histoire de l'art at Université de Montréal, where he is responsible for GRAFICS (Groupe de recherche sur l'avènement et la formation des institutions cinématographique et scénique) and is also director of CRI (Centre de recherche sur l'intermédialité). A visiting professor in various universities (Sâo Paulo, Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle, Bologna, and Paris I - PanthéonSorbonne), he has published Du littéraire au filmique (reissued 1999 with a preface by Paul Ricceur), co-author with F. Jost of Le Récit cinématographique (1991), Pathé 1900: Fragments d'une filmographie analytique du cinéma des premiers temps (1993), and Au pays des ennemis du cinéma (1996). TOM G U N N I N G is professor of Art History and member of the Committee on Cinema and Media at the University of Chicago. He is the author of D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph (1991) and numerous articles on early cinema (including "the Cinema of Attractions"). He was a founding member of Domitor, the international society for the study of early film. His book on the films of Fritz Lang is forthcoming from BFI Publishing. STEVEN HEGGINS is curator in the Department of Film and Video, Museum of Modern Art, New York. J.B. KAUFMAN is an independent film historian who has written extensively on topics including Disney animation and the films of Blanche Sweet. He is co-author, with Russell Merritt, of Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney (1992) and of a second book on the Silly Symphonies.

viii

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

CHARLIE KEIL is assistant professor of Cinema Studies in the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto. He has written extensively on early cinema in such journals as Iris, Persistence of Vision, and Film History. His essay on Griffith's Biographs appeared in Cinema Journal, and a forthcoming book on transitional cinema will incorporate study of the Biograph films as well. PATRICK LOUGHNEY is head of the Moving Image Section of the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound division. RUSSELL MERRITT teaches at the University of California at Berkeley and has written, with J.B. Kaufman, an account of Walt Disney's silent cartoons, Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney (1992). CYNTHIA ROWELL graduated in 1999 from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman House. She is director of Acquisitions and International Sales for Milestone Film and Video. SCOTT SIMMON is author of The Films of D.W. Griffith (1993) and other volumes on American film and film preservation. For the Library of Congress, he has overseen restorations of Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates (1919) and Lois Weber's Where Are My Children? (1916). He is producer of The Library of Congress Video Collection and, for the National Film Preservation Foundation, Treasures of American Film Archives, a video set of rare films from seventeen U.S. archives. Currently he is visiting associate professor at the University of California, Davis, and is completing a book on the Western. KRISTIN THOMPSON is an honorary fellow in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her books include The Classical Hollywood Cinema (1985), cowritten with David Bordwell and Janet Staiger, and Exporting Entertainment: America in World Film Markets 1901-1934 (1985). She has a forthcoming book, Storytelling in the New Hollywood (1999) and is at work on a study comparing Ernst Lubitsch's silent German and American features.

IX

NOTE ON LAYOUT

T H E C.KIFHTK PROJECT: VOI.O!

Program sequence number, production company Filmographie information

Plot synopsis from actual viewing

{ Utile garJ fo&iw* a» organ j^indet «K! K &«cfKe B discovered by her patents, «KI ïhe t'amily dog i 4«' itatU the pursuer* through thf «tree» and «tUv thft o Itappcil tw «tï. Tiw chiU *restoredu> the parents ami i

U Atisvttnttr was mApiu#--ekaw:-do«; rescue grar ci GiUftth't tirsi directedfib»,The Aê*ammsyfï>>lUe. a J&utt inae àrter th» strain include TV * « * CMa' {i*H'£w*r. 71w pRKiucuou of" Bw JPA* AdtwtHK gave atafftingfof* to D.W. Griffith) lie ciuowy compared

or' tl*e earlierfëm*.U t*d» the ^ n i a î cUftty and rhythm £ Aj-fowvr,/oft instance. AiW two ahttts to set «p the ik&trt there a :hwte thromrft wlwrbs and coamrystfk, irnr.ïudàifi paftofamay to it

Critical analysis

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

169 BlOGRAPH

JONES' BURGLAR Filming date: 26 June, ?July 1909 Location: New York Studio/Coytesville, New Jersey Release date: 9 August 1909 Release length: 388 feet Copyright date: 10 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: Frank E. Woods Source: none known Camera: Arthur Marvin, G.W. Bitzer Cast: John R. Cumpson (Mr. Jones); Florence Lawrence (Mrs. Jones); ? (Maid); Mack Sennett (Burglar); Owen Moore, Arthur Johnson, William J. Buder, Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Powell (At club) NOTE: Copyrighted as Mr. Jones' Burglar; working tides according to the Biograph production log: Mr. Jones' Burglar and Jones and the Burglar Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Everything on this old mundane sphere has its use. Even the burglar's visit, strange as it may seem, may provide a blessing, as this Biograph comedy will verify. Jones has an insatiable longing to go to the Club for a little game, so as a subterfuge tells his wife he is called out on business. Mrs. J. by this time has become cruelly incredulous, and declares she will wait up for him. At the club Jonesy breaks the bank, things come his way, but when he leaves for home he anticipates that on his return things may continue to come, but not so felicitously. However, his luck is still with him, for he finds a burglar trying to gain entrance into his home. Aha! an idea. The burglar is a coward, and he forces him to break in and so plays the hero, thereby softening his wife's anger by apparently apprehending him. Biograph Bulletin, No. 264, [?]

Mr. Jones schemes to join his cronies for a night on the town but must figure a way to deceive his irritated and suspicious wife. The idea comes to him to write a fake note of invitation from his friends and have the maid deliver it to wife. Mrs. Jones believes the note is real and angrily makes it clear that Jones must not stay out late. Jones happily goes to his club where he joins his pals in a poker game. While Mrs. Jones sits at home fuming, Jones parties and ends his long evening as the game's big winner. As Jones takes leave of his friends, a wary burglar prepares to break into the Jones' home. Jones soon arrives on the scene, checks his watch to see how late he is, and begins to creep cautiously up the front steps. At that moment, Jones sees the burglar trying to force open the front door and knocks him to his knees. The frightened burglar cowers and begs mercy. Jones picks up the burglars pistol and then has an idea. He forces the burglar around to the side of the house, orders him to put a ladder below a first floor window, and they both climb inside. Jones urges the burglar into the parlor and forces him to begin putting valuables into a bag. Just then Mrs. Jones comes 1

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

into the room, and Jones makes a great show of capturing the burglar at gun point and saving their valuables. Mrs. Jones is overcome with surprise and gratitude and falls adoringly into his arms. While Mrs. Jones is distracted, Jones motions discretely for the burglar to escape, which he does.

The eighth of the "Jones" series of split reel comedies, starring John Cumpson and Florence Lawrence, that began with Mr. Jones at the Ball (released on 25 December 1908). Though second to last in order of release, the filming of Jones' Burglar occurred in July and it was the last of the series in order of production. (Mrs. Jones' Lover was filmed in May and June and released on 19 August with His Wife's Visitor.) With a release length of 388 feet, Jones' Burglar is the shortest film in the series, suggesting that Griffith realized with this production that he and his cast had exhausted the comic potential of Mr. and Mrs. Jones's social misadventures. One also has the feeling that Griffith, in concluding the series, recognized the limitations of Florence Lawrence and John Cumpson as a comic team. The production schedule of Jones' Burglar overlapped with that of They Would Elope during the period 24 June to 15 July and both films were paired for distribution on the same Biograph Bulletin (no. 264). They Would Elope is a much funnier film that follows the disasters encountered by a young couple, played by Billy Quirk and Mary Pickford, as they try to elope. Quirk and Pickford are a much more attractive couple than Cumpson and Lawrence and they have the added advantage, especially in the case of Quirk over the rotund Cumpson, of suggesting obvious youth. Pickford and Quirk continued to be paired in comedies, including several "Muggsy" episodes into 1910, but Cumpson played supporting roles in only six more films before ending his Biograph career in September. For Florence Lawrence, the original "Biograph Girl", the end of her Biograph days came with either this production or The Mended Lute, which was filmed from 28 June to 2 July and released on 5 August. (There is a slight continuity problem in scene one of viewed print caused either by short missing sequence in original paper print or copying error that occurred during transfer to 16mm. Jump in action occurs early in scene when Mr. Jones moves from one side of drawing room to the other.) Patrick Loughney

2

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

170 BlOGRAPH

THE MENDED LUTE Filming date: 28-30 June, 2 July 1909 Location: Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 5 August 1909 Release length: 996 feet Copyright date: 7 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Florence Lawrence (Rising Moon); Frank Powell (Chief Great Elk Horn); Owen Moore (Little Bear); James Kirkwood (Standing Rock); Arthur Johnson, Mack Sennett, Alfred Paget, Henry B. Walthall, Red Wing, James Young Deer (Indians) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; Det Danske Filmmuseum, 35mm nitrate positive (Czech titles) A STIRRING ROMANCE O F THE DAKOTAS Moving Picture Stories based on the life and customs of the American aboriginals have ever been attractive, and we conscientiously doubt if there has ever been a more intensely interesting subject presented than this Biograph production which, indeed, is a master-piece. Much thought and time were given the many details, and we may claim that as to costumes, manners, and modes of living, it is more than reasonably accurate, these details having been supervised by an expert in the matter. The Dakotas or Sioux Indians, when first visited by Jean Duluth in 1680, who claimed their country for the French, inhabited what is now North Minnesota but were driven during subsequent Indian wars as far south as the present Sioux City, when in the war of 1812 they were allies of Britain. The incidents of our story are laid in the neighborhood of Spirit Lake, Iowa, just previous to the outbreak, the first of which occurred in 1854, when Lieut. Grattan and his force were killed, the failure of the government to meet stipulations in land purchases being the cause. Owing to their roving, migratory nature, they were tent or tepee dwellers, expert horsemen and canoeists. Despite general impression, they are highly emotional and poetic yet with superlative powers of dissembling, and the quaint love scenes herein depicted are unique in the extreme. Pretty little Rising Moon, the daughter of Chief Great Elk Horn, is wooed by Little Bear, and we meet them first at the foot of Snake Falls where they plight their troth to the music of the rumbling waters. Little Bear's worldy possessions are slim, and Great Elk Horn rejects his meager offerings in favor of Standing Rock's rich gifts, and so rising [sic] Moon is taken away by him to his wigwam, where she is left while her husband that is to be, goes hunting. Taking advantage of his absence she steals away to the forlorn heart of her own choice, Little Bear, before it is too late. Standing Rock returning and finding her gone at once surmises the truth, and gathering his companions together, starts in pursuit. Little Bear and Rising Moon hearing their approach endeavor to make their escape. Pushing their way toward the river bank, with Standing Rock and his braves following, they leap into a canoe and are soon dashing along in the swift current of the mountain stream, which is in places the most dangerous of rapids. The feat seems ominous, but is safely occomplished [sic], and was worthy of a better fate than 3

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

capture, which they were later. Death of both is the reward, and they are bound together to this end. The ire of Standing Rock demanded more than mere death, so he proceeds to taunt and torture his rival. This is received with such stoicism by Little Bear, that standing [sic] Rock is amazed to the point of admiration for the brave's fortitude, and not only cuts the cords that bind him, but bestows upon him the Eagle Feather, the highest honored gift to the brave, and bids he and Rising Moon to go and may they be happy. The subject as a whole is a combination of poetical romance and dramatic intensity, the canoe chases being the most picturesque and thrilling ever shown. Biograph Bulletin, No. 263, August 5, 1909

Rising Moon, daughter of Chief Great Elk Horn, and Little Bear are in love. However, Litde Bear is poor and when he asks Great Elk Horn's permission to marry Rising Moon, he is rejected in favor of the richer Standing Rock, who immediately takes Rising Moon to his tepee and leaves her there under guard while he goes hunting. Soon the guard falls asleep and Rising Moon sneaks away to see her father and explain that she loves Litde Bear. Great Elk Horn leads Rising Moon to the brooding Little Bear and they embrace tenderly. Meanwhile, Standing Rock has returned and discovered Rising Moon's absence. He gathers a band of warriors and they begin tracking Rising Moon's footsteps. Great Elk Horn and Rising Moon warn Litde Bear of their danger and Little Bear leads their party away to the river. Litde Bear and Rising Moon launch a canoe and paddle away down stream. Standing Rock and his band come upon Great Elk Horn by the riverbank. Standing Rock fights Great Elk Horn and kills him and then he and his party launch canoes in pursuit of Little Bear and Rising Moon. A furious chase ensues and eventually the exhausted Litde Bear and Rising Moon come to shore where they are captured and bound. Standing Rock orders Rising Moon to be taken away and then he begins to torture the proud Little Bear. After several cuts and slashes, Standing Rock undergoes a profound change of heart caused by Little Bear's display of stoic courage. Standing Rock frees Little Bear and gives him a coveted eagle feather taken from his own headband as a sign of honor. He then returns Rising Moon to Little Bear and lets them go free.

The Mended Lute represents something of a watershed both in the development of Griffith's personal directorial style and in the willingness of company managers to start investing more in the average cost of individual productions. It is the first film made by Griffith on location in Cuddebackville, a locale suggested to him by J J . Kennedy, Biograph's managing director, and located approximately one hundred miles from New York City on the New Jersey border. Griffith was immediately charmed by the rural location and the possibilities it offered as a backdrop for wilderness dramas. He was by this time seeking ways to increase the aura of aesthetic realism conveyed in his films. In a 1916 interview Griffith recalled, "I discovered Cuddybackville [sic], the most beautiful, altogether the loveliest spot in America ... There is a quality about the light there, particularly a twilight that I have never found elsewhere; it is transcendendy illuminative for [moving] pictures" ("The Story of David Wark Griffith", Photoplay, June-November 1916 [Geduld, p. 36]). The Cuddebackville location was convenient to rocky cliffs, a river with rapids, a waterfall and, highly important to Griffith, it was unspoiled and unknown to film-going audiences. The first third of the Biograph Bulletin text (No. 263) for The Mended Lute, which is subtitied "A Stirring Romance of the Dakotas", provides general historical information about the tribe and goes on in quasiethnographic style claiming an effort to dispel mistaken notions about Indian behavior. 4

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Testimony is also given to the work of an "expert" hired to insure that the costumes, props and sets arranged for The Mended Lute matched the authentic-looking visual quality of the locale. Real Indians Red Wing and James Young Deer were members of the cast and, during off hours, they coached other cast members in authentic Indian dances (Henderson, p. 80). The Mended Lute is a drama solely about Indians that, in spite of the Bulletin s efforts to establish a colonial context, manages to suggest a timeless period pre-dating any intrusion by whites into Indian life and territory. Though Little Bear and Standing Rock are certainly in the noble redman tradition of American melodrama, The Mended Lute is foremost a univeral story of two lovers who triumph over all obstacles and achieve happiness. It is also a well-conceived melodrama whose resolution depends on Griffith's balanced intercutting of scenes of the two parties involved in the climatic canoe chase that makes up most of the final third of the film's total footage. Ten of the thirty scenes in The Mended Lute depict the sequence of actions relating to the escaping and pursuing parties. Griffith further modulates the dramatic action within the canoe chase sequence by starting the sequence in calm water, then indicating the desperation of Little Bear and Rising Moon by showing them heading into and through a section of rapids, before exhaustion overtakes Little Bear, forcing him to come ashore in calm water, where he and Rising Moon are taken prisoner. The Mended Lute is additionally noteworthy because it features the last performance by Florence Lawrence in a Biograph melodrama. Tom Gunning gives a thorough treatment of the events surrounding her departure from Biograph and the possible reasons why it happened (Gunning, 1991, p. 218ff). Money and recognition were the likely major contributing factors. Griffith himself, while The Mended Lute and The Indian Runner's Romance were being filmed, was seeking to negotiate a higher salary for himself and, according to a contemporary letter to his wife, Linda Arvidson, evidently had decided to leave Biograph about the same time if his demands were not met (Henderson, p. 80). There is also the possibility, considering the rising importance of Mary Pickford among the Biograph stock company and the leading roles given to other promising young actresses during the same period, that J.J. Kennedy - caught between two leading talents demanding salary increases - made the obvious decision that Griffith was more important to Biograph's future than Lawrence. Patrick Loughney

5

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

171 BlOGRAPH

THE INDIAN RUNNER'S ROMANCE Filming date: 2 9 / 3 0 J u n e , 2/3 July 1909 Location: Cuddebackville, N e w York Release date: 2 3 August 1909 Release length: 994 feet Copyright date: 2 4 August 1909 Director: D . W . Griffith Author: n o n e k n o w n Source: n o n e k n o w n Camera: G . W . Bitzer Cast: O w e n M o o r e {Blue Cloud); F r a n k Powell {Prospector); M a r y Pickford

{Squaw);

M a c k Sennett, Lottie Pickford? {Indians); F r a n k Powell, A r t h u r J o h n s o n , J a m e s Kirkwood {Cowboys); J a m e s Kirkwood {Dying man); A n t h o n y O'Sullivan {At stable) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 3 5 m m p a p e r print; 3 5 m m nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) A THRILLING EPISODE IN THE BLACK HILLS It was about the year of 1867 when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and the Sioux Indians were at the time possessors of that territory, and most of the land was unknown to the white man. Lo, the poor Indian. Little did they know what wealth lay buried in those mountains, and later when they found they had exchanged fabulous fortunes for a mere pittance to conniving whites, they became confirmed misanthropes. That is why it is assumed that the Indian is unemotional - they are simply reticent and wary. At the time of our story, an old miner, more venturesome than others, secretly worked a claim, and found it rich with deposits. His age, however, conspired against his being able to withstand the hardships he was necessarily subjected to, and Blue Cloud, the Indian Runner, discovers him dying on the rocks. Grateful for the kindness of the brave, the miner tells him the location of his hidden mine as he dies. Three cowboys come up and want to know the mine's location, but the Indian refuses to tell. Blue Cloud loves the little squaw, and in consequence of his newly acquired wealth, presses his suit in that quaint Indian fashion, wooing with the blanket, symbolizing protection. He is accepted and approved by her father after leaving his offerings outside the parental tepee. Married, they proceed to Blue Cloud's wigwam, and while he is away hunting three cowboys come up and try to get from her the mine's location. She is obdurate, however, so they abduct her to force her to divulge its whereabouts. Finding her still adamant in determination, the renegades gamble as to who shall take care of her, the holder of the high card to have her. Meanwhile the Indian has returned, and finding his squaw gone, realizes the true nature of the situation on finding the sombrero of one of the cowboys in the tepee. Starting in pursuit, he tries to borrow a horse, but is refused, so resorts to running capabilities to overtake the hounds. The one whose lot it is to take charge of the girl has brutally bound and thrown her across his horse, and mounting in the saddle, starts for his shack at breakneck speed. Blue Cloud, however, with his knowledge of the trails, by a short cut, and a thrilling dash through the dangerous rapids of the mountain stream, manages to overtake him. Leaping upon the fast galloping horse behind the cowboy, a most exciting combat ensues - a bowie-knife conflict on the back of the horse, with the prostrate form of 6

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the squaw slung across its neck. On they gallop, the Indian fighting furiously, until at length the cowboy drops lifeless from the saddle. Drawing the horse up, the Indian dismounts and releases the terror stricken squaw, whom he takes tenderly back to his wigwam. The subject is a most beautiful one in scenic splendor and photographic excellence, with a succession of the most intensely thrilling incidents. Biograph Bulletin No. 268, August 23, 1909

An old prospector lays dying near his claim in the Black Hills. Blue Cloud, an Indian runner, finds him and comforts him during his last moments. In gratitude for Blue Cloud's kindness, the prospector tells him the location of his rich claim and then dies. Just then three cowboys arrive on the scene and try to persuade Blue Cloud to tell them where the old prospector's claim is located but he refuses. Blue Cloud thinks of his squaw and goes to her father and asks permission to marry. The father approves, calls the rest of the tribe together and the wedding takes place immediately. At the conclusion, the tribe members dance in celebration and Blue Cloud and his new wife move into his wigwam. The next day Blue Cloud goes hunting, leaving his little squaw working on domestic chores outside the wigman. Soon the three cowboys approach the wigwam and try to force the squaw to reveal the gold claim's location. She refuses and they knock her unconscious, kidnap her and set out to secretly trail Blue Cloud. Blue Cloud returns home, discovers that his wife is missing, sees a hat belonging to one of the cowboys and realizes she has been kidnapped. Blue Cloud swears vengeance and runs off in pursuit. First he runs into town to the livery stable and tries to borrow a horse, but is refused by the white men. Undaunted he sets out after the horsemen. A furious chase ensues. Along the way Blue Cloud meets a mounted white man and asks his help but, again, is refused. Soon the cowboys stop to drink whiskey and then decide to play a hand of poker to determine who gets the squaw. Just as the winner begins to ride off with the squaw over his saddle, Blue Cloud runs up behind the horse and jumps up in back of the rider. A furious fight ensues until Blue Cloud kills the cowboy. He then unties his squaw; they embrace and begin the journey home.

The production of The Indian Runner's Romance occured almost simultaneously with The Mended Lute. Lute was filmed over four days during 28-30 June and 2 July, while Romance was also filmed over four days on 29-30 June and 2-3 July. Making the most of the costumes, sets and props shared by these productions, Griffith actually staged and filmed scenes for both films on 29-30 June. Red Wing and James Young Deer, who appear among the cast of Lute, gave lessons in Indian dances during off-hours that were incorporated into Romance (Henderson, p. 80). The two films share similarities in plot and narrative construction as well. Each tells the story of an innocent young Indian couple under physical threat and both conclude with a dramatic life and death chase sequence that lasts throughout the final one third of the film. Griffith understood the dramatic potential of narratives depicting alien mores and conflicts between cultures, and American Indians were just one of many ethnic groups that he and the Biograph scenario writers called on for melodramatic inspiration. Beginning with The Adventures ofDollie, in which a middle class American family wins out over the revenge of Gypsies, much of Griffith's best work throughout the next twelve months, until The Indian Runner's Romance, featured plots involving exotic foreigners: e.g., Mexicans {The Fight for Freedom, The Greaser's Gauntlet, The Vaquero's Vow), Italians {The Black Viper, At the Altar), Indians {The Redman and the Child, The Red Girl, The Call of the Wild), an Andalusian bandit {The Bandit's Waterloo), Spaniards {The Eaves1

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

dropper), Chinese white slavers {The Fatal Hour), Russians {Resurrection), Japanese {The Heart of O Yama), Africans {The Zulus Heart), French-Canadians {The Ingrate, A Woman's Way), Sicilians {The Cord of Life), Hindus {The Brahma Diamond). All intermixed with comedies and dramas involving crooks, drunkards, cowboys, burglars, pirates and a varied assortment of ethnic American characters produced during the same period. The Indian Runner's Romance is a more interesting and satisfying drama than The Mended Lute because it conveys a more serious and complex threat to innocence. In the latter film the threat originates with an Indian enemy who, though his intentions are deadly, acts within the moral code of his tribe because his wife has run away with a supposedly less worthy rival. In the former, the threat comes from three drunken cowboys, motivated in the beginning by greed for the Indian's gold and at the end, when one of the cowboys has won the Indian's wife in a card game and runs off with her, by lust. The pace of The Indian Runner's Romance is much faster, the sense of realism greater and the concluding fight to the death and rescue, versus the noble self-sacrifice at the conclusion oiLute, is emotionally more satisfying. Though filmed at virtually the same time, there is an observable qualitative difference in the chase scenes between Lute and Romance that suggests how rapidly Griffith's self-confidence as a director and editor were growing during this period. According to the Biograph production log, the total amount of raw film exposed in the making oiLute measured 1805 feet, which was edited to 996 feet (including intertitles) in the released version, leaving 809 feet of outtake footage. For The Indian Runner's Romance, which was released at 994 feet, Griffith exposed a total of 1183 feet of film, wasting only a mere 189 feet in outtakes. Patrick Loughney

8

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

172 BlOGRAPH

WITH HER CARD Filming date: 7 July 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 16 August 1909 Release length: 1000 feet Copyright date: 17 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Owen Moore (Henry Larkin); Frank Powell (Randolph Churchill); Marion Leonard (Adele); ? (Maid); Mack Sennett, Arthur Johnson, Charles Avery, Henry B. Walthall (At Larkin s); John R. Cumpson, Verner Clarges?, William A. Quirk, William J. Butier, Anthony O'Sullivan (At Churchill's); Anthony O'Sullivan (Footman); Frank Evans (Extra) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print THE STORY OF A WOMAN SCORNED The more we love the nearer we are to hate, and there is no hate as bitter as that of a woman scorned. Treat a woman with indifference and she will cling to you, but scorn her and you have aroused a serpent more venomous than the adder. Randolph Churchill, a Wall Street broker, incurred the love of Adele Alletta, a comic opera favorite, and although he treated her with almost cruel sang-froid, she rejected all other suitors in his favor, among whom was Henry Larkin, another broker, who sincerely loved her. Adele, however, was simply a whim with Churchill, and he coldly threw her aside to marry a society belle. This information comes to her in a letter from him, and also announcement of his engagement in the newspapers. H e did not know the designing powers of the seemingly light-hearted, frivolous girl, who at once evolved a scheme he little dreamed her capable of. Appreciating the strength and sincerity of Larkin's love for her, he having sought her in marriage most ardently, she writes him of the humiliating insult she suffered from Churchill, begs that he effect his ruin in the market, promising to marry him the day he occomplishes [sic] it. Larkin is most willing to undertake the affair, as he had undergone many a heartache on account of his rival, and as Churchill's holdings are in open market, he figures the undertaking fairly easy, and feels positive of success. At last the fight is on: the tickers relentlessly and industriously record the diverging currents of fortune. Larkin, upward; Churchill, downward, until at the end of the first day a little short of panic hangs over the office of Churchill. The game, however, is to be to the bitter end, and the next day opens ominous for the victim. H e is at loss to know who his opponent is, and fate leads him to the office of Larkin for help, where he learns the truth of the situation. In desperation he returns to his own office to find the last prop broken and his fortune swept away. His fiancee, the society belle, learns of his ruin, cruelly deserts him, as do all of his so-called friends. Larkin loses no time in informing Adele of the result of the scheme and she comes to the office, where, realizing the extreme woe of Churchill, persuades Larkin to send him back his holdings with her card attached, on which is written "The game won, spoils returned with compliments of Adele Alletta". These arrive at Churchill's office very 9

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

timely, for in his desperation he was about to terminate his existence. Adele is true to promise with Larkin, and accepts the situation with felicity, as during the episode her eyes are opened and she sees Larkin's real worth and loves him. Churchill, on the other hand, bows to the inevitable with more than becoming grace, as the return of his fortune is the all-important. Biograph Bulletin, No. 266, August 16, 1909

Adele Alletta is in love with Randolph Churchill, a Wall Street broker who treats her indifferently. Henry Larkin, an ardent suitor of Adele, calls at her home but is coldly received. Soon after Henry leaves, Randolph arrives, writes a note and gives it to the maid to deliver to Adele. Adele arrives and opens the note and is shocked to read that Randolph is engaged to marry another woman, a fact confirmed by a newspaper notice Randolph has left with his note. Adele becomes enraged and vows vengeance on Randolph. Adele writes a note to Henry and asks if he will join with her in a plot to ruin Randolph financially, in return for her promise of marriage. Henry eagerly agrees. Adele visits Randolph in his office just after the ticker tape reveals he has taken a loss in the market. Adele asks him if the marriage notice in the newspaper he left with her maid refers to him. Randolph confirms that it does and Adele coldly turns away and leaves his office. Henry sends a note to Adele at her home that Randolph will soon be wiped out and she rejoices. Randolph goes to a friend to ask for a loan and is rejected. Adele goes to Henry's office and hides behind a screen when Randolph comes in suddenly to confront Henry over his cut-throat tactics. Henry gloats and Randolph threatens him and then returns to his own office, where he learns that he has been completely wiped out. Adele and Henry watch the ticker tape and sees the same news. Henry reacts in triumph, but Adele is overcome by remorse and goes to visit Randolph in his office. Randolph apologizes to Adele and again declares his love for her. She rejects him and leaves. In despair, Randolph pulls out a pistol and contemplates suicide. Adele, meanwhile, goes back to Henry and asks him to return the stocks he has won from Randolph, thereby restoring him to wealth. Henry becomes angry and then relents and sends Randolph's stocks back to him by messenger. The messenger arrives in Randolph's office just in time to stop him from shooting himself and gives him the stocks. Randolph reacts happily to the realization that his fortune has been returned. Henry and Adele, meanwhile, are together in Adele's home, when Randolph arrives to see Adele. Henry leaves the room and Randolph enters and begins wooing Adele. Henry comes back into the room unnoticed and overhears Adele reject Randolph. Henry tries to effect a reconciliation but Adele protests that she loves him and not Randolph, and they happily embrace. Randolph accepts the inevitable and gazes happily at his stocks, indicating that his only true love is money.

Ambiguously subtitled in the Biograph Bulletin as "The Story of a Woman Scorned", With Her Card suggests a title and plot more appropriate to the "Jones" series. Instead, it is a drama that begs comparison of the civilized world of modern bigtime Wall Street finance with that of primitive Indian life as played out in the wilds of Cuddebackville. The Mended Lute and The Indian Runner's Romance both climax in extended life and death chase sequences, while the narrative tension of With Her Card, which has its own life and death climax, is achieved by intercutting between scenes of cut-throat stock bidding staged in the offices of rival brokers. With Her Card was filmed four days after The Indian Runner's Romance was completed in a single day of shooting (7 July), in the studio on three sets, consisting of Adele's home and the offices of her two stock broker suitors. The contrasting irony between the "primitive" and "civilized" cultures depicted in these three films must have been 10

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

foremost in Griffith's mind while filming With Her Card, putting this film squarely in the category of Griffith productions that signify strong ambivalence about the course of contemporary twentieth-century American society. With Her Card, while not among the best, is nevertheless one of Griffith's more interesting one-reel women's films. The plot energy is generated by a proud and independent woman, Adele, identified in the Bulletin as a "comic opera favorite", whose lover informs her by a note that he both rejects her love and is engaged to be married to someone else. Humiliation is added to injury by the fact that, along with the note, he leaves a newspaper containing a published announcement of his coming marriage, indicating she is the last to know. After this blow, Adele asserts herself and remains in control of all actions throughout the remainder of the story. Her vengeance is so complete that she not only ruins her exlover financially, by manipulating the emotions and actions of another man, but she also brings him to the brink of suicide (from which he is rescued only by accident), then has the satisfaction of seeing him beg for forgiveness and declare his renewed love for her. This allows Adele to savor the ultimate irony of rejecting the man who first rejected her and, when she restores his fortune, to claim the high ground of moral superiority. Moreover, Adele then turns to claim the love of Henry, the man who aided her triumph over Randolph and, incidentally, thereby has proved himself to be a better and more stable man of wealth. All in all, beneath Adèle's veneer of kind gesture and forgiveness, With Her Card presents a portrait of female behavior quite as cynical as any male character in any Griffith film up to this time. Worthy of special notice in this film is Griffith's superb control of the secondary actors portraying stock brokers and office assistants in the scenes set in the offices of Randolph and Henry. Their actions create convincingly the bustling office atmosphere of Wall Street and the manner in which Griffith has them interact with the lead characters, by reacting to and reflecting their varying moods of action, triumph and despair, establishes a genuine note of realism. Patrick Loughney

11

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

173 BlOGRAPH

THE BETTER WAY Filming date: 9/10/12 July 1909 Location: New York Studio/Coytesville, New Jersey Release date: 12 August 1909 Release length: 990 feet Copyright date: 13 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Stephanie Longfellow (Elizabeth Parker); Kate Bruce (Her mother); Henry B. Walthall (Oliver Sylvester); James Kirkwood (Squire Calvin Cartwright); William J. Butler, ? (Hisparents); Verner Clarges (Minister); Arthur Johnson, Mack Sennett, Owen Moore, Anthony O'Sullivan, Lottie Pickford (Puritans) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; Library of Congress, 35mm nitrate positive (AFI/Von Helmst Collection) A BEAUTIFUL STORY O F PURITAN DAYS No period of time was more poetic and afforded material for romance than the days of the Puritans. Quaint in manners, honest in character and picturesque in costume, they have furnished more inspirations to writers and artists than any other people. Their lives were one long line of tranquillity, which seemed the personification of a poem. Appreciating this, the Biograph Company has in this production succeeded in portraying an episode of that period with all the tender decisiveness essential to typical perfection. Elizabeth Parker is wooed by young Oliver Sylvester, who is loved by her in return. Her all-absorbing dream is of the day when she will become the happy bride of Oliver. Fortune, however, is unkind to her family and dire straits force her to harken to the proposal of old Squire Calvin Cartwright, an honest tender-natured farmer of considerable means. Marriage with the Squire would assure Elizabeth of her widowed mother's comfort, hence she consents and is married. Oliver does not seem to realize the truth of the conditions and persistendy seeks the poor girl, with a view of alluring her from her aged husband. What a terrible position for the girl, who really loves the fellow and so has not the power to repulse him firmly, her romantic dreams rising, almost taunting, in her mind. While Oliver is pleading earnestly, the Squire enters and fully appreciating her plight, makes the sacrifice, bidding her go with her heart's desire, as he feels he is too old to make her happy and forget. Elizabeth is astounded, and under the influence of her young lover, whom she deludedly believes the soul of honor, accepts the proposed surrender, and leaves with Oliver. They have not gone far when he seizes the weak, trembling girl in his arms and passionately kisses her. That kiss is the awakening. She is aroused from her lethargy and is now fully alive to her sense of duty. Casting her lover aside, she dashes madly to her mother's home, not daring to re-enter that of her husband. The Squire, however, although he seemed impassive at the time, sank into despondency when she was gone and would have died from grief, had not Elizabeth been persuaded to return to him whom she had now learned to love. Biograph Bulletin, No. 265, August 12, 1909 12

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Young Puritans Elizabeth Parker and Oliver Sylvester are in love. However, Elizabeth's family is very poor and she is pressured by a sense of duty to her widowed mother to accept a marriage proposal from the wealthy but old Squire Cartwright who is, nevertheless, kind and honest. After the marriage, Oliver continues to woo Elizabeth and to try and persuade her to leave Cartwright and run away with him. Elizabeth yearns to be with Oliver but is torn between love and duty. Cartwright comes home unexpectedly and finds Elizabeth and Oliver together. He sizes up the situation, nobly joins their hands together and tells Elizabeth that she is free to leave with Oliver, which she does. Once they are outside in a clearing in the woods, Oliver suddenly grabs Elizabeth and kisses her passionately. Deeply shocked, Elizabeth breaks free of his embrace and runs away to her mother's house. Oliver follows Elizabeth into the house to explain, but she now realizes what kind of man he is and the mistake she has made and orders him to leave, falling to the floor after he has gone. Meanwhile, Squire Cartwright sits at home alone suffering while Elizabeth does the same at her mother's. One of the Squire's servants sees him fondling one of Elizabeth's kerchiefs and gets the idea to try and effect a reconciliation. The preacher who performed the marriage of Elizabeth and the Squire comes to visit her. She falls to her knees while the preacher prays and he tells her that God has forgiven her. Just then the Squire's servant enters and tells Elizabeth that the Squire still loves her. She reacts happily and the preacher directs her to go back to her husband. Elizabeth goes to the Squire's house, begs his forgiveness which he tenderly grants and they fondly embrace.

The Better Way suggests that the sustained pace of overwork necessary to meeting the release schedule for new Biograph films during this period sometimes got the better of Griffith. This is a tired drama with a plot that lacks the originality and obvious energy of the three action melodramas (two filmed on location) directed immediately before this one by Griffith in the ten days between 28 June and 7 July. In spite of its dullness, Griffith does seems to be working out an exercise in refining the length and editing of scenes in this costume drama, as if The Better Way was an elemental part of a larger picture puzzle not yet understood. Though a full reel in length, The Better Way contains only fifteen scenes, half the number of those in his first two Cuddebackville melodramas, The Mended Lute (thirty scenes) and The Indian Runner's Romance (thirty-two scenes), and fewer than the twenty-one scenes in the split reel comedy, His Wife's Visitor, produced immediately after. Henry Walthall manages to liven up his character by portraying Oliver as more of a cad than simply an over passionate young lover. During the wedding scene between Elizabeth and the Squire and after, when Oliver tries to persuade Elizabeth to run away with him, Walthall secretly leers several times in the direction of the audience, indicating his intentions toward her are strictly carnal. Otherwise, The Better Way is lackluster and formulaic. It is a cautionary tale in which Griffith concentrates on developing the emotional growth of his main female character. The effort fails to connect, however, because the Squire Cartwright is so one-dimensional in his impossible goodness and, after Elizabeth has left him, his feeble lethargy and sadness that he is simply unbelievable. The viewer is left with the inescapable feeling when Elizabeth returns to Cartwright that she has made the wrong choice, and that regardless of how uncouth Oliver may be, it might be worth the gamble to go away with him in the hope that his lust may be mingled with love. Patrick Loughney

13

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

174

BlOGRAPH

HIS WIFE'S VISITOR Filming date: 13 July 1909 Location: N e w York Studio Release date: 19 August 1909 Release length: 526 feet Copyright date: 19 August 1909 Director: D . W . Griffith Author: n o n e k n o w n Source: n o n e k n o w n Camera: G . W . Bitzer Cast: William A. Q u i r k (Harry Wright); Mary Pickford (Bessie Wright); F r a n k Powell (Friend); J a m e s Kirkwood, O w e n M o o r e , M a c k Sennett, William J. Butler (At

club)

Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 3 5 m m p a p e r print After the exciting elopement of some time ago, Harry and Bessie are now enjoying the seraphic bliss of a conjugal existence in a cosy little Harlem flat. Harry Wright seems to live only to please his wife Bessie, as up to now they have been inseparable. The boys at the Club, however, miss Harry's society very much, for he was always the life of their little parties, and so plan to inveigle him to a sociable game of draw poker. Jack Wallace is appointed a committee of one to do the persuasion act, and calling at the home, finds Harry quite in the humor. Bessie, though, is much perturbed at his departure, and makes no attempt to disguise her displeasure. Harry, however, goes, promising not to be late. But promises are forgotten in the fascination of a poker game, especially when things are more than moderately coming his way. Eleven, twelve, one, is indicated by that chronometerical reminder, the clock, and Bessie is nearly beside herself with rage. "Ah! a scheme. I'll cure him of future peregrinations. I'll make him jealous". So she arranges things to make it appear that she has had a visitor, a male visitor at that. Placing two chairs side by side at the table, she pours a drop of wine in each of two glasses, placing a cigar alongside. Fine. Oh, but there must be the odor of tobacco smoke. To effect this she, after some difficulty, lights and puffs a few times the weed. Now all is ready to arouse the demon jealousy in the heart of Harry. Two o'clock, Harry, carrying a small sized bun, arrives. Bessie has gone into the inner room to await developments. What sounds are those she hears. "Aha! Traitoress, murder, suicide, vengeance", and the like ejaculations are emitted, and Harry bursts into the room armed with a shot gun. A fatality would have occurred had not Bessie picked up some baby clothes and pretended to have been working on them. Explanations follow, which make Harry realize what a brute he has been, and peace reigns with a promise from Harry to be a good boy hereafter. Biograph Bulletin, No. 267, August 19, 1909

Newlyweds Harry and Bessie are having a quiet evening at home in their parlor. A male friend of Harry arrives, takes Harry aside and indicates his buddies want him to come to the club for a poker game. In spite of Bessie's displeasure, Harry and his friend leave for the club. Bessie sits alone and angry, thinking of how she can get even with Harry. She then has the idea of faking evidence that she has had a male visitor while Harry has been away. 14

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

She pours two glasses of wine and puts them on the table and then lights up a cigar and smokes it, making sure plenty of smoke fills the room. After much waiting and anticipation, Bessie finally hears Harry come home drunk. Before Harry comes into the parlor she runs into the next room and locks the door. Harry stumbles into the parlor calls loudly for his wife and begins looking around. He immediately sees the cigar in the ashtray and the glasses of wine and reacts in shock. He picks up a shotgun leaning conveniendy in a corner and begins pounding on the door to the next room. Meanwhile, Bessie is enjoying her revenge but, when Harry begins banging on the door and threatening with his shotgun, she quickly open the door and moves back to the center of the room, unconsciously grabbing along the way a piece of cloth from a table drawer. Harry finally comes in and begins to loudly accuse his wife. They move back into the drawing room while he puts the gun down and confronts her. Suddenly he notices that the piece of cloth in her hand is a little garment she has knitted for a baby. He then realizes that Bessie is expecting and they happily embrace.

A film very much in the Jones series formula. Two aspects of His Wife's Visitor are worthy of special notice: the superior energy and charm of Mary Pickford and Billy Quirk in the stock roles of the angry wife and callous husband and the dexterity of Griffith's parallel editing, especially during the film's quickly paced second half. Pickford and Quirk play roles formerly assigned to John Cumpson and Florence Lawrence, who both left Biograph a few weeks prior to this production. Lawrence and Cumpson, for all their success in the Jones series and their contribution to building Biograph's reputation during the previous year, possessed limited acting skills. Quirk and especially Pickford display qualities of youth and personal attractiveness that shine through in a film that would have never risen above the level of the broadest farce comedy with Lawrence and Cumpson. It is as if Griffith was trying to temper farce with enough sentiment to make the comic actions of both husband and wife plausible, thereby achieving something on the level of a modern American-style television situation comedy. When they embrace and make up after the husband realizes the wife is pregnant, the viewer accepts the possibility that Quirk and Pickford are physical equals who find each other attractive - an act of suspended comic disbelief not likely with the petite Lawrence and the grossly overweight Cumpson even among 1909 audiences. This overall effect is greatly aided by the pace of Griffith's parallel editing. His Wife's Visitor is only a split reel film (526 feet) yet it contains twenty-one scenes, about two thirds as many in the average thousand-foot melodramas Griffith produced during this period. Beginning with scene six, when the parallel editing between the scenes of the wife at home and the husband at his club begin to produce the tension of expectation, Griffith begins rapidly cross-cutting in a series of exceptionally short scenes, some running only a few seconds. Scene ten, for example, contains sixty-two frames, and scene eleven, only thirty-five. His Wife's Visitor is a minor film but it demonstrates how proficient Griffith had become by the end of his first year as a director at cutting individual scenes down to essential actions and compressing a comic narrative to down to a split reel length. Patrick Loughney

15

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

175 BlOGRAPH

THEY WOULD ELOPE Filming date: 24/25 June, 15 July 1909 Location: New York Studio/Litde Falls, New Jersey Release date: 9 August 1909 Release length: 572 feet Copyright date: 10 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Percy Higginson Cast: William A. Quirk (Harry); Mary Pickford (Bessie); James Kirkwood (Father); Kate Bruce (Mother); Robert Harron, Harry Solter (At stable); Anthony O'Sullivan (Butler); ? (Sister); ? (Maid); Owen Moore (In car); William J. Butler, Gladys Egan, John R. Cumpson, Henry B. Walthall, Gertrude Robinson (In group); Arthur Johnson (Preacher); Mack Sennett (Man with wheelbarrow); ? (At dock) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFVMary Pickford Collection) Love has ever laughed at locksmiths, but on this particular occasion the laugh is on Cupid, for that chubby archer certainly miscalculated in arranging the program of the romance of Harry and Bessie. Still the episode will be looked upon in after days as a decidedly strenuous page in their life's history, and one need not be possessed of an excessively keen sense of humor to appreciate its comedy value. Harry and Bessie loved each other with all the impetuosity of youth, and during one of the many occasions when they pledge undying affection, are surprised by Papa, who, in spirit of jest, pretends to be highly enraged at their presumption, apparendy treating them as mere kids. Papa out of the way, they resent being treated as children and plan to elope. Leaving a note to this effect, they decamp, and engage the services of a horse and carriage, which appears to be an 1850 model, to put them beyond apprehension until the knot is tied, but the pursuers cometh not. They haven't gone far when the vehicle breaks down, and in panic they scamper along the road until they meet an automobile, and as all the world loves a lover, they easily enlist the chauffeur's aid - but the pursuers cometh not. Everything is going fine, and they are hitting only the high places in the road when - Bang! s-s-s-1-1 - meaning something's "busted" - auto out of business. Again they are forced to skedaddle until poor litde Bessie drops exhausted. Harry secures a wheelbarrow and does the strong man act, and pushes the precious freight to the lakeside, where they jump into a canoe and are soon skimming the placid aqua - yet the pursuers cometh not. Smoothly and swiftly, they glide until over goes the craft, and the cool water has a chilling effect on Bessie, who, struggling to the bank, refuses to go any further, and turns homeward. Furthermore, what's the use of eloping when you're not pursued. Here's the reason: When Papa read the note, he at once gets everybody busy at preparing a feast and decorating the place in manner fitting their return as bride and groom. It is in upon this scene of gayety [sic] they burst bedraggled, wet and muddy, to inform the folks that despite the adventure they are still unmarried. However, Rev. Mr. Wiffles is present and does the deed, so the feast is not wasted. Biograph Bulletin, No. 264, [?] 16

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Misled by a token paternal rebuke, two young lovers decide to run off. They will never be caught up with, and for good reason: the actual pursuit the quick-tempered Papa has engaged in is that of a celebration in honor of the newlyweds, as they realize on their crestfallen return.

The Biograph Bulletin synopsis tells the story with an internal focus: the two main characters do not know why their pursuers never catch up with them. The film, however, adopts an external focus: as the flight of the lovers unfolds, the spectator sees the busy preparations for the wedding party. We thus have a classic chase scene, minus the chasers! Starting from a very conventional pattern (a young lover takes his beloved away, thereby provoking a frantic chase in which the parents or guardians are soon hot on their heels), the scenario gives it an inspired and unexpected twist. Here the chasers are missing, and it is, oddly enough, the chase that dispenses with them. The editing systematically alternates sequences of the "chased" with sequences of the "non-chasers", creating a striking contrast between the frenzy of the former and the stasis of the latter (the "non-chasers" seem static in that, although they are very active in preparing the party, their actions take place in one location and are shown in single stationary shots, whereas the segments involving the runaway lovers generally consist of three to four shots). The shots of this "non-chase" generally follow the canonical rules of the genre. On the side of the "chased", the action moves towards the camera along a diagonal axis. On the side of the "chasers", the number of people involved, not in the chase, but in this case in the preparation of the wedding party, increases from one shot to the next, just like in a classic chase sequence. The succession of the first outdoor shots of the elopement exhibits an extreme fluidity and continuity. The hiatuses are made invisible by the continuity of the characters' spatial trajectory (the effect of continuity remains even though the passage of time is indicated visually by the young man having taken his jacket off in the ellipsis between two shots). This fluidity also owes to the good old classic chase of the years 1904-1907, where a new shot started only after the characters linked to the action had exited the frame. They Would Elope follows this tradition, with the exception of the shots directly preceding a return to the parental space. In these the couple remains in the frame until the cut. Finally, the type of parallel editing used in the film is quite distinctive. The action begins in a certain space (which we will call space A) then branches off, creating a parallel construction of two simultaneous lines of action. The elopement unfolds in a constantly mobile space B, and is regularly interspersed with returns to space A, the origin of the action. The narrative line of the flight takes its meaning both from the recognition of its spatial separation from space A and from the recurrence of that space within the flight, which creates a sort of leitmotif (which the text in the Biograph Bulletin translates in the repeated statement "yet the pursuers cometh not"). The editing anticipates the resolution of the narrative by repeatedly and insistendy bringing the spectator back to space A, just as it will eventually bring back the runaway couple. In D. W. Griffith: His Biograph Films in Perspective (p. 104), Kemp Niver mentions that, for this film, Mary Pickford asked for "a raise because of her ducking in the cold and muddy Passaic River", and that the actress's performance received praise in The New York Dramatic Mirror ("This delicious litde comedy introduced again an ingenue whose work in Biograph pictures is attracting attention"). The acting style is relevant here because of the contrast 17

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

between two registers: drama and comedy. The two runaway lovers act in one and the same register throughout the movie, that of drama, and Billy Quirk's performance matches Pickford's (this will not be the case in a later film, "Oh, Uncle"). This harmony may be due to the fact that in the present case, Quirk's part is conceived as a dramatic performance. Unaware that the young woman's parents are playing a trick on them, the two lovers suppose that their decision to run away has a "tragic" effect on the parents (in "Oh, Uncle", Quirk's character is the trick player and his attitude does not always match his partner's, played by Pickford). This tension between drama and comedy increases the tension between the centrifugal outdoor scenes of the flight and the rather centripetal indoor scenes of the preparation for the wedding. As Joyce E. Jesionowski suggests in an analysis of The Little Darling which also definitely applies to They Would Elope, "the cuts back to [the house] increase the sense of comic anticipation by juxtaposing this image with information that the viewer has, but [some characters] do not. ... The pay-off occurs when this disparity of information is resolved" (p. 165). Another interesting point is the position of the five shots which switch us back to the parents' house. They do not occur, in a simplistic fashion, between two episodes in the flight but most often in the course of each episode. The first return to the house thus takes place at a moment when the young lovers attempt to procure a horse-drawn carriage for themselves. The cut occurs, in this case, in the very middle of a shot which shows the exterior of a garage. From a functional point of view, it makes it possible to skip the time during which the horses would be harnessed and the carriage would be prepared for their voyage. André Gaudreault

18

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

176 BlOGRAPH

THE MILLS OF THE GODS Filming date: 17 July 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 30 Augustl909 Release length: 672 feet Copyright date: 31 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Arthur Johnson (Henry Woodson); Linda Arvidson (Hulda, the maid); Marion Leonard (Nellie); John R. Cumpson (Delivery man); ? (Landlady); Frank Powell, William J. Buder, Verner Clarges (In editor's office); Henry B. Walthall, Mack Sennett, Owen Moore, Anthony O'Sullivan (Atparty) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; 35mm nitrate positive; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print "The Mills of the Gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding small", is but a synonym of "All comes to him who hustles while he waits". Genius is often rewarded with posthumous recognition, still there are occasions where fate has produced an agent who has lifted merit into the light of publicity quite unexpectedly. Such an occasion occurs in this Biograph film story. Henry Woodson, a struggling author, has experienced the usual discouraging indifference on the part of magazine editors, who have returned his literary efforts unread, for being unknown to them, they deem it a waste of valuable time to read them. Desperate beyond expression, he realizes that if something doesn't turn up he will be turned out of his boarding house by the mercenary landlady, whose daughter Nellie he is in love with - which love is returned. Hulda, the Swedish maid, is deeply smitten with the young writer, and is grieved at his misfortune. An idea seizes her. She has saved some money, so she takes his rejected manuscript to the publisher and begs that he accept it and pay for it with her money. This the editor indignantly refuses to do, but her sincere, simple manner appeals to him, so he at length consents to consider it sufficiently as to read it. It is a surprise to him, being possessed of such rare merit, that he sends a check to Woodson, with word that he will be glad to consider anything else he may write. Woodson is at a loss to know what caused their change of attitude, until after the editor tells him of the Swedish girl's visit. H e also realizes who had left financial assistance on his table anonymously, for which he gave the landlady's daughter credit. Hulda's action was induced by her love for him, but his heart is given to Nellie so the poor girl yields to the protestations of Ole, who loves her to distraction. His devotion for her really wins her heart, and makes her happy and forget [sic] the indifference of Woodson. Biograph Bulletin, No. 270, August 30, 1909

A young author attempts without success to elicit publishers' interest in his work. While he is in love with his landlady's daughter, the maid of the boarding house where he lives 19

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

becomes infatuated with him and tries to help his career. After she fails to bribe a publisher to accept his manuscript, she anonymously leaves the young man the money which was refused. Meanwhile, the publisher makes an offer to the aspiring writer, who feels disconcerted on learning the identity of his benefactress. He nevertheless carries on his romance with the landlady's daughter, and the maid finds comfort with one of her suitors (whose advances she eventually gives in to).

This film appears quite complex for its time, despite a narrative structure which does not require any special editing techniques: events unfold with linearity and do not involve any simultaneous actions. The complexity is to be found mainly in the various psychological motives and the characters' interiority. As this dimension is hardly "cinegenic" in the absence of any dialogue, there are passages in which certain actors have to resort to the mimed adumbration of action to convey the meaning of their acts, sometimes anticipating the actions they are about to perform. When screened without a lecturer, the film must have frustrated its share of spectators as they tried to follow the twists and turns of the story. Indeed, the Biograph Bulletin, with the many details given by its writer on the characters' deeper motives, is commendable in its efforts to make the plot more comprehensible. As Eileen Bowser noted in The Transformation of Cinema (p. 95), the film elicited negative reactions from the press due to the use of the low camera angle. One review cited by Bowser states that "apparently the photographer has been sitting at the feet of Dunkoop. Some of his figures tower almost up to the ceiling in their heroic size" (The Moving Picture World, September 11, 1909). This impression on the journalist's part seems to have profilmic as well as filmographie causes. While the lead actor, Arthur Johnson, was indeed very tall (he seems almost a foot taller than the other actors), his relationship to the set and to the other actors in a lineup often had the effect of amplifying his height. What's more, he is often positioned at the forefront of the stage, but a step ahead of the other actors. The journalist is therefore not completely wrong, although his remark could be almost equally applied to The Sealed Room, for example. The low camera angle, it seems to me, is therefore not very pronounced. Also sharing this opinion, Bowser contextualizes the reception of the journalist within the period by noting that, "[tjhis is an extraordinary exaggeration to our eyes, but confirms my theory that what seem to us slight changes were much more noticeable to people at the time." Still, Johnson's relative proximity to the camera sometimes makes him look like a giant, and it is difficult to determine whether or not this effect of the mise-en-scène was deliberate. In fact, the actor himself is not in question, as the same effect of exaggerated height is repeated in scenes from which he is absent, as in the first scene in the publisher's office where the publisher gets close enough to the camera to "tower almost up to the ceiling". Could this attempt by the actorial figure to approach the spectatorial figure be construed as the symptom of a more or less conscious desire to better communicate with the spectator? Indeed, the spectator is left virtually unable to fully understand this intricate plot, with its soliloquies acted out by actors deprived of ... speech! André Gaudreault

20

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

177 BlOGRAPH

"OH, UNCLE" Filming date: 21/22 July 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 26 August 1909 Release length: 292 feet Copyright date: 27 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood {Zeke Wright)-, William A. Quirk (Tom, his nephew); Mary Pickford (Bessie); ? (Maids) NOTE: Copyrighted as Oh, Uncle! Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Zeke Wright, a wealthy old batch, has intimated his intention of making his two nephews his heirs, and having nothing but time on his hands, takes it into his head to visit his nephew Tom, who is married and settled. Tom and his wife are goodies, no doubt, and the gay old chap is soon disgusted, so he decides to pull up stakes and visit Harry Wright, whom he thinks unmarried, not having been apprised of his romantic elopement and marriage. So he sends Harry a note, to wit: "Am disgusted with your cousin's wife. If you ever marry I'll cut you off. Am coming to visit you to-morror [sic]". Holy smoke! Up against it for fair. Well, wits work, and Bessie plays the maid for the time being, but Foxey Nunky is wise and starts a persistent flirtation much to the perturbation of Harry, who is at length forced to divulge. However, Uncle exclaimed "Harry, your [sic] all right and I'll double your allowance". So Nunky prolonged his stay with the Wrights. Biograph Bulletin, No. 269, August 26, 1909

Before Zeke Wright is certain that he wants to leave all his worldly possessions to his nephew, the wealthy old bachelor decides to pay his supposedly single nephew a visit. In fear of being disinherited for being married, Zeke's nephew, Harry Wright, pleads with his wife to humour his old uncle and play the housekeeper. However, the sly old fox annoyingly makes passes at Bessie, the wife / maid, until the old fart catches the couple with their pants down.

This short comedy (only 292 feet of film) was sold as a split-reel filler to complement The Seventh Day. The movie tells a simple story of identity substitution. Shot entirely in studio, the action unfolds in two nearly adjacent spaces (two rooms within the same dwelling) through a series of alternating shots, a pattern similar to that of the drama The Sealed Room. Unfortunately, the paper print of the film is hopelessly jumbled, and it is consequendy rather 21

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

difficult to recover the original organization of the shot alternations. Many shots, however, begin with an actor's entrance in or exit from the frame, and in all likelihood the sequence of shots was determined by the comings and goings of the actors, the cuts being necessary to allow passages between the two diegetic spaces, from one room to the other. In terms of the implied spatial relationship of the two rooms, the continuity is much looser than in The Sealed Room. This looseness seems to draw from the fact that the proximity of the two rooms is unquantifiable, whereas in The Sealed Room, the two rooms are represented as adjoining and strictly contiguous. As Todorov {La Notion de littérature et autres essais, 1987, p. 54) might have put it, this film is a comedy of gnosis (as is The Sealed Room), insofar as the uncle knows that the maid is not really a maid but the wife of his nephew, the couple does not know that he knows, and the spectator knows both what the uncle knows and that he knows (examplified in the shot in the kitchen in which the spectator watches as the uncle stumbles upon the couple in an embrace, unknowingly giving themselves away). As to the acting in this film, Tom Gunning notes that there is an enormous disparity between the performance of Mary Pickford and that of Billy Quirk (Gunning, 1991, p. 227). He cites as an example Richard B. Cushman's remark that "Mary often gave a restrained and wholly individualized performance while Griffith allowed the actors surrounding her to use the conventional, exaggerated mannerisms of the day". Pickford's acting is rather astonishingly interiorized and restrained in "Oh, Uncle", especially in comparison to the other actors, Billy Quirk and James Kirkwood, whose performances seem buffoonish, superficial at best, to today's audiences. The quality of Pickford's performance is visible in the last shot of this particular print (which in fact may well be the first shot of the film), in which the couple receive the letter announcing the uncle's visit. Pickford gets up, takes a deep breath and, taken aback, rolls her eyes and despite her distance from the camera, makes the spectator fully aware of her intense anguish in the matter of a moment. It seems almost as if Pickford forgets what film she's in and mistakes the register of the moment, as if the letter announces some horrible menace. The disparity between the various performances of the actors remains perceptible in the roles that the characters themselves play. The behavior of the wife-disguised-as-maid adheres to a certain cinematographic realism not yet dominant in this period whereas the husband corresponds to an entirely different tradition. Turning directly to the camera, the husband resorts to hugely exaggerated gestures to show his anger and to appeal directly to the spectator. The significance of this action, however, extends beyond the actor's exaggerated performance. The mise-en-scène also has to do with it, as indeed the shot where Quirk conspicuously faces the camera is quite short, does not include any other segment of action, and has no other goal, from a narrative standpoint, than to allow the husband to tell the spectator that he has no intention of letting himself be pushed around. Accordingly, both the direction and the editing have a hand here in granting Quirk's acting style such a prominence in the mise-en-scène. André Gaudreault

22

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

178 BlOGRAPH

THE SEALED ROOM Filming date: 22/23 July 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 2 September 1909 Release length: 779 feet Copyright date: 3 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: "La Grande Bretêche", the story by Honoré de Balzac Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Arthur Johnson {Count); Marion Leonard {Countess); Henry B. Walthall {Minstrel); Mary Pickford, Gertrude Robinson, Linda Arvidson {Ladies at court); George Siegmann, Owen Moore, William J. Butler, Verner Clarges {Noblemen at court); George O. Nicholls, Anthony O'Sullivan {Workmen); Mack Sennett {A soldier) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print There is scarcely a palace, castle or chateau in all Europe over whose crumbling ruins there does not hang the specter of some legend or mystery, but none are as intensely thrilling as the inspiration of this Biograph subject. Centuries ago, during the devastation of one of these castle, built in medieval times, a walled-up room was found to contain the skeletons of two bodies. Many theories were conjured, but the one adopted as the theme of this story seems the most logical. The King is so deeply in love with his favored one that he contrives a sequestered dove-cote for themselves by sealing up a room in the tower, leaving but one entrance open. The room is finished and dedicated with pomp and ceremony. During these festivities, however, the King becomes suspicious of the attentions shown an Italian troubadour by his favored one, so plans to surprise them in order to convince himself. To this end, a guard enters with a bogus order calling the King away for a time. The room cleared, the lady and the troubadour declare their mutual love, and she picking up the hour-glass intimates that they may enjoy each other's society for at least the hour. The troubadour pours out his soul's devotion in song, while the lady taking the rose allows the leaves to fall in time with dropping sands of the glass. While they are thus occupied the King returns; his fears are verified, and calling the masons, orders them to seal up only the entrance. The love song of the troubadour has now, unknown to the couple, become a dirge. As the last grain of sand drops to the bottom bowl of the glass, the lovers make their way to the door only to be confronted with a cold, immovable wall of stone. Like a flash, the horror of the situation besieges them and they realize their fate. Their cries and beating on the walls are answered only by the taunts of the King, who stands outside in fiendish satisfaction of the terrible punishment he has meted out for them. Slowly the torturing oppression of the air-tight room overcomes them, which death only can relieve. In this production the Biograph has attained the very acme of motion picture art - most beautifully staged and costumed, and acted in a manner infinitely more convincing than anything ever before attempted. Biograph Bulletin, No. 271, September 2, 1909

23

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Suspicious of his wife's faithfulness, a king pretends to go away and surreptitiously comes back in order to be clear in his own mind about it. Discovering his wife in the arms of an Italian troubadour, he has the lovers walled up without their knowing it. The illicit couple will soon suffocate to death.

This quite simple film was entirely shot in studio and completely relies on the alternation of shots, just like its immediate predecessor "Oh, Uncle", but in a dramatic register. The alternation of shots here has nothing to do with a rescue or with time pressure (such as a deadline, for example). Instead, it sets out to have the spectator share some information about the couple doomed to an appalling death, information which only one of the characters possesses. Indeed, the play of camera locations enables the spectator to know before the lovers that the king is back, that he has found out about their secret and that he is planning his revenge. This drama has specifically gnoseological bases (Todorov, p. 54), a litde like "Oh, Uncle" where everything rests on the disparity of knowledge of the respective protagonists. The king, who did not know that his wife cheated on him, now knows it. Besides, he knows that the two lovers are condemned since he engineered his revenge himself; the lovers themselves, who thought they knew that the king knew nothing about their loves, will know only long after the spectator knows it that their death is as close as it is inescapable. It is worth noting that the alternation is narratorially motivated most of the time, since it doesn't accompany the movement of an action on a spatial trajectory. In fact, the only two diegetic movements merely consist of the passage (both ways) between two adjoining rooms. Moreover, the systematic alternation also has a somewhat plain functional side to it, as some of the cutaways in the room allow the director to have the walls built by the masons (that is, the propmen) in the meanwhile. Even though here it doesn't mean to play with the spectators' nerves, the narratorial intercut nevertheless increases the dramatic tension, notably through the disparity in knowledge between the several actorial instances. As to the first three shots, which make up a kind of prologue, their function is to set up the various elements in the drama (preparation by workers, under the king's supervision, of the dovecote; the queen visits the place; she flirts with the troubadour as soon as the king's back is turned; the king's suspicion is aroused). This enables the spectator to become familiar with the layout of the premises and to learn of the illicit relationship - both things essential for the understanding of the film. Another shot then presents quite obviously the first "use" of the dovecote by the king and queen, some time later. The main action of the film starts after these two segments. The film is thus clearly divided into three very distinct moments separated by quite long ellipses which we may assume last at least one day. Hence the impression of break between the prologue and the scene of the "use", then between this scene and the main part of the film (in each case, conceivably, there must have been a title expressing and explaining the passing of time). The action of the prologue is quite simple: it leads the spectator from room A to room B, then back to room A (the space shown in the film comes down to these two spaces). The two rooms are adjacent and the two cuts through which we move between them are actorially justified, by the movements of characters on a profilmic level (in contrast to most of all the other cuts, especially at the end). The two cuts in question were carried out very tightly and emphasize continuity. This is perhaps to express visually the strict contiguity of the two rooms, an essential element which the narrator must establish if the spectator is to grasp the significance of the drama which is about to take place. This contiguity will indeed be clearly 24

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

expressed later, when the king finds out about the deception played on him and lifts up (from room B) the curtain which separates the two rooms while remaining visible through the cut to the next shot (from room A). There also is continuity in the next cut on the movement of the king as he recoils at the sight of his wife in her lover's arms. This shot, one of the film's climaxes, relies on the camera to switch to a closer shot (a medium shot, whereas all previous shots showing this room were long shots). From this point on, the camera adopts this medium shot every time that it has to communicate to us what follows in this room. André Gaudreault

25

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

179 BlOGRAPH

PRANKS Filming date: 19/20/28 July 1909 Location: Little Falls, New Jersey Release date: 30 August 1909 Release length: 328 feet Copyright date: 31 August 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: Arthur Marvin Cast: Arthur Johnson {Tom); Marion Leonard (Ethel); Robert Harron, Jack Pickford (Boys); Linda Arvidson, ? (On porch); Henry B. Walthall, William A. Quirk (Sunhathers); Anthony O'Sullivan (Mr. Tramp); ? (Ladies) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Cupid at times resorts to most unique methods to settle lovers' quarrels, and the subject of this comedy is possibly the most ingenious ever planned. Tom and Ethel quarrel over a most trivial matter. Despondently, Tom wends his way to the beach for a dip in the cool waters as a balm to his wounded spirits. At the same time Ethel resorts to a like panacea. Each, of course, is unconscious of the other's movements. Two mischievous boys have followed them, and while the forlorn lovers are disporting (?) in the waves, the kids play the prank of exchanging the wearing apparel of the two bath-houses, which are located some distance apart. Ethel finds the water very cold, and is soon forced to emerge. Consternation! Well, chilled through, she is compelled to don the attire left in her bath-house - Tom's suit. The same is experienced by Tom. Back to the hotel they rush through a series of ludricous incidents, until Ethel is waylaid by a tramp, who is inclined to use violence to force her to hand over the money, until Tom rushes up and rescues her from the tramp's clutches with a well directed blow. Mr. Tramp beats it, and Tom is the hero of the day, so the two bleeding hearts are healed. Biograph Bulletin, No. 270, August 30, 1909

Tom and Ethel part ways after a trivial quarrel, but chance has it that they both decide to go for a dip in the river. As they change in their respective cabins, two pranksters play a trick on both of them and swap their clothes. Coming out of the water, Ethel has to dress up in men's clothes (Tom's) while Tom has to wear women's clothes (Ethel's). On the way back, Ethel, clad in her male attire, is assaulted by a rambler. Hearing the cries, Tom arrives to her rescue in his female garments. The sweethearts then resume their romance.

This short comedy, originally sold as a 328-foot split-reel filler to complement The Mills of the Gods, is an experiment in parallel editing which presents the peculiarity of not being limited by any temporal constraint. An interesting and rare enough example of presentational rather than narrative editing, the film involves no emergency, no last minute rescues from 26

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the clutches of death and no threat to a character's physical integrity. Intercutting as a narrative move does not aim to hold the spectator in nervous suspense; instead, it simply moves the story along (the only, relatively minimal danger occurs at the very end of the film). The editing thus functions more as a commentary on the story in this case, producing contrasts and comparisons rather than creating suspense. The first few instances of narratorial intercutting in the film are indeed justified by actorial movements. At the very beginning, the camera cuts from one changing cabin to the other following the movement of the characters (first the young man, then the two pranksters). It is not until after this introduction that the narration begins to cut systematically from one protagonist to the other without actorial justification. This alternation comes in very handy for the mise-en-scène', since the scenario provides for four clothes changes, an action quite time-consuming. Accordingly, the cuts between the two protagonists in fact become cutaways allowing the activity of undressing to occur elliptically - assuming that this activity, when performed behind closed doors (as is of course the case here), may not be of any interest to anyone. The moment when the young woman makes up her mind to enter the cabin to put on the man's clothes she has inherited, bringing the narrator to cut to what happens to the young man, is worthy of note. The juxtaposition of the shots showing the two cabins also creates a jumpcut effect. As both cabins are shown to us from the same angle and within a similar frame, they occupy almost the same place and have the same proportions in the image. The passage from one cabin to the other is likely to disorientate the spectator (at least today's spectator), all the more since the respective locations of the two cabins are not weU-determined. Similarly, the editing of the last sequence is far from simplistic. Where one might have expected a relatively linear, if parallel, editing, a quite complex and sophisticated composition is to be found. Indeed, the film does not line up the different episodes in a hard-and-fast alternation of each individual action. For example, once the young woman has left her swimming place, it is not until after we see her passing the two women reading the paper that the camera returns to the river's edge and the young man as he exits the cabin dressed in woman's clothes. It is as if this moment of the young woman strolling along after passing the women served to justify, through the passing of diegetic time, the actual time it takes the young man to get dressed. Then, in the shot where the man leaves the frame, the narrative chooses not to follow the previous pattern (that is, to show us what we could have been expecting immediately if the film had been constructed in a simple, or simplistic fashion: the young man also passing by the two women reading the paper). We return instead to the young woman who this time passes by a "couple" of young men stretched out in the grass. Only afterwards do we return for a second time to the young man as he passes by the women with the paper while the young woman runs into a rambler who will turn out to be ill-disposed towards her. This, however, will not happen right at the moment of their encounter but - since nothing is shown too simply in this film - after a return to the young man as he in turn passes by the male couple. On a thematic level, the film in its entirety rests on a problem of gender differentiation and gender identity. This is highlighted in the film by the almost reflexive appearance, by a grove, of the quite singular couple that the two protagonists fall upon. They are well and truly men, dressed as men, yet their conspicuously effeminate looks seem to mark them as a gay couple as well as an avant-gardist one, when we consider the time of the shooting. I will conclude with a short remark on the role of sound in "silent" film. It is very likely because he can hear the woman (dressed as a man) screaming off-camera that the man (dressed as a woman) comes to her rescue. André Gaudreault 27

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

180

BlOGRAPH

THE HEART OF AN OUTLAW Filming date: 14/16/20/28 July 1909 Location: Shadyside, New Jersey/Little Falls, New Jersey/Studio not noted Release date: not released Release length: one reel Copyright date: no copyright Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin Cast: James Kirkwood (Husband/Outlaw); Marion Leonard (His wife); Gladys Egan {Their daughter, as a child); Mary Pickford (Their daughter, grown); Henry B. Walthall (Mexican lover); Arthur Johnson (/. Woodford, marshall/guardian); William A. Quirk, Mack Sennett, Frank Powell (Outlaw gang); Owen Moore, Anthony O'Sullivan (In posse); Anthony O'Sullivan, Mack Sennett, Gertrude Robinson, Linda Arvidson (Wedding guests); ? (Outlaw sentry); ? (Marshall's companion) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master [no published Biograph Bulletin text] A man avenges himself by killing his wife and her lover. He thinks he has killed his daughter as well, but she survives and is taken in by the local sheriff. Several years later, the man, now an outlaw, witnesses the death of one of his men in an ambush set up by the sheriff. In revenge, the oudaw plans to kidnap the sheriffs daughter, rape her and then have his gunslinging partners shoot her once he's finished with her. Realizing at the last minute that the sheriffs daughter is in fact his own, he helps her to escape through a secret door. He then leaves the hideout dressed in her cape knowing that he will be mistaken for the girl and shot by the men lying in wait.

The Heart of an Outlaw was, be warned, described by John Collier, Secretary of the National Board of Censorship, as "an exhibition of gross immorality, presented in such a form that it would tend to corrupt the morals of the young" (quoted in Gunning, 1991, p. 160). The film stands out in contrast to the bulk of contemporary production and it is original most notably because its subject matter and its basic structure have the scope of a feature film (or at least a film longer than those common to the period). Furthermore, The Heart of an Outlaw is a much more "finished" work than other films of the period in question. Ironically and paradoxically, this film was the only one of Griffith's Biograph productions that was never distributed! Indeed, the film elicited a negative report from the Board of Censorship where its "suggested seduction and the rather blood thirsty adventures of an oudaw" were more particularly criticized. The hint at an incestuous rape certainly has to do with the rejection of the film: uAxi oudaw type of this kind is sure to arouse adverse criticism and when 28

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

coupled with what is morally worse, this picture would undoubtedly work more or less harm to Moving Picture interests" (Gunning, 1991, p. 161). In his analysis of other reports issued by the National Board of Censorship that same year, Gunning points out that the censors no longer limited their objections to specific or individual scenes of inappropriate content ("the issue was no longer a glimpse of Dolorita's ankles in a peep show"), and were increasingly concerned about a more general question, the "moral discourse of the films". From this moment on, what worried the censors, as they themselves stated in a 1909 report on the film Two Memories, was the "dramatic method proper to motion pictures" (Gunning, 1991, p. 160). Here, some of the evidence produced by the Board's report (again Collier's letter) is as interesting for what it says (in praesentia relationship) as for what it silences {in absentia relationship): Cut out all that portion of the picture introducing the Mexican, save where he enters the automobile with the wife. Also all of the scene entitled "A Jealous Husband's Vengeance for a Fancied Wrong" where the husband shoots the wife, child and Mexican. In the scene entitled "Shoot when you see this cloak emerge from the shack," cut out the part where the girl is forced to look on the dead outlaw's face and also cut the choking scene as to make it appear that the girl has fainted. To be consistent with this rearrangement the titles "The Temptation" and "The Husband Becomes a Social Outcast, thinking he has killed his child, whom the sheriff adopts," should be changed. (Gunning, 1991, p. 161)

It looks here as though the Board of Censorship effectively engages in self-censorship, as Collier never dares to call by name the "sins" that must be censored in the film: "the themes of miscegenation, adultery, and incest" are, according to Gunning (1991, p. 161), in all likelihood what is meant by "what is morally worse". The board is actually practicing the art of the ellipse (a term befitting the majority of the required cuts which, when followed to the letter, created sensational ellipses on a cinematographic level) as, for instance, no direct reference to the incestuous rape is ever made, at least in the long passages cited by Gunning. This scene, so close to being realized in the film, Collier prudendy refers to as the "choking" scene ("also cut the choking scene as to make it appear that the girl has fainted"). A very shocking choking scene, indeed, since the girl is smothered with fear over what the man is about to do to her and this man is her father; but neither the girl nor her father know this horrible fact (so the litde morality left in this film is spared). Furthermore, on a completely different level, Collier's letter proves interesting because it allows us to recover the exact wording of some of the titles, which seem lost forever: "The Temptation" "A Jealous Husband's Vengeance for a Fancied Wrong" "The Husband Becomes a Social Outcast, thinking he has killed his child, whom the sheriff adopts" "Shoot when you see this cloak emerge from the shack"

Notice to what extent, even in 1909, the titles are still conceived, not as /«/ercalary texts but as scene titles (in fact, Collier uses the phrase "In the scene entitled 'Shoot when ...'"). Constructed in a rather unusual manner, this film shows more inspiration than most of its contemporaries, at least in terms of its chronometry. Take for example the opening segments: the first four shots are uni-ponctual "sequences" (in a single shot), probably separated by titles, and followed by the first pluri-ponctual sequence (in several shots) of the film. The first shot (in which there is, it seems to me, some residue of the "primitive" emblematic shot) shows the man and woman while they still are only platonic lovers. A title 29

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

follows, missing like all the other titles in the film. In the second shot, the newlywed introduces his beloved to his mother. Presumed intertitle. In the third shot, thanks to quite some ellipse, the couple now has an eight-year-old child; all three present the image of the happy family. Intertitle (probably "The Temptation"). In the fourth shot, the Mexican visits the woman while her husband is out, but in the presence of her daughter. The woman rejects the Mexican but is visibly flattered by his advances. Title. In the fifth shot, the Mexican calls on the woman again and convinces her to leave with him (we understand that within the diegesis this is far from his second visit because he enters the house without knocking). Then, in the sixth shot, the drama begins just as the husband enters to find his wife leaving with her lover setting off the first pluri-ponctual sequence, which will span six shots. The chronometric range of this film is therefore fairly imposing considering the fact that one of the ellipses covers at least eight years (as seen in the age of the little girl) and another one moves us from when the little girl is taken in by the sheriff to when she has become a young woman of about eighteen years old. There are also several other important, albeit less radical, ellipses in the film such as the one between the fourth and fifth shots, which skips all the segments showing the courtship of the illicit lovers. The film thus functions as a succession of leaps through time and presents us with a diegesis spanning at least twenty years, which was very rare at the period. What's more, the temporal span results not from a single long ellipse, but from three or four of varying lengths. This film obviously has ambitions. I will conclude with a brief comment on the question of continuity "errors". One quite remarkable example of these occurs in the film when the father is about to abuse his daughter. His three men are with him in the hideout and they exit through the door. The camera then frames the exterior of the shack to show the continuation of the action but, lo and behold, only two men are now seen exiting. André Gaudreault

30

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

181 BlOGRAPH

"1776" or, THE HESSIAN RENEGADES Filming date: 26 July, 2/3 August 1909 Location: New York Studio/Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 6 September 1909 Release length: 965 feet Copyright date:9 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: Arthur Marvin, G.W. Bitzer Cast: Owen Moore (American soldier); James Kirkwood, Kate Bruce, Mary Pickford, Gertrude Robinson (His family); Frank Powell, William A. Quirk, George O. Nicholls, Anthony O'Sullivan, Arthur Johnson, Mack Sennett, George Siegmann, Henry B. Walthall? (Hessians); Verner Clarges, Robert Harron, Linda Arvidson, William J. Buder (Farmers) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; National Film and Television Archive, London, 35mm nitrate positive (incomplete); 35mm acetate positive Guerrilla warfare is assuredly the worst feature of any conflict of nations, and it is safe to say that there has never been a war in which this profligacy has not existed. As a subject for a motion picture story, the Biograph has taken an incident of the Revolutionary War, for while those mercenaries, the Hessians, may not be conclusively styled as such, their acts were very little short of the deeds of out and out guerillas. Fearful devastation, foraging, lawlessness and depradation seemed their forte. They, of course, had no heart in the cause, simply like any hireling that is working for so much, and what extra could be gotten. The British themselves even discountenanced many of their acts, as reflecting upon their honor as men and soldiers. The incident here depicted shows a young American despatch [sic] bearer, who, surprised by a band of these foragers, seeks shelter in his father's house. The old man has just time to hide the boy when the Hessians enter. After a fruitless search they express their intention of putting up at the house. As a subterfuge, the daughter takes them upstairs to show them their quarters, while the father hides the boy in the clothes hamper. The Captain, on his return downstairs, sees the basket, and suspicious, asks what it contains, not satisfied with the old man's answer, sends a bullet crashing through into the boy's body, killing him. The poor old man is frantic with grief and vows to avenge his boy's brutal murder, so stealing outside with his daughter, they surprise the sentry and carry him off. The daughter, dressing up in the sentry's uniform, takes the post, while the father scurries off in search of help. Knocking at the doors of his neighbors, each is opened by a sympathetic friend, but the young men all away fighting their country's cause, only the old folks and women remain. However, they are ready to aid him, and as all their arms and ammunition have been confiscated they must take up anything at hand. What a modey army they are, old men and young and old women, armed with clubs, axes, scythes, eagerly anxious for the fray. The little band of patriots reach the house just as the identity of the daughter is discovered by the relieving sentry, who is silenced, and the invaders stealthily enter the house by windows, and door, taking the 31

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Hessians entirely unawares. A brief struggle lays most of them low, while the old man singles out the Captain, who had killed the boy, keeping his vow of vengeance. In this subject we feel a pride, which will be deemed pardonable, for no more vivid nor interesting war episode has ever been presented than this. Beautiful

scenery, powerful

acting, with unexcelled

photography lift it to the very transcendentalism of motion picture art. Biograph Bulletin, No. 272, September 6, 1909

A young man is carrying dispatches for the revolutionary forces during the American Revolution. He is discovered by a troop of Hessian mercenaries ("renegades" presumably only in what the Biograph Bulletin admits is the rather stretched sense that some of their actions exceed their explicit orders from the British high command), who pursue him through the countryside until he is forced to take refuge in his family home, which is occupied only by his aged parents and his two sisters. A temporary refuge is found for him in an unused fireplace as the Hessians burst in. Interrogated by the captain of the Hessians, the father denies any knowledge of the dispatch bearer. The captain sends some of his troop upstairs while others search downstairs. The captain demands food and drink, and the mother goes off to get it. One of the daughters entices the captain to follow her upstairs, leaving the father alone in the room. He calls the dispatch bearer from the fireplace, but when they go to the door, they find there is a sentry posted outside, so the father hides his son in a clothes hamper. Upstairs, the daughter pretends to assist the Hessians in their search. Finally, having found nothing, the captain and other members of the troop come back downstairs with the daughter. The mother and the other daughter bring them a meal. The women attempt to carry the hamper out of the room, but the captain notices how heavy it is, and demands to know what is inside. The father says merely old clothes, and opens the hamper showing the towels he has used to cover his son. The captain tells him to close the hamper, but then shoots at it with his pistol. At the sound of the shot, the other Hessians run in, as the father opens the hamper and cradles his dead son in his arms. The captain searches the body and finds the dispatch. He and most of the other Hessians go upstairs for a council of war. The captain is delighted by the important information contained in the dispatch. Looking again at his son's body, the father swears vengeance on the Hessians. While the Hessians downstairs are occupied drinking, the father and one of the daughters climb out of a window behind them. The girl approaches the sentry, and when challenged, flirts with him. He puts down his rifle to kiss her, the father seizes the rifle, and they order the sentry to precede them, presumably to an outhouse where he is tied up. The daughter changes into the sentry's clothes and stands guard in his place, as the father runs to alert his neighbours. Although there are only old people at home (their sons are away with the revolutionary armies), both men and women pick up whatever improvised weapons they can and accompany the father back home. Meanwhile, while one daughter is impersonating the sentry, the increasingly drunken Hessians force the other to dance for them. A Hessian comes out of the house to relieve the sentry. The daughter holds him at gun point until her father and his neighbours appear. They knock the soldier out, stealthily surround the house, then burst in, to find the Hessians downstairs in a drunken stupor. They are quickly overpowered. Hearing the noise, the captain and other officers run from upstairs. Several are shot, and the rest, including the captain, surrender. As the film ends, the captain is on his knees pleading with the father to spare his life.

Note that whereas, according to the Biograph Bulletin summary, "the old man singles out the captain ... keeping his vow of vengeance", the film (or at any rate, the paper print) ends 32

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

with the captain pleading for his life, and the father's response to the plea is left in suspense. Thus the film follows theatrical tradition by ending on a tableau (as noted by Tom Gunning and Joyce Jesionowski). In this case, unlike the similar discrepancy in that of Comata the Sioux, the Bulletin summary contains a sensational, and hence censorship-prone, incident that is missing in the film. The reason would seem to be the difference between a verbal and a visual medium. The story ends essentially, or rather, morally, with the virtuous and patriotic father's triumph over his wicked and traitorous foes. The verbal account, with its emphasis on narrative sequentiality, cannot avoid telling us what happened next. The film version, like a play or a narrative painting, can use the device of the tableau to shift the register to the moral as opposed to the practical characteristics of the action and thus stop without disappointing either the bloodthirsty patriots or the gentle idealists in the audience. This is the first film made by the Biographers on their second trip to Cuddebackville, New York, in the summer of 1909. According to Robert Henderson (p. 81), George Predmore, the proprietor of the Caudebec Inn, where the company stayed, recommended a colonial building on the estate of a local landowner named Goddefroy for the exteriors. Henderson also suggests that the film's framings are closer than usual for this period in Griffith's work because he needed to exclude anachronistic elements of the settings, but I do not see any difference from the framings of other films (and not just Biograph ones) of mid-1909. Otherwise, the film uses the deep valleys of the region to create remote backdrops to its actions, and to create more visually interesting versions of the standard chase format by having characters run up and down hills. In interiors, the attempts to imitate film d'art blocking, which I noted in the films made in March and April 1909 like Confidence and^4 Baby's Shoe, seem to have been abandoned. The crucial interior, the downstairs room in the dispatch bearer's family house, has the door leading to the exterior front right with the stairs leading up to rear right just behind it, an exit to the kitchen rear left, a table midground centre at the foot of the stairs, a window rear centre, and the hamper front left. Action is broadly confined to a line across the front right from the hamper to the outer door and another one across the rear left from the kitchen door to the window. The father and daughter's escape through the window is both improbably close to the soldiers at the table, drunk though they are, and partially obscured by them. The blocking is thus neither interesting nor perspicuous. Ben Brewster

33

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

182 BlOGRAPH

THE LITTLE DARLING Filming date: 27 July, 3 August 1909 Location: New York Studio/Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 2 September 1909 Release length: 211 feet Copyright date: 3 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: ? (Lillie Green); Mary Pickford (Little Darling); Mack Sennett, John R. Cumpson, Owen Moore, Arthur Johnson, William A. Quirk, Henry B. Walthall, Anthony O'Sullivan, Verner Clarges, Charles Avery (In hoarding house); Gertrude Robinson, George O. Nicholls, James Kirkwood (In store); ? (Maid) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print This might be termed a comedy of errors, for the over zealousness [sic] of a lot of goodhearted simple folks places them in a rather embarrassing position. Lillie Green, who keeps a boarding house, receives a letter from her old school girl chum, Polly Brown, whom she hasn't seen in years, to the effect that as Lillie has never seen her little darling daughter, she will send her for a few days' visit, asking that someone meet the child at the 3:40 train. Lillie's borders are a bunch of kind-hearted bachelors, who at once prepare to give the "Little Darling" the time of her life, buying a load of toys, etc., for her amusement, also procuring a baby carriage, with which to meet her at the train. You may imagine their embarrassment when they find that Tootsie, instead of being a baby, proves to be a handsome young lady of seventeen, whose tastes run rather to garden gates, shady lanes and quiet nooks, than toys. Biograph Bulletin, No. 271, September 2, 1909

Lillie Green runs a boarding house, most of the guests at which are young bachelors. She receives a letter from an old friend, Polly Brown, announcing the imminent arrival of her "litde darling" daughter, whom Lillie has never met. Lillie tells her guests a small child is coming on a visit. The guests tell her they will make all the arrangements, and visit the local toyshop, where they purchase a cot, a pram, and toys for the visitor. Two of them are delegated to meet her at the station with the pram, while the others arrange their gifts in the boarding house sitting room. Only one passenger alights from the train, a young lady. It dawns on the delegation that this must be the expected visitor. Endeavouring to hide the pram, they introduce themselves and find that the girl, whose nickname is Tootsie, is indeed Polly Brown's daughter. They proceed with her to the boarding house, where the amazed guests try to hide the toys they have bought for the supposed toddler.

34

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

A 211-foot filler for the reel principally made up by The Sealed Room, this is not a film into which anyone put very much effort. The premise was presumably established by the letter insert place-marked in the paper print, which the Bulletin summary suggests uses the tide words to describe Polly Brown's daughter. Of the three settings, the train station was filmed at the Cuddebackville depot. Robert Henderson (p. 82, relying partly on an eye-witness account by Lester Predmore, the Inn's owner's son) assumes that the interiors of the film were also shot in Cuddebackville, the sitting room being that of the Caudebec Inn, but this seems not to be the case; they are standard Biograph sets and filmed in a diffuse light which suggests the studio's Cooper-Hewitts. According to Graham, Higgins, Mancini and Vieira (and thus presumably according to the Biograph registers), the Cuddebackville scene was shot on 21 July, the Studio scenes on 3 August. There is a problem here, though, because Henderson (who consulted the Inn's register) also claims that the company stayed in Cuddebackville until 11 August, although individual members also came and went as needed. However, a large proportion of the masculine members of the group were required for the bachelors in the interior scenes, and interiors in other films involving the same members of the company were shot in the studio on 2 and 3 August. Did the company return to the city just for these days? Or did most return to New York then, leaving only a few to shoot Comata the Sioux on the 6th and 7th? Bitzer is recorded as the sole cameraman for all the films made in this period, so he at least must have gone back and forth several times during these few days. Griffith presumably accompanied him, unless he could leave the direction of most of the scenes in a film such as this to, say, Sennett, whom Lester Predmore described to Henderson as directing it - perhaps the young Predmore saw rehearsals at the Inn rather than the actual shooting? In the interiors, there is litde sign of the careful blocking characteristic of the ensemble scenes in In Old Kentucky or even the clumsier "1776", or The Hessian Renegades. Each of the bachelors has chosen or been assigned some piece of business and performs it with little regard for what anyone else is doing - which seems to be a standard way for the company to handle comedy scenes where a group of characters all have the same, as opposed to contrasting, roles (compare the responses to Mary's biscuits in Her First Biscuits). Ben Brewster

35

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

183 BlOGRAPH

IN OLD KENTUCKY Filming date: 29 July, 3/5/6 August 1909 Location: Cuddebackville, New York/Studio not noted Release date: 20 September 1909 Release length: 983 feet Copyright date: 14 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Verner Clarges (Mr. Wilkinson); Kate Bruce (Mrs. Wilkinson); Henry B. Walthall (Robert, the Confederate son); Owen Moore (George, the Union son); Mack Sennett (Union sentry); Frank Powell, George Siegmann, William J. Butler (Union soldiers); Frank Powell (Confederate officer; William J. Butler (His aide); William J. Butler, ? (Servants [in blackface]); Mary Pickford, Gertrude Robinson, James Kirkwood, Linda Arvidson, George O. Nicholls, Anthony O'Sullivan, John R. Cumpson [in blackface] (At homecoming party); Robert Harron (Extra) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) A STIRRING EPISODE O F T H E CIVIL WAR At the beginning of the Civil War, Kentucky attempted to hold a neutral position between the belligerents, and her sons decided for themselves which side's cause to take up, hence it was that many a Kentucky home was divided. When President Lincoln issued his first call for troops, the Governor of Kentucky said the State would furnish no troops for the purpose of subduing her sister states, and the Legislature approved his attitude. However, as both Federal and Confederate forces occupied the State, active hostilities prevailed, making it the veritable hub of the conflict. The sentiment of the people seemed evenly balanced, and when old Mr. Wilkinson entered with the newspaper heralding the proclamation "War is Declared", George, his youngest son, took up the Union flag, declaring his intention to fight under its stripes, calling to his brother, Robert, to do likewise. But, Bob's heart is with the Confederates and he declines to listen to his brother's reasoning and so goes to enlist in the Southern Army. The old Kentucky home is divided - it is brother against brother. Later, Robert is selected as the bearer of sealed orders, and as he will have to pass the Union lines he is attired in the Union uniform. Starting on his perilous journey he is soon dangerously near the Union outposts, where George is seen posting sentries. Robert is discovered while climbing up the side of the mountain, and fired on by George, who is ignorant of his identity. Fleeing for safety he is followed and apprehended by the Union forces, when, for the first time Robert and George meet. But the soldier knows no kindered [sic], and George secures Rob's papers and places him under guard to be shot. While fording a stream, Robert by strategy manages to bolt, outdistancing his pursuers rushes into his old home for shelter. Here he is treated by his father as a fugitive and would have been turned out, but a mother's love knows not the laws of war, and shields him. Rushing him upstairs to her room, she bids him get into her bed while she lies alongside, armed with a pistol. George enters, and searching the house, comes 36

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

to his mother's room. H e at once discerns where Robert is, and would have dragged him from his hiding, but his mother, with the pistol at her head, threatens to fire if he advances one step. In the face of this George falters in his duty and leaves. Robert, later, escapes. Finally, the war over, George returns home 'neath triumphant banners, promoted in rank, with the whole village assembled to greet him. The old home is the scene of great rejoicing. But what a contrast is seen on the outside. There we see Robert, ragged and homeless for the "Lost Cause", staggering up to the house. Reaching the portals he gets a glimpse of the festive scene on the inside, and sorrowfully starts away, but old Uncle Jasper espies him and drags him in. Here is shown the most impressive scene ever depicted in moving pictures. The mother folds her lost boy to her heart, and George with the Union flag thrown over his arm stretches forth his hand to his brother, who with the old tattered colors of the Confederacy held affectionately to his breast, receives the warm grasp, typifying the motto of Kentucky "United we stand, divided we fall." Biograph Bulletin, No. 276, [?]

When the Civil War breaks out, George, the younger son of a wealthy Kentucky family, the Wilkinsons, declares, with his father's approval, that he will enlist for the North. He invites his older brother Robert to join him, but Robert, to his father's indignation, but with the sympathetic understanding of his mother and of the family's black house slave, Uncle Jasper, says he is for the South. The father shows Robert the door, and he leaves. A few years later, Robert, now a Confederate officer, is selected to take sealed orders through Union lines close to his old home, disguised in a Union uniform. He is spotted by a Northern platoon commanded by his younger brother George, pursued, and captured. Only now do the brothers recognize one another. By a subterfuge, Robert escapes his captors and flees, pursued by them, to his old home. His father insists he leave at once, but his mother overrules her husband. She takes Robert upstairs, hides him under her bedclothes, undresses, gets a gun, and gets into the bed. George arrives with his platoon. He sends soldiers to search the house, and asks his father if he has seen Robert. His father reluctantly indicates the door leading to the bedroom. George goes in with another soldier. While this soldier is searching other rooms nearby, George approaches the bed, and quickly realizes Robert is hiding there behind his mother. When he reaches to pull him out, his mother draws the gun and threatens to shoot herself if he comes any closer. George is still hesitating when the soldier returns. George says he has searched and found nothing, and he and the platoon leave without their prisoner. When they are gone, the mother says a fond farewell to Robert. At the end of the War, George returns home to a hero's welcome. While the family and friends are celebrating, Robert approaches the house in rags. Hearing the joyful sounds within, he is about to leave when he is seen by Uncle Jasper, who drags him inside. George is perplexed as to how to receive him, and suggests he pledge allegiance to the stars and stripes. Robert refuses, instead picking up a torn Confederate flag, embracing his mother, and preparing to leave. George relents, calls Robert back, and shakes his hand. The brothers are reconciled and the family reunited, amidst general rejoicing.

Tom Gunning, in D. W. Griffith and the Origins of the American Narrative Film, has described the way this film uses refraining pans not simply to keep the principal characters in a scene in the appropriate place in the frame, but to move from one focus of the action to another, a function Griffith ever after fulfilled by alternating editing. The camera movements are mostly motivated by a moving character, but some, including the first, have no such moti37

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

vation. After Robert has been given his mission to carry the orders through the Union lines, we see a sentry standing at the top of a steep bluff, the other side of the valley forming a distant backdrop. A pan right leaves the sentry off left and brings on Robert creeping up the cliff at the bottom of the frame. Pan left as Robert climbs the bluff towards the sentry until he sees him off left and crouches in the bushes. A further pan left leaves Robert off and brings on the sentry, who is relieved by a troop who enter left and replace him with George. Pan right as the troop exits right. George hears something off right and looks over the bushes to the right. Pan right to show Robert crouching bottom of frame right. George raises his rifle, Robert runs off right. George fires off right and runs off right. The troop re-enters and follows him off right. The opening and closing scenes in the downstairs room of the Wilkinson house use the charades method. George and his father occupy the front left of frame, and George waves a Union flag to indicate his allegiance. Robert, his mother, and Uncle Jasper occupy the right, and usually the rear, and for the climactic reconciliation, Robert most improbably discovers a trampled Confederate flag on the floor to demonstrate his loyalty to the lost cause. Gunning notes that this left-right opposition is used consistently throughout the film whenever both brothers are in shot: in the scene where George as sentry detects Robert attempting to steal through Union lines; when the brothers recognize each other after Robert's capture; when George is prevented from dragging Robert from his mother's bed; and, of course, in the final reconciliation scene. Particularly striking among these scenes is the one in the mother's bedroom, since George enters the room on the right and has to cross to front left to produce the repeated positions. Not just the left-right arrangement in these scenes is repeated. George is always more prominent in the frame, usually further forward, and usually much more erect. In the first scene, George stands proudly front left applauded by his father, while Robert almost timidly announces his allegiance midground right and is comforted by his mother and Uncle Jasper. George as the sentry stands erect on the hill left of frame, while Robert crouches in the bushes down the slope to the right. In the recognition scene, George is the captor, Robert the prisoner. In the bedroom, George stands front left threatening his mother, while Robert lies rear centre concealed by the bedclothes and his mother. And in the final scene, George stands front left resplendent in uniform and medals, while Robert enters rear right in rags. The consistency of these repetitions would seem to rule out accident, but there is no sign that the sets were designed with such a symbolic opposition in view. The way to the outer door in the downstairs of the house is established to be on the right, as is the entrance to the bedroom upstairs. Moreover, George uses these entrances just as consistently as Robert. In other words, if Griffith wanted to use screen direction in a consistent symbolic manner, his sets were not designed in ways which particularly facilitated it, and he was not prepared to allow the symbolic oppositions to override the physical probabilities suggested by the sets. Ben Brewster

38

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

184 BlOGRAPH

COMATA, THE SIOUX Filming date: 6/7 August 1909 Location: Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 9 September 1909 Release length: 963 feet Copyright date: 13 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: Edmund S. Hirsch (according to the "Studio Directory" section of Motion Picture News, 1917, p. 158) Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood (Comata); Marion Leonard (Clear Eyes); Arthur Johnson (Bud Watkins); Linda Arvidson (Nellie Howe); Verner Clarges (Father); Verner Clarges? (Indian chief) Archival

Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm

acetate fine grain

master

(incomplete); Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A STORY OF AN INDIAN'S CONSTANCY That the Indian is the soul of honor, where his own is concerned at least, has been demonstrated many times, and if he has been guilty of any lawlessness, it has been induced by his misanthropic attitude towards the white man; and can we blame him? How often has he been deceived and taken advantage of, until his erstwhile trustful nature has been changed to that of cunning suspiciousness. Monumental examples of white man's unscrupulousness are presented him on all sides, until his faith in him has vanished. This story of the Black Hills consistendy tells of the unquited love of a Sioux brave for his chiefs daughter, and how he premonished the awful results of her ominous marriage with a white cowboy. Clear Eyes, the daughter of Chief Thunder Cloud, is beloved by Comata, a Sioux brave, but having met and listened to the persuasion of Bud Watkins, a cowboy, leaves her mountain home to become his squaw. Poor little confiding Clear Eyes lives only for Bud, and he at first seems devoted to her, but at the end of two years, a little papoose arriving meanwhile to bless their union, he tires of her, and courts Miss Nellie Howe, a white girl, who thinks him single. Comata, however, has unremittingly watched his movements, and vows to avenge his lost one. Following him to the white girl's home, he sees enough to convince him of the whelp's villainy, so he goes and reveals the truth to Clear Eyes. The poor squaw is stunned by the news, yet she herself had decerned [sic] a change in Bud towards her. Clear Eyes bowed in grief, Comata leaves, taking the papoose with him, which he shows to Miss Nellie as evidence of Bud's perfidy. The girl must satisfy herself, so retains the child and sends for Bud. H e confronted, cannot deny the truth. Clear Eyes discovering the absence of her papoose, is told of its whereabouts by Comata, who guides her to the place. A painful scene takes place, during which Bud is ordered off by Nellie's father, and the child restored to Clear Eyes. The heartbroken squaw goes back to her cabin, resumes her native attire, and starts back with her baby for her home in the mountains. It is but reasonable, however, to assume that hunger and fatigue overcome them on the way. Aside from being a story of intense interest, the scenic splendor of it has never been surpassed, transporting the spectator psychologically to the very heart of the Black Hills. Biograph Bulletin, No. 273, September 9, 1909 39

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Comata, a young Sioux brave, loves Clear Eyes, daughter of Chief Thunder Cloud, but she is seduced by the cowboy Bud Watkins, and leaves the Indians' camp in the Black Hills to live with him in his log cabin, to her father's despair, as well as Comata's. Some time later, the couple have a child, but Watkins is neglecting Clear Eyes. Comata, who watches jealously over them, realizes this. Following Watkins, Comata sees him courting a white girl, Nellie Howe, who lives in a nearby cabin. Watkins proposes to Nellie, and she accepts. Comata goes and tells Clear Eyes, who refuses to believe him. Comata takes the child to Nellie's cabin. When Watkins has left, Comata brings the child to Nellie and tells her that it is the child of Clear Eyes and Watkins. Nellie gives Comata a letter demanding Watkins come and explain himself, which Comata takes to him at his cabin. Once Watkins has left in response to the letter, Clear Eyes asks for her baby, and Comata tells her it is at Nellie's cabin. She runs to the cabin, followed by Comata. At Nellie's cabin, Watkins denies any knowledge of an Indian wife, until Nellie shows him the baby, and he is unable to brazen it out. Clear Eyes enters and sees all Watkins' perfidy. Nellie's father comes out of the house and asks what is going on. When he finds out what Watkins has done he orders him off the place. Comata offers to marry Clear Eyes, but she refuses, and leaves with the baby. Comata follows, despite Nellie's father's attempt to retain him. At Watkins' cabin, Clear Eyes is leaving with her baby when Watkins enters. He begs her to stay but she refuses, and leaves. Comata confronts Watkins, who goes for his gun, but Comata overpowers him. Comata follows Clear Eyes and begs her once again to marry him - he will be a father to the child. She agrees, and they depart together.

Although the paper print seems to end with the reconciliation of Comata and Clear Eyes, the Biograph Bulletin summary has Clear Eyes wandering off with her baby to die in the wilderness. Is this a way of avoiding possible problems with the miscegenation issue, with the Bulletin having the more censored ending? As noted in relation to "1776" or, The Hessian Renegades, the latter film is exceptional in that the film is less sensational than the summary. The film is entirely shot in exteriors, and the deep valleys of the Cuddebackville area are used to create distant vistas behind the characters. This is part of the traditional iconography of the "vanishing American": the magnificence of the Western landscape presents an ironic contrast to the wretchedness of the Indians' fate. Notably, the romantic landscapes back the scenes between Comata and Clear Eyes, and those in the courtship of Clear Eyes and Bud Watkins; once she has been seduced by the white cowboy, her life unfolds against the much more nondescript countryside in which his cabin and that of his white sweetheart are located. Apart from these broad effects (and the repetition of the setting of the initial refusal of Comata by Clear Eyes and their final reconciliation noted by Tom Gunning and Joyce Jesionowski), the landscape here and in all these Cuddebackville films is rarely used in the striking symbolic fashion of the opening and closing scenes of The Country Doctor (1909), for example; it usually provides no more than a pretty background. Admittedly, I have only seen these films in paper prints in which the distant vistas are nearly invisible, but the symbolic power of even the most "beautiful" of these landscapes seems much less than that of the more authentic Californian backgrounds to Ramona (1910). Either some of the footage in the paper print is out of order, or there is a memory scene. Near the beginning, after Clear Eyes has rejected Comata's suit, she meets Bud Watkins, who proposes, and points off screen left. After a cut, there is a similar landscape, and Clear 40

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Eyes and Watkins pass through it from rear right to front right. Cut back to the same scene as before: Clear Eyes accepts Watkins's proposal, they kiss, Comata enters and watches from the rear, Clear Eyes and Watkins exit front left, and Comata comes to front centre and points off front left. The second of these three shots must either be misplaced, or a subjective shot - Clear Eyes's memory or Watkins's account of a previous meeting, or the prospect Watkins holds out to her of their married life. I cannot work out a probable place for the second shot to go if it is misplaced, but there definitely seems to be misplaced footage later in the film in the scenes around Watkins's cabin after his rejection by both Nellie and Clear Eyes. At this period almost everywhere, dreams, visions and other second-level narrations are handled by superimposition (though Griffith's alternations sometimes imply a kind of telepathic connection between the two sides). If this shot is a memory or narration, it must presumably have been introduced by a tide marking its status. Although the action of the film is almost all assigned to Clear Eyes, Watkins and Nellie, it is justifiably called Comata, the Sioux. Comata witnesses the actions of the other characters, and acts as a narrator, or, more precisely, as a chorus, interpreting those actions morally for the audience. He appears in far more scenes than those in which he does more than bear witness, and overall his action is confined to taking the baby to Nellie, overpowering the discomfited Watkins, and overtaking and rescuing Clear Eyes and her child in the wilderness. The effect is to shift his role from active hero to passive point of identification for the audience - the characteristic role of the "good Indian" in this genre, deploring but reluctandy recognizing the inevitability of the destruction of the Native American way of life. Ben Brewster

41

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

185 BlOGRAPH

GETTING EVEN Filming date: 9/10/12 August 1909 Location: New York Studio/Edgewater, New Jersey Release date: 13 September 1909 Release length: 587 feet Copyright date: 14 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: Mary Pickford (identified as author in Billy Bitzer, His Story, p. 74) Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: William A. Quirk (Bud); Mary Pickford (Miss Lucy); James Kirkwood (Jim Blake); Mack Sennett, Anthony O'Sullivan, Henry B. Walthall, John R. Cumpson, George O. Nicholls (Miners); Verner Clarges, Gertrude Robinson, Kate Bruce, Lottie Pickford, Arthur Johnson (Party guests) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) The most satisfying and pleasurable sensation experienced is "getting even" - especially where one has been held up to ridicule before a jeering mob. Such was the reguerdon of Bud, the Kid of the Mining Camp, after suffering gross humiliation at the hands of the other cowboys and miners. Miss Lucy, the belle of the camp, is introduced to the Kid, and makes an impression, who becomes quite seriously inclined towards her. The boys, more in the spirit of jest than chagrin, poke fun at him; call him the baby, and end with Jim Blake spanking him. Needless to say that the Kid is mortified and swears to get square. A masque ball is to be held that night, so Bud plans his revenge. All togged out in grotesque costumes, a high old time is imminent, for it is fair to assume that the society folks of the camp will be well represented. Bud, however, feigns a toothache and will not go. Dressed up in carnival duds, the gang leave the shack for the pavilion. All gone, Bud jumps from his bunk, and dresses up in swell female attire, the effect being marvellous. He presents such a striking appearance that he is the belle of the ball. Jim Blake becomes deeply smitten, and after leading him on Bud soon has Jim on his knees, pouring out his soul's devotion, regardless of the snickerings of the motley mob around them. There Jim kneels, declaring his undying love for the fair charmer, as only a lionhearted cowboy can, when Bud removes his hat and wig. "Holy Smoke!" Well, it is safe to say that Mr. James Blake will not attend any more spanking bees where the Kid is the victim. Biograph Bulletin, No. 274, September 13, 1909

Lucy is the favourite of the young men in a mining camp in the West. When Bud, the youngest of a group who share a bunkhouse, tries to court her, the others, led by Jim Blake, easily overpower him and give him a spanking. He vows vengeance, and his chance comes with a local fancy dress dance, which Lucy will be attending. The other miners dress for the party, but Bud pretends he has such a bad toothache he cannot go. When they have left, Bud gets up and dons his costume - a stylish young lady's rig, with wig and hat. Dressed in this outfit, he saunters off to the dance hall. His three rivals are still waiting for Lucy's arrival. 42

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

When the newcomer appears, they abandon any thought of Lucy and assiduously court "her". After several dances, "she" takes a break, and amazes her suitors by drinking and smoking. By the time Lucy arrives, Bud has Jim Blake on his knees proposing. Bud takes off his wig and reveals his identity. The trio retreat, crestfallen, and Bud takes Lucy's arm for the next dance.

587 feet of a reel including The Children's Friend, this film is mostly an opportunity for Billy Quirk to appear in drag and for Mack Sennett, Anthony O'Sullivan and James Kirkwood to act as his foils. The object of the men's jealous regard is played by Mary Pickford, continuing a common pairing of Pickford and Quirk as the lead couple which began with The Renunciation. Apart from being identified as the author of the film's story by Billy Bitzer, Pickford's contribution is limited to two brief appearances at the beginning and end, while Quirk is on the screen for most of the film. The men's business looks as if it were invented on the spot. Quirk in drag steals Kirkwood's hip flask and astonishes the boys - and presumably suggests availability - when the supposed young lady is caught surreptitiously taking a nip while resting between dances. Quirk is neither better nor worse than most of the other young comic leads who played these drag parts in the films of the period. Ben Brewster

43

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

186 BlOGRAPH

THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND Filming date: 30 July, 12 August 1909 Location: Sea Breeze, New Jersey/Edgewater, New Jersey Release date: 13 September 1909 Release length: 386 feet Copyright date: 4 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Frank Powell, Verner Clarges, Marion Leonard, Linda Arvidson, Owen Moore (Adults); Gladys Egan [Among children) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print This is unquestionably the prettiest little children story ever presented. A party of children start on a little outing at the beach. A dog wagon, drawn by Rover, carries baby, and Gladys carries their little feathered friend, a dove. A children's quarrel ensues, and the party is divided. Gladys, Pearl and Baby go in one direction, the rest in the other. The trio sit on the edge of a sand-pit playing with their dove when there is a cave-in and all three go to the bottom. In vain they try to get out, but fail. Meanwhile, their absence has been felt, and a searching party is scouring the neighborhood. Pearl conceives the idea of making a messenger of their bird, so tying a note to its neck, sends it off. It flies home; their whereabouts is discovered, and they are soon rescued from their perilous situation. Biograph Bulletin, No. 274, September 13, 1909

Two litde girls, Pearl and Gladys, with their baby sister in a cart drawn by Rover, a big dog, leave their parents at their seaside lodgings and accompany other children to the beach, carrying with them their pet pigeon. In the dunes near the shore, there is an argument, and Pearl and Gladys take their sister from the dog cart, leave the others and go off in a different direction. They find a deep sand pit in the middle of the dunes, and play at its edge. The baby slides in, and the others are pulled in trying to rescue her. They find they cannot get out. When the rest of the children get back to the sisters' home with the empty dog cart, they explain to the parents that they have not seen them for some time. One of them guides the parents to the point where they had parted, but there is no sign of the sisters. In the pit, Pearl writes a note, ties it round the pigeon's neck, and lets the pigeon go. It reaches the house just as the parents return in despair, having failed to find their children. Following the directions in the note, the parents find the pit and pull the children out. Their mother gratefully pets the noble pigeon.

386 feet on the same reel as Getting Even, this film is all exteriors, the house being in Edgewater near the Biograph's stamping ground, Fort Lee, and the beach scenes at Sea Breeze, 44

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

New Jersey. The cart drawn by Rover seems to be the raison d'être of the film, and its principal juveniles are not regular Biograph child actors (though Gladys Egan appears among the other children) so presumably they came with the cart - they certainly have none of the acting skill regularly displayed by Egan and Adèle De Garde. After the opening shot by the house, a shot on the beach establishing the pigeon and another where the children split up, the film settles into an alternation between shots of the three girls in the sandpit and shots of the search for them. Most of the shots in the pit are from the same long-shot set-up in which it first appeared, but the writing of the note and its attachment to the pigeon's neck are shown in a cut-in to high-angle medium long shot. This cut-in to an explanatory detail resembles the shot of Mme. Lebrun injecting poison into the sweets in The Drive for a Life, but is more interesting because it leaves the characters visible as a whole rather than reducing them to the strictly pertinent parts, because it involves a change of angle, in this case a tilt, and because the cut-in is interrupted by one of the alternating shots of the searching parents. Ben Brewster

45

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

187 BlOGRAPH

THE BROKEN LOCKET Filming date: 10/11/19 August 1909 Location: Edgewater, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 16 September 1909 Release length: 999 feet Copyright date: 17 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Frank Powell {George Peabody); Mary Pickford (Ruth King); Kate Bruce (Her mother); Gertrude Robinson (Her friend); Arthur Johnson (Mr. Joplin); Mack Sennett (Peabody Js companion); Marion Leonard (Mexican woman); Henry B. Walthall (Mexican man); George O. Nicholls (Doctor); ? (Bartender); James Kirkwood, Owen Moore (At bar table); William A. Quirk, Owen Moore, Robert Harron, Anthony O'Sullivan, George O. Nicholls (Outside company office) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) A REALISTIC STORY OF A MAN'S WEAKNESS The justice of God is the true justice, and though paradoxical the assertion may seem, it is as lenient as it is unconditional, for no matter to what depths of profligacy we may fall, there is always the awakening, and our rengeneration is in the proper exercising of that gift of Providence - free will. Hence, if we do not take advantage of the chance to do right, our punishment is all the more severe. In this Biograph subject is portrayed a story of real life, and shows the awful result of moral indifference which is man's dominent [sic] weakness. George Peabody, is a young man who has been giving free reign to his inclinations, the principal one being drink. One might have concluded he was lost, but there was the chance, which the hand of Providence always bestows, in the person of pretty little Ruth King, who had secretly loved George since their childhood days. She succeeds in persuading him from his reckless life, and he determines to cut off from his old loose companions by going out West and making a man of himself. Bidding Ruth and her mother goodbye, he realizes that he loves his little preserver and promises to return worthy of her love and confidence. They plight their troth with their first kiss and a heart shaped locket, which Ruth wears, she breaking it in two, giving George one side while she retains the other, which symbolized the reunion of their hearts with his return. George is fortunate to strike the West in the midst of a boom, and being an affable, bright chap, meets with success, and is soon a favorite of his employers. His life here up to this is without blemish, but has he strength? We shall see, for as gold is tested by the fire, so man is by temptation, and George's trial comes with the persuasion to take a first drink. At first he holds out against it, but at last yields, and that drink was his undoing. Once more the craving for liquor is induced and his promise to his little sweetheart in the East forgotten, he falls an easy victim of a Mexican girl who pretends to love him, assuming him a rather good catch. Meanwhile, faithful little Ruth is counting the days as they drag on towards the time she imagines he will return. The Mexican girl, to secure him as her own, writes a letter to Ruth 46

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

purporting to come from one of his male chums, to the effect that he had been killed. The shock of this letter throws the poor girl into a delirium of fever, and for a time her life is despaired of. She recovers, however, but is hopelessly blind. What woe a man's weakness may work, but we find he is rewarded for his weakness, and some time later we see George a loathsome parasite - a dirty, ragged, drunken bum - a pariah among his former associates. Back East he wanders, ignorant of the misery he has caused, and what a sight greets him. There is the ever faithful little girl, accompanied by her mother, standing at the gate, the beauties of the world forever shut out from her. How dark is everything to her, but then how much darker would this world have been, had she viewed the awful condition of George as he stood there. No, of this, at least, she was blissfully ignorant, and with a subterfuge, George slinks away, she imagining that he will soon return - but, alas, the locket is forever broken. Biograph Bulletin, No. 275, September 16, 1909

Ruth's love for George persuades him to abandon his drift toward a dissolute life. They each take a half of a broken locket as a pledge of their love before he goes out west to try to make a man of himself. While she prays for him at home, he succumbs to temptation, begins drinking again, and is seduced by a Mexican girl. The Mexican girl writes a letter to Ruth in the name of one of George's male friends, telling her that George has been killed. Ruth falls into a fever from the shock as a result of which she loses her sight. Later, George returns as a hopeless wreck of a man and passes by Ruth's gate. She cannot see his condition and is joyous at his return. He realizes what he has lost. Then, he shrugs, picks up a cigar end, and walks away.

In the late summer of 1909, the Biograph Company produced a number of stark tragedies. In The Broken Locket, the tragedy is infused with irony. One trade reviewer in The Moving Picture World (October 2, 1909, pp. 451-2) bemoaned the lack of satisfaction in the conclusion of The Broken Locket: the spectator would surely leave the theater depressed. But a week earlier, another critic claimed that "as a moral lesson, The Broken Locket ranks with any of the sermons in pictures ever issued by this company" (The Moving Picture World, September 25, 1909, p. 414). Griffith's most important technique for preaching that sermon is parallel editing. In The Broken Locket the parallel is used to compare the purity and innocence of the girl looking out the window to the drunken dissolution of the lover far away in the mining country. In the alternating shots the composition makes them seem to face in each other's direction. We may remember a similar style of parallel editing that linked the distant lovers in After Many Years. In The Broken Locket, however, the contrast of weak and strong characters enriches the device, and makes of it a strong temperance lesson. The Broken Locket begins in mid-action, with short shots, and a dynamic entrance for its characters. Filming on location out-of-doors seems to lead the filmmakers to a livelier mode and a freer camera placement than is usual when filming takes place in the cramped Biograph studio. Instead of the camera's direct gaze, sometimes there are oblique angles. In sunny exteriors filmed in Edgewater, New Jersey, across the Hudson from Manhattan, two men the worse for drink stagger up some stairs, presumably from a low dive, and pass two young women talking at a gate. Ruth is shocked to see George in a drunken state and runs after him. At this same gate the lovers will meet again at the tragic end of the film. Such gates are often employed as metaphors in Griffith's Biograph films. Blindness is a popular metaphor, too, in films of this period. In the end, it is clear that Ruth's blind love makes it impossible for her to see George as he really is. 47

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Until I re-read the Biograph Bulletin, which says that George "slinks away with a subterfuge" and that Ruth expects him to come back, I thought that Ruth rejects him because now she is blind and she loves him too much to give him a handicapped wife. Such a noble sentiment would be in keeping with the culture of the period. On the other hand, what is stressed in The Broken Locket is the irony in their meeting at the gate, an irony that would well fit an O. Henry story. In the end, George's departure is wonderfully expressive. We cannot avoid being reminded of Chaplin's nonchalant exit at the end of some of his films. Mary Pickford's growing naturalness, restraint and subtlety are overcoming her occasional melodramatic gestures. However, let us not overlook Kate Bruce's moving performance in the role of Ruth's mother, either: when Mary gets the fateful letter, Kate, instead of merely showing horror and shock, walks around behind Mary to her other side, the window side, as though to protect her. Her tender gazes at Mary, or her turned back or turned-away face are eloquent expressions of the love and pain she feels, so strong that she must turn away from it. Concealment is a very effective device for revealing strong emotion. Frank Powell had joined Biograph in the spring of 1909, recruited from a theatrical agency by Griffith himself, according to Linda Arvidson (p. 108), at a new high salary of $10 a day. He was chosen, she says, to play leading roles, an aristocrat, a cultured professional man, a broker, banker, and doctor (The Country Doctor was one of his first), and not weak characters such as George. Perhaps it was to justify the double salary that Griffith soon made him an assistant, and then, at the end of the year, a director. There are twenty-six shots within the 372 feet in the 16mm Library of Congress paper print, equivalent to 930 feet in 35mm, compared to the original release length of 999 feet. It is probably complete except for missing tides and perhaps an insert for the letter. Eileen Bowser

48

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

188 BlOGRAPH

THE AWAKENING Filming date: 16/17/20 August 1909 Location: New York Studio/Edgewater, New Jersey Release date: 30 September 1909 Release length: 691 feet Copyright date: 2 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: Mary Pickford (identified as the author in Billy Bitzer, His Story, p. 74) Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Arthur Johnson (Major); ? (Widow); Mary Pickford (Her daughter); Anthony O'Sullivan (Lawyer); Kate Bruce (Nun); Owen Moore (Major's friend); George O. Nicholls (Priest); Mack Sennett (Butler) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Leave it to Cupid. H e is the boy who knows how to make his point. You can as easily escape the hot stinger of the infuriated hornet, into whose habituation you have iUadvisedly[sic] poked your cane, as that unclothed little rascal's dart when he gets after you. Here we show one of his pranks, in which he brings together, in spite of themselves, affinities, who, though stubbornly résistent, finally succumb to the influence of his dart's dulcitude. The young Major is, in his own mind, a confirmed bachelor, but the fates oppose. His uncle has made his will conditional, knowing his reckless nature. H e must marry within a stated time or loose his inheritance. The Mayor is apprised by the lawyer that the time limit draws near, and unless he marries at once, he is dished. To tell the truth, he feels that one condition is as odious as the other, particularly as his warning comes while he is enjoying himself with convival chums at the Club. "Marry, good heavens! But where's the bride?" Surely he must obtain a wife to order. Well, a search is made, but the astute attorney has anticipated the affair and interviewed a Spanish widow lady, whose daughter, still at convent school, is fair to look on and of marriageable age. The wedding takes place, and woe is stamped upon the face of the hapless bridegroom as he comes up the aisle of the church. The girl, however, seems to be overjoyed as she gazes up at the handsome officer, now her hubby. Arriving at the house, the Major bids his wife to make herself perfectly at home, while he goes to enjoy the companionship of his club friends. Here's where Cupid chuckles "we shall see". The sweet face of the little girl is ever before him and his indifferent heart is beginning to experience new emotions as he pictures her alone in their home. H e thinks, "can this be love? Nonsense!" Returning home, he saunters out into the garden, where the little one had climbed the trellis to pluck a rose for him. She loses her equilibrium just as he appears and falls into his arms. It is the awakening and Cupid laughs. Biograph Bulletin, [?]

The Major likes the bachelor life but his uncle writes a will that orders the Major to marry or lose his inheritance. Uncle's attorney has a candidate, a young Spanish girl fresh from the convent. The wedding takes place and the girl is delighted with her new husband, but the 49

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

unwilling bridegroom leaves her alone at home to go back to his life at the club. Then, he finds he cannot forget her face. Returning home, he finds her in the garden climbing the rose trellis to pluck a flower for him. She falls off the trellis and into his arms. The Major discovers the joys of matrimony.

The Awakening is a delightful short comedy, with a simple plot that will form the basis of a hundred slapstick comedies to come: the rich uncle that insists his nephew be settled down and married in order to inherit his fortune. There is nothing special in the idea, although Mary Pickford earned extra pay for it. The charm of the comedy is in the acting of the principals, Mary Pickford and Arthur Johnson. It may be a slapstick plot, but the acting is notable for its natural qualities, not slapstick. Much is made of Pickford and Johnson's differences in height: Mary doesn't quite reach his shoulder. Mary, at first unwilling to consider marriage, is quite won over by the height of the proposed groom when she first sees him, while he is disparaging about hers, and will hardly look at her. We wonder whether the casting was Pickford's contribution when she supplied the script idea, or whether the jokes about size came as they produced the film. Why she is described as the daughter of a Spanish widow in the Biograph Bulletin is not clear, unless it was because they wanted to give an exotic look to the set of the reception room, decorated with Southwestern woven basket chairs and pottery, to go with the uniforms of the Major and his friends. These costumes appear to be from a music hall or an operetta production. Pickford's skill is growing from film to film. Although she acts a comic part, she portrays real feelings. She moves slowly and deliberately, giving us time to read her face, letting us see what she is thinking, showing subtie shades of emotion. Although there are no closeups, one can see her lips tremble. The occasional remaining melodramatic excesses in Pickford's style seem to disappear entirely when it comes to comedy, a forecast of her most successful roles in feature films to come. Arthur Johnson does well, too, in relating to her style, keeping the exaggerated gestures down. In his role as the Major, he is disgusted by her lack of height and fails to look her in the face. When he does really look, she wins him over with her adoration. Gunning (1991, p. 228) describes Mary turning her back to hide her grief as an example of the power of restraint and reminds us that it was in the theatrical tradition of naturalist theater, a technique espoused by famous stage actress Mrs. Fiske (Minnie Maddern, married to playwright Harrison Grey Fiske). He calls it one of the earliest uses Griffith made of the turning back. Actually, Griffith had used it a few days earlier when he made The Broken Locket, but it was Kate Bruce who made an eloquent use of it in that film. There is some use of parallel editing of the action in The Awakening, to enliven the narrative and for contrast as well. The metaphoric gate of which Griffith is so fond appears in the resolution: the couple come out of the house one at a time and pass through a gate to signal the change in their relationship. They are individually aware of the change before passing through the gate, but they acknowledge it to each other only outside the house. The comedy ends on a comic but still natural note: Mary falls from the trellis into her husband's arms, on a cut to a closer view, no doubt a very pretty scene in the original 35mm print. There are nineteen shots in this Library of Congress 16mm paper print measuring 256 feet, equivalent to 640 feet in 35mm, compared to 691 feet in the original release length. The titles are missing which might have explained the obvious time lapses within the same set and avoided the apparent jumps in action. Eileen Bowser

50

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

189 BlOGRAPH

PIPPA PASSES or, THE SONG OF CONSCIENCE Filming date: 17-21 August 1909 Location: Edgewater, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 4 October 1909; reissued by Biograph, 15 October 1915 Release length: 983 feet Copyright date: 2 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: "Pippa Passes", the poem by Robert Browning Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin, Percy Higginson Cast: Gertrude Robinson (Pippa); George O. Nicholls (Husband); ? (His family); ? (In bar); James Kirkwood (Jules); Linda Arvidson (Greek model); William A. Quirk, Mack Sennett, Anthony O'Sullivan, ? (In studio); Arthur Johnson (Luca); Marion Leonard (Ottima); Owen Moore (Sibald) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print The mere suggestion of portraying in motion pictures the poetic thoughts of that eminent English poet, Robert Browning, is indeed startling, and yet there never lived a writer whose dramatic force and psychological anaylsis was more pronounced than he, who was unquestionably among the greatest of English writers. In appreciation, the Biograph has taken for inspiration his masterpiece, "Pippa Passes". His great love for Italy induced many of his works being located there, for it was to him to the clime of poetic romance. Our story opens with Pippa awakening in her little room, with the morning's light pouring through the window, for the "day's at the morn; morning's at seven; the hillside's dew-pearled; the lark's on the wing; the snail's on the thorn; God's in his Heaven - All's right with the world." Today is a holiday in Asolo, the whir of the spindles of the silk-mill is silenced, and Pippa, the little silk-winder, saunters forth with her lute to brighten life's ordeal with song, little realizing what good she is doing. Her song of peace, "God's in his Heaven - All right's with the world!" induces Faith, Hope and Charity - Faith in God's justice, Hope for our welfare, and Charity towards mankind. The workman goes to spend his time and earnings at the tavern, neglecting his despairing wife, with their little child, to grieve at home. In the midst of roistering at the tavern, Pippa passes, singing her song of peace. The words sink deep into the heart of the workman, and force him to return to his sorrowing wife, with a resolve never to err more. The next episode is that of the marrying of Jules to the Greek model, whom he believes an innocent young girl. Upon learning her true character, Jules would have struck her down, but at that moment Pippa passes, and her song induces him to be charitable, so he resolves to save and protect her. Wending her way through the lanes, Pippa approaches the shrub-house of Luca, wherein a terrible tragedy is impending. Luca sleeps, and his wife, Ottima, is persuading her lover, Sibald, to dispatch him. With upraised dagger, he approaches the couch, and the dagger is about to fall, when Pippa's song is heard. What a transformation. Conscience turns their eyes into their very souls and how black the aspect - "'God's in his Heaven - All's right with the world?' How stand we in the sight of God? What ministering angel art thou, who with song has stayed the hand that would have done irreparable wrong? Oh, God! What I would not do to efface the sable mantle that shrouds my soul - my life, my 51

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

all, to thy disposition I yield". Thus has Pippa's song averted tragedy. Returning to her little room, she retires. "Day's turn is over, now arrives the night's". The golden sunshine fades into silver moonbeams and Pippa sleeps, innocent of the good her peregrinations have worked. In this picture Biograph presents a most artistic subject handled in a manner never before excelled, with keen appreciation of its poetic and dramatic value; photographically perfect, and comprising many novel effects never before attempted. Biograph Bulletin, No. 280, October 4, 1909

The silk mills are closed for a holiday, and Pippa wakes with the rising sun to take up her lute and go out into the sunshine singing "God's in his heaven/ all's right with the world!" Unknown to her, her music has a moral effect on all who hear it. A man quarrels with his wife and goes out to the tavern: when he hears Pippa's song, he swears off the drink and returns home to make peace. In an artist's studio, a group of rowdy students decide to play a cruel joke on an idealist named Jules. They introduce Jules to an artist's model, passing her off as an innocent young girl. The two fall in love and marry. The Bohemians, enjoying their joke, tell him the truth and he raises his hand to strike the woman in anger. Then Pippa's music outside the window appeals to his better feelings, and he accepts the model as his wife. In the third story, a woman betrays her husband with a lover, and tries to entice him to murder. Again, Pippa's song works its magic and stops the man's hand just before the deed is done. Pippa enters her room again and goes to bed with the setting sun.

One hopes that the Library of Congress will one day be able to produce a high-quality 35mm print of Pippa Passes, in order that its celebrated lighting effects and pictorial photography may be more visible, with values nearer to those of the original film. The New York Times' description of the "light and shade effects like those obtained by the 'Secessionist' photographers" offers a rare reference to an artistic movement of the day. The Secessionists were those photographers promoted by Stieglitz in his gallery at 291 5th Avenue, just around the corner from the Biograph studio on 14th Street, and their work must have been familiar to Griffith and to Biograph's cameramen. Three of them worked on this film: Bitzer, Arthur Marvin and Percy Higginson. But Belasco's productions, or indeed, Rembrandt's paintings, could equally well have provided the concept of a ray of light as a spiritual force. The special effects are limited to the opening and closing of the film, a very slow fade-in the beginning from complete dark to full light and at the end an equally slow fade-out in the reverse order. Pippa, in bed at the opposite side of the image from the window, is highlighted by the earliest and latest light rays in each case. Linda Arvidson in When the Movies Were Young (p. 129) describes how the effects were obtained, although Tom Gunning in D. W. Griffith and the Origins of the American Narrative Film (1991, pp. 177-83) has suggested that her explanation is insufficient. These are not the first fades in the history of early cinema, but the deliberate slowness and aesthetic effect is notable. The spectator is expected to be moved and put into a soulful poetic mood. The original title sheets exist in the Biograph Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (Box 1/file 1), even though the Museum does not have the original negative of the film. They read as follows: Subtitle: Inspired by Browning's poetical drama 1) Pippa Awakens. The year's at the spring /and day's at the morn; /morning's at seven; /the hill-side dew-pearled;

52

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

2) Pippa's Song of Peace. The lark's on the wing; /the snail's on the thorn; /God's in his heaven - /all's right with the world! [insert with the last two lines above shown on sheet music] 3 ) The workman hears the song 4) The model is introduced to the idealist as an innocent young girl by the larking students 5) His rage upon learning that the girl he has married is a model 6) God's in his heaven - /all's right with the world! 7) Day's turn is over/now arrives the night's

The first story of three, the temperance drama, is not from Browning, it was added by Griffith as a contemporary moral lesson. A couple of other episodes of the Browning drama have been dropped. All three of the stories are so compressed as to appear as abstractions. The characters are stereotypes, lacking specific details that would give them a real existence. We suppose this to be an attempt to shape cinematic equivalents to the poetry of Browning's play. Pippa Passes was an unusual film. It got an extraordinary notice from The New York Times that was reprinted in The Moving Picture World (October 23, 1909, p. 566). But the trade paper questioned "whether this picture is understood by a majority of the audiences". Nevertheless, the critic recognized the film's "value as an art subject," and suggested that audiences "can at least enjoy the pictorial qualities" {The Moving Picture World, October 16, 1909, pp. 529-30). Gunning (1991, pp. 177-83) provides an interesting stage history for Browning's play: it was produced in New York in 1906 by Henry Miller, "the impresario who Griffith had hoped would produce his play War" and two members of the Biograph stock company, Henry B. Walthall and William J. Butler, had played minor roles it. Griffith must have much admired the play, although Gunning reports it was not a critical success on stage. Arvidson (p. 97) tells of Griffith's desire to adapt Browning's work and the doubts of the Biograph executives about it. More than five weeks elapsed between the production of the film and its release. Of course, the prestige of the New York Times notice gave Griffith a joyful justification for his persistence. Gunning presents Pippa Passes as one of the examples of the transformation of the melodrama by Griffith's creation of a narrative voice. Pippa is a moral voice that in this film stays outside the diegesis. He compares the profilmic staging of the first sequence, with its split set (Pippa in the same image with the drinking man, though they do not see each other) to the use of parallel editing in the other sequences: the narrative is interrupted by an image of Pippa outside the window and returns to observe the effect of her song on the characters. Gunning points to the use of interruption for suspense and to give point to moral effect of Pippa's song. We should remember the structure of the film when we see Griffith's The Wanderer (1913), and Home Sweet Home (1914). In all three cases, music unconsciously affects the characters. The quality of music accompanying the films would surely have been important to the success of their performance. Eileen Bowser

53

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

190 BlOGRAPH

A FAIR EXCHANGE Filming date: 14/23 August 1909 Location: New York Studio/Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 23 September 1909 Release length: 995 feet Copyright date: 22 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: "Freely adapted" from Silas Marner, the novel by George Eliot Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood (Silas Marner); Mack Sennett (William Dane); Henry B. Walthall (Peasant); Anthony O'Sullivan (Nobleman); Verner Clarges (Minister); John R. Cumpson, Frank Evans, Kate Bruce, William A. Quirk (At church); George O. Nicholls, Arthur Johnson (Thieves); Gertrude Robinson (Mother); Edith Haldeman (Her child); Gladys Egan (Visiting child); Kate Bruce (Old woman); Owen Moore (Father of child); William A. Quirk (Marner's landlord); Frank Evans (Helpfulpeasant); ? (Old dying man) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print FREE ADAPTATION O F GEORGE ELIOT'S "SILAS MARNER" After all, God's most precious gift is the little child. Our darkest moments are brightened by the child's advent. Their presence dissipates all sorrow, and sheds sunshine where clouds shaded, for the mantle of darkness that shadowed the world in the beginning was dispelled by the Child of Bethlehem. Such was the experience of old Silas Marner, to whom, when the world seemed the darkest the little angel appeared. This Biograph adaptation makes Master Marner a cobbler instead of a linen weaver, but this change does not weaken, nor make less romantic the story. Silas is first seen in the act of ministering to his dying friend, and while engaged in this act of mercy, William Dane enters stealthily and steals the dying man's money, leaving Marner's handkerchief alongside the dresser so as to throw the blame on him. The money is discovered missing, and, of course, circumstantial evidence points conclusively to Marner, who protests innocence, and is given a chance of vindicating himself through that old superstitious practice of visiting the church, and in the presence of the elders in the vestry kneels and prays and draws lots. Fate is against him and he draws the black card which declares him guilty. This is final and his friends shun him as they would a leper. H e makes good the stolen money out of his own hard-earned savings and leaves his native village for another section of the country. Here he pursues his vocation of shoemaking. His trouble has made him a misanthrope and miser, niggardly hoarding the grains of his toil, guarding it with a jealousy induced by despicable money lust. A confirmed recluse, he spurns the advances of all; beggars are driven away empty-handed, with vituperation - in fact the strain of charity hitherto dominant in his nature is effaced. His one thought is his golden coins; his only pleasure is the musical clink as they fall from his hands in counting them, afterwards hiding them in the wall by removing a stone and placing them behind it. One day this is observed by a couple of thieves who peer through his window. Awaiting an opportunity, they enter during his absence and seize the money, making off with it. When Silas re-enters he sets about 54

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

indulging in his only diversion, but what a revelation. The money is gone. Like a maniac he dashes out in search of the thieves, but without success, returning and dropping on his workbench in utter despair. Meanwhile, a poor deserted mother of the parish, with her litde child, wanders from her home in quest of her perfidious husband, only to die on the road. The child, alone, continues on the way and entering Marner's hovel, sinks exhausted on the hearthstone. Silas arouses from his lethargy and is amazed to find the litde baby, which toddles to his arms. What a change comes over him, and folding the litde one to his breast exclaims, "This shall be my recompense". Indeed, a fair exchange. That moment his flinty heart softens and he becomes benevolence personified. Biograph Bulletin No. 277, [?]

In this "free adaptation of George Eliot's novel 'Silas Marner'", while Silas Marner takes care of a dying friend, William Dane steals the dying man's money, leaving Silas's handkerchief behind in order to mcriminate him. In the church, the elders try Silas for the theft through an ancient rite of casting lots. Silas draws the black and is found guilty. Although he restores the money from his own savings, everyone turns their back on him. Many years later, a bitter old man, Silas works as a cobbler in a far away village where he has become a miser and a recluse. To his utter despair his savings, hidden in a wall, are stolen. A poor deserted woman and child are evicted from their home and the mother dies not far from Silas's cabin. The litde child wanders in and her innocence brings Silas back to his original good self.

Although the search for sources with literary prestige probably led the Biograph Company to this classic nineteenth century novel, it seems clear that what interested Griffith in it is the popular theme of reformation of man through the innocence of a child. Indeed, George Eliot herself said that the novel "is intended to set in a strong light the remedial influences of pure, natural, human relations". The events of Silas's young life have been boiled down to just two scenes: the dying of Silas's old friend and the false accusation of theft. The staging gives significance to these scenes: the good Silas Marner and the bad William Dane are separated on opposite sides of the image, in the sick room and separated again in the same way in the church. Leaving out all of the subplots, the rest of the film is devoted to Silas in his gray-haired old age, a bitter old miser, how he hoards his money and refuses help to an old woman who has no money, or declines to help a begging child. Then Silas's money is stolen and replaced by the arrival of the child Eppie. Here, the staging makes exquisitely explicit the meaning of the film's tide: the child enters the room and falls asleep in the same place in the corner of the room by the fireplace where the miser's money had been hidden behind a stone until it was stolen. The child has been exchanged for the miser's treasure. Silas Marner's trade has been changed from linen weaver to that of a cobbler. A Fair Exchange leaves aside all of George Eliot's social study of the weaving industry. It is of no importance to the film's emphasis on the "child as redeemer" theme. Although the basic plot is not hard to understand, the missing titles do make it quite confusing for a modern-day viewer during time lapses of years, most especially those time lapses within the same scene. One such time lapse is that between the arrival of Silas in his new humble home and Silas as a gray-haired old man working in the same room with his cobbler's tools hung on the wall. Another is at the end when Silas first finds the child sleeping. Abrupdy, the affectionate child is srniling at his side while Silas works happily at his trade. The exteriors for A Fair Exchange were made in Cuddebackville, New York, in August 55

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

1909, chosen by Griffith that summer as a fresh source of scenic locations. It had already been used for several Indian pictures, The Mended Lute, The Indian Runner's Romance, and Comata, the Sioux, as well as a few other film genres. The Biograph production records show that A Fair Exchange was begun in the studio on 14 August, and completed in Cuddebackville on the 23rd. The quality of the exteriors taken there, in contrast to the cramped interiors, give an extraordinary quality, meaningful and emotional, to those scenes in which the mother and child wander the countryside, in particular the shot in which the child stands alone to one side by a tree, rather close to the camera, in a watery landscape, after the mother's death. The eloquence of such shots may explain the words of the Moving Picture World reviewer who wrote "It doesn't seem as though motion pictures could come so near speaking as they do in this film" (October 9, 1909, p. 491). The 16mm Library of Congress print is 377 feet, or the equivalent of about 944 feet in 35mm, but the difference from the original 995 feet of the first release is easily accounted for by the lack of a main title and any intertitles. There are nineteen shots. Eileen Bowser

56

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

191 BlOGRAPH

LEATHER STOCKING Filming date: 7/24/25/26 August 1909 Location: Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 21 September 1909 Release length: 996 feet Copyright date: 29 September 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: Adapted from the novels by James Fenimore Cooper Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin Cast: George O. Nicholls (Colonel); Marion Leonard, Linda Arvidson (His nieces); Mack Sennett (Big Serpent); Owen Moore (Leather Stocking); James Kirkwood (Trapper); William A. Quirk, Frank Powell, Anthony O'SuUivan (Soldiers); Guy Hedlund, Arthur Johnson, Frank Evans (Indians); Edith Haldeman (Child); ? (Escort) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print FREELY ADAPTED FROM THE TALES OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER What person has not been enthralled by the beautiful and thrilling pen pictures of that greatest of novelists, James Fenimore Cooper. Living as he did, almost associated with that tribe of the Algonkin [sic] stock, the Mohicans, his characters were real, living people, and while we have made no attempt to follow closely his story, we present a vivid appreciation of his work, the result, we may truthfully assert, being one of the most thrilling and picturesque subjects ever produced. Our story starts with the Colonel and his two nieces starting out to make a short cut to Fort George, accompanied by a scout, and piloted by a trusted Indian guide, who was none other than Big Serpent. This traitorous Redskin is elated at the opportunity to perpetrate a long cherished revenge. To this effect he has notified his followers, and they stand in readiness to act at his call. Proceeding on their journey they come to a mountain stream, where the party rest and take water, Big Serpent and the scout leading the horses into the shade of the wood. Just prior to the party, they express their misgivings, being sure of his sinister intention and truely, for while they are indicating their fears, the scout rushes on and tells that he had been assaulted and the horses killed. Leather Stocking and Uncas volunteer to see the party through their danger if possible, and they have not proceeded far when the woods seem to come alive with Indians, and the party is almost surrounded. Taking the only avenue of retreat, they manage to reach the stockade just ahead of the bloodthirsty redskins. Here a spirited battle ensues, which is not destined to last long, as ammunition is low. It is hoping against hope, for we now find there are but two charges left, and after that they will be at the mercy of the foe. Leather Stocking, however, feels there is but one chance, hazardous through it be, of getting to the fort for aid. His plan is subtle in the extreme. Donning an animal's skin, he plunges into the swirly [sic] torturous river at the back of the stockade, knowing that the crafty Indians would waste no ammunition on game, but save it for the enemy, ammunition being a scarce and precious commodity. In this manner he succeeds in reaching the soldier's quarters where he falls exhausted after telling them of the danger of the party. The soldiers start off at once and none too soon, for in the meantime 57

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the Indians have effected an entrance into the stockade with battering rams, and have the party tied up to trees piling brush to incinerate them. The torch is already applied to the brush about Uncas, and only the timely arrival of the soldiers and annihilation of the redskins saves his life. Uncas then accompanies the party on their way to the brow of the hill, where we leave him standing alone - the last of the Mohicans. Biograph Bulletin No. 278, [?]

The Colonel and his two nieces are accompanied by a scout and the treacherous Indian guide, Big Serpent, as they travel through the forest on the shortcut leading to Fort George. Leather Stocking and Uncas the Mohican learn with alarm that Big Serpent is acting as guide. The scout then comes rushing up and tells them he has been assaulted and the horses have been killed by Indians led by Big Serpent. Leather Stocking and Uncas reach the Colonel's party and attempt to guide them to safety. Soon the forest erupts with Indians, who pursue the party to the stockade. Surrounded and outnumbered and running out of ammunition, they send Leather Stocking to get the soldiers to rescue them. Leather Stocking dons an animal skin and swims the river rapids past the Indians to get help. Meanwhile, the attackers have burst into the stockade, tied the victims to stakes, and are beginning to burn Uncas alive when the troops arrive. The party descends from a cliff to continue their journey, while Uncas stands and watches from on high.

Griffith's desire for fresh locations led him to persuade a team of Biograph executives to go on an excursion trip to Cuddebackville to get them to agree on a major location trip in August 1909. Arvidson writes (pp. 120-3) about finding the pre-revolutionary stone house they needed for "1776" and Leather Stocking on the estate of Mr. Goddefroy, the richest man of Cuddebackville. They won him over as a friend, and he even provided his horses for their films. The landscape of Cuddebackville is exactly what is needed for a story based on James Fenimore Cooper's romantic Leather-Stocking series. (In the original, a hyphen was used in the character's name, and later references sometimes reduce it to one word.) The episodes of the novel might have taken place not far away. The film production uses the site to great advantage. Although Leather Stocking may be considered as part of Biograph's interest in filming the classic works of literature in the second half of 1909, it is based very loosely on James Fenimore Cooper. The filmmakers take a only a few elements from the Leather-Stocking tales to create the same basic elements of romance and thrills to be found in any western. Leather Stocking exploits the picturesque locations and the excitement of the chase. The pursuit of the Colonel's party through the forest by Indians, unrealistically crouching to hide when they are in plain sight of each other, is balletic in a way that reminds me of the urban gangster's war in the streets of Musketeers of Vig Alley (1912), although, of course, it is not as complex in its structure. Owen Moore, in the role of Leather Stocking, is truly heroic when he swims the white water rapids (soon abandoning the bearskin, which would have made such a swim impossible), pursued by Indians in canoes. Such thrilling sequences could only have taken place when the Biograph company left the studio for rural areas. The actors suffered by being put through water scenes, one supposes, but then, it was August. The swim was probably shot in the old canal that begins in front of the Caudebec Inn, where the Biograph players were staying, and about a mile away spills over a dam and becomes shallow rapids (Arvidson, p. 119). The moral melodrama favored at Biograph is put aside for this film, in favor of excite58

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

ment and violence: the Indians forcing their way into the stockade, the scalping, the burning at the stake. The prestige of the classics was perhaps sufficient to make the censors overlook such scenes, although they would often criticize them elsewhere. One overwhelmed commentator found Leather Stocking to be "rather more than an illustration of a popular novel. It might be considered a development of Indian character.... the work is so well done that it interprets the story better than one could do it himself by reading" ( The Moving Picture World, October 9, 1909, p. 489). A reviewer of the film in Variety (October 2, 1909) said that few films were so exciting, with its hair-breadth escapes and the race in the raging rapids, making the 'stage' "the wide stretch of nature". Such are to be the tendencies of Biograph productions, as they leave their tiny studio on 14th Street for the wide open spaces, especially for California. We look forward to the day when this film (the print currently available is a 35mm reversal print from the fine grain master made from the original negative) may be fully restored and we will be able to see its photogenic qualities at their best. The tides are missing, although the Library of Congress holds a paper print which we hope might contain some titles. Originally released as 996 feet in length, this print is 944 without the titles. Eileen Bowser

59

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

192 BlOGRAPH

FOOLS OF FATE Filming date: 27/30 August 1909 Location: New York Studio/Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 1 October 1909 Release length: 972 feet Copyright date: 7 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood {Ben Webster); Marion Leonard {Fanny Webster); Frank Powell (Ed Hilton); ? (Outside store); ? (Couple in forest) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print THE AWFUL RESULT OF DISCONTENT Parcae, the trinity of Fate, is bound to hold sway, and fools we be if we become the toy of those three goddesses - Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos - for resistence is in vain when we by daring incur their opprobrium. Clotho spins the thread of life, and Lachesis designs our lot according to the laws of ethics, and woe betide he or she who seeks to diverge, for Atropos wields her bistoury, clipping the thread, and we dangle helpless in the vortex of belligerent inclinations. Fanny is the wife of Ben Webster, a trapper, and while he is an affectionate and dutiful husband, she yearns for something which appears better than her lot. She reasons: "Have I not youth and beauty and attainments far above this environment? Why should I be compelled to toil and struggle in this wilderness." Truly, she did not know just what she yearned for, still a change of any sort would have been acceptable. Discontent is stamped upon her countenance, as Ben bids her good-bye for a hunting trip in the North Woods. Webster embarks in his canoe, and sighting game, stands to fire. The light craft is overturned, throwing him into the water. Weighted down by his heavy clothing and cartridge belt, he would have drowned, had not his plight been witnessed from the shore by Ed Hilton, a Canadian hunter. Hilton leaps in and succeeds in dragging the half-drowned trapper to land, where a strong friendship springs up between the two, and as night falls they make camp and sleep under one blanket. Next morning they part, with a vow of eternal friendship. Fanny goes to the village grocery store, and by chance meets Hilton, and it is a case of love at first sight with both, each, of course, ignorant of the other's identity. A second meeting is contrived, and Hilton thinking her a single girl, suggests an elopement, to which she consents. A meeting place is planned, and Fanny is there and leaves with Hilton for his cabin. She has, however, left a note for Ben saying that she "is tired, and is going away". Poor Webster's heart nearly breaks as he reads this short, but cutting letter. Grief at first possesses him, then revenge. Taking up his gun, he starts after her. H e hits a trail with the aid of a couple of villagers who had witnessed unseen the clandestine meeting of Fanny and the Canadian. Tracking them to the cabin, he bursts in, a few moments after their arrival. You may imagine the amazement on both sides when Ben finds Hilton is the man, and Hilton learns that Webster's wife is the woman. Hilton proves his innocence by commanding Webster to shoot; 60

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

but no. Ben cannot kill the man to whom he owes his life, and so he staggers out and back to his own home. Hilton, on the other hand, drives the heartless Fanny from him. She goes out, and for a time is undecided, when she resolves to face her husband and beg his forgiveness. Night has fallen and the cabin is in darkness when she enters. Going to the next room she gets the lantern, by which light she sees her husband sitting with his head reclining on the table. She assumes it is his grief, but on touching him his inert form falls to the floor, - he has terminated his existence. The shock causes her to recoil, and so doing, knocks over the lantern extinguishing the light. There in the shaft of moonlight, we leave her kneeling beside the awful result of her discontent. "Oh, thou fool!" Biograph Bulletin, No. 281, [?]

The trapper's wife Fanny is led by boredom to betray her devoted husband. He leaves her alone to go on a hunting trip in the North Woods. When he stands up in his canoe to shoot at game, the boat tips over, throwing him into the water. He is rescued by a Canadian trapper, Ed Hilton. They camp for the night and in the morning they part with vows of eternal friendship. Fanny meets Hilton at the village grocery store: they feel an attraction, she fails to tell him she is married, and agrees to elope with him. Her husband Ben returns to find her note, and sets out on her trail. Tracking them to Ed's cabin, he discovers that his friend has betrayed him, and Ed learns that he has unknowingly run off with Ben's wife. To prove his innocence, Ed asks Ben to shoot him. Ben cannot shoot the man who saved his life and he goes back home in despair. Ed then casts Fanny out. She decides to go back to Ben and beg his forgiveness. She arrives at nightfall and in the dark she reaches out to touch him where he sits unresponsive, head on the table. To her horror, he falls dead, a suicide.

Variety (October 6, 1909) declared that the Censor Board should not have permitted this film to be released because the act of suicide is shown. This is only one of a number of dark tragedies Biograph released around this time, as Griffith reached for a higher artistic standard. The moral of the film rests on the "The Awful Result of Discontent", as the subtitle says. The Biograph Bulletin is careful to point out that Ben arrives in pursuit of Fanny and Ed "a few minutes after they arrive", thus ensuring that no actual adultery has occurred. Perhaps a missing intertide provided this information to the spectator. If it were a case of adultery, the moral code would probably have required that the adulterers die, not the injured party. Fanny, however, is a worldly woman (Marion Leonard's specialty), and her expression reveals her discontent with her situation from her first appearance on the screen. There does not seem to be much chance that she could have become a good wife even if Ben had not committed suicide. The most striking scene in Fools of Fate is the discovery of the suicide: a dark and sinister cabin interior, Ht only by a hand-held lantern that highlights the woman and the white of her hat as she confronts the body of her dead husband. The dramatic shot coming at the end of the film underlines the horrors of the scene. One may imagine an audience of 1909 sitting in stunned silence. No wonder the Variety critic was shocked. Fools of Fate was made in the week following Pippa Passes and the concept of lighting effects as the means of establishing a mood remained in Griffith's mind. While still a novelty in films, such lighting effects were well known to the theatrical world, for example, in the productions of Belasco. For Griffith, the special effects would have meant not only an increase in the expressive qualities of a scene but also a reaching for artistic expression in the lowly medium of cinema. We know from Linda Arvidson's account that he aspired to such 61

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

heights. He reserved his dramatic lighting effects primarily for the endings of his films, and never let them dominate the narrative. The exteriors were done on the location trip to Cuddebackville and reveal the glories of scenery found there. As in Leather Stocking, the photogenic qualities of water scenes led Griffith to dunk his actors in the water again. However, the Variety reviewer quoted above complained about the stupidity of a man standing up in a canoe to shoot. Restoration of this film is not yet complete: the available copy is a 35mm reversal print from the Museum of Modern Art's fine grain master made from the original negative. It is 919 feet long without the missing titles, compared to the original length of 972 feet. Eileen Bowser

62

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

193 BlOGRAPH

WANTED, A CHILD Filming date: 31 August 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 30 September 1909 Release length: 296 feet Copyright date: 2 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: George O. Nicholls {Father); Kate Bruce {Mother); Anthony O'Sullivan? (Postman); Gladys Egan, Jack Pickford, Edith Haldeman {Children) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print

# "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn't know what to do". Yet would the aforesaid old lady part with any of those youngsters? Nary a kid. The same with the parents of the brood of our picture shows. The father is a laborer, and times being dull, the family strong-box is in an emaciated condition, hence he finds the struggle to feed the eight mouths - a wife and seven - pretty tough. But the worst comes when he finds his work shut down for the time being at least. The mother and father are in deep despair when a letter arrives from the bachelor brother, as follows: "My dear Friend: As I grow old and lonely, I sometimes think that I would like to have a child that would be like a son or daughter. You are always complaining that you have so many. Well, send one to me, and I will repay you with a fair sum of money. Your of [sic] brother, Mark?" Here is a splendid chance to enlighten their burden and so they make a round of the little cots on which the young ones are sleeping, with the view of selecting which one they will send. Well, the result is the following note: "Dear Brother: - Me and my wife have thought over your kind letter. At first we were going to send you all our children, but we find we are to poor too [sic] spare a one. John". Biograph Bulletin, [?]

A poor and elderly couple, overburdened by too many children, is tempted to consider the offer of the man's brother to give up one of their children to him in exchange for payment. When forced to choose, however, they find they cannot part with any of their offspring.

A brief film seemingly designed to trade on the appeal of the numerous youngsters portrayed sleeping adorably in their beds, Wanted, A Child avoids the obvious pathos inherent in its narrative situation. In fact, the task of selecting one of her children for eviction is approached with some enthusiasm by Kate Bruce, playing the mother. And Griffith certainly does not downplay the exhaustion the energetic members of this brood cause their mother by showing them engaged in rambunctious bouts of roughhousing in the initial shot. The unexpected 63

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

lightness of tone may explain why Biograph promoted the film as a comedy, a tactic which occasioned disbelief from The Moving Picture World, which stated, "It is scarcely comedy, this. On the contrary, the pathetic side is more prominent; at least, the emotions aroused are more pathetic than otherwise" (October 16, 1909, p. 529). Given its slightness, I would say the film benefits from its melodramatic set-up being treated somewhat cavalierly. This approach is maintained right up until the film's conclusion, the muted humour of which is blunted by the loss of the original insert detailing the contents of the father's written response to his brother's request: "Me and my wife have thought over your kind letter. At first, we were going to send you all our children, but we find we are too poor to spare one. John." In a characteristically sure touch of direction, Griffith has the father compose the letter while cradling the last-considered child in his lap. Charlie Keil

64

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

194 BlOGRAPH

A CHANGE OF HEART Filming date: 21A September 1909 Location: New York Studio/Greenwich, Connecticut 'Release date: 14 October 1909 Release length: 977 feet Copyright date: 14 October 1909 "Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Owen Moore (Howard Norris); William A. Quirk, Edward Dillon, ? (His companions); ? (Country girl); George O. Nicholls (Herfather); James Kirkwood (The farmer); Kate Bruce (Howard's mother); Arthur Johnson (Real minister); Anthony O'Sullivan (Cafe owner); Mack Sennett (Outside cafe); Anthony O'Sullivan, ? (Servants) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print THE DANGERS O F EVIL ASSOCIATION "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith" - Eccles., xiii, 2. The contaminating influence of evil companions has caused more woe than any other moral agent. Here we portray an episode in the life of the son of indulgent parents. Left to follow his inclinations, he drifts into the association of reckless companions, and having money at his disposal, he is able to indulge in any moral caprice they may suggest. Drinking is always the feature with such parties, and the head and heart benumbed by the fumes of alcohol are never normal and the being is morally weakened, ofttimes falling into a morass of irreparable ruin. Wicked companions invite us to perdition. Howard Norris, a fortunes-poiled [sic] young man, spends his time with a party of reckless youths who are attracted by his freedom with his money, and hence do their best to keep him entertained according to their own standard. Drinking and auto-speeding form the principal occupation of those who have nothing but money and time at their disposition. On one of their auto rides Norris meets a pretty, simple country girl, who is ardessness personified. She sits on the porch of her humble home endeavoring to arrange her raven tresses as she sees pictured before her in the fashion paper. The old father sits by admiring her who is all in all to him. Norris alights and asks for a drink of water, and the girl's simplicity induces his dangerous attentions. A second visit is made, and he prevails upon the girl to meet him clandestinely. To this she accedes, and with the aid of his companions, the young man plans a deception, one of his associates volunteering to play the part of the minister. The pretended marriage performed, the young man takes the girl to the summer hotel at which he is stopping. Meanwhile, the old father becomes uneasy at his child's absence, and approaching the cafe the young man frequents, he learns the truth from the boasting, reckless youths, who do not enlighten him as to his daughter's whereabouts. Returning home almost brokenhearted, he swears to kill on sight the young profligate who lured his child off. The chums of the young man arrive at the hotel and intimate to the girl the nature of the situation, and she demands the truth from Norris, learning which she flies out of the place to make her way homeward on foot. She has scarcely gone when Norris' mother 65

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

arrives from a trip abroad, and appreciating the tone of the companions, she whispers those old fashioned words of love and advice, the like of which he has not heard in some time. He sees what a whelp he has been, and realizing that he loves the little country girl, he hastens after her to right the wrong. Overtaking her in the road, he persuades her to go and be married in earnest, which she does, and they then proceed, accompanied by the officiating minister, to the old man's home, who now believes it has all been a mistake. The subject is a life story convincingly told in a series of most beautiful rustic scenes. Biograph Bulletin, No. 283, October 14, 1909

Howard Norris, a young man of some means, happens upon a simple country girl when he is out driving. After winning her confidence, he arranges an elopement, and dupes her into thinking they are married when in fact he has had one of his friend pose as a minister. The young woman's father learns of the deception when he overhears Norris's friends bragging about their ruse, and he resolves to seek revenge should the couple ever return. Eventually, the daughter also finds out, and flees Norris's home. Norris appears unmoved until his mother, back after an extended absence, counsels him on his dissolute ways. Norris resolves to right his wrongs, and catches up with the young woman, who has collapsed on her way back to her home. When the two return to face her father, a minister accompanies them, and the father's opposition dissolves, allowing for reconciliation.

Not one of Griffith's more accomplished storytelling efforts, A Change of Heart suffers from insufficient integration of its various elements. Most obvious is the enraged father, who, having been set up as a threat to the deceptive Norris, promptly disappears from the narrative until the final shot. Similarly, a competing love interest for the young woman appears in shot # 4 , but Griffith can think of nothing else to do with him except have him serve as a reluctant source of information concerning her whereabouts when Norris is pursuing her near the end of the film. And the sudden appearance of Norris's morally wise mother is an unfortunate example of externally engineered character transformation, which the trade press was actively discouraging by 1909. As The New York Dramatic Mirror suggested, "it would, perhaps, have been more plausible if the young fellow had been allowed to work out his own salvation upon perceiving the distress of his victim" (October 23, 1909, p. 16). Despite these weaknesses in narrative construction, A Change of Heart still offers some involving instances of Griffith's growing mastery of mise-en-scène. When the father is left alone by his daughter's departure, Griffith shows the interior of their country home for the first time, emphasising the old man's loneliness by placing him to the far right of the frame, and having him look off to an expanse of unoccupied space on the left. Even more impressive is the second shot of the film, which features the type of deft manipulation of clothing as props which Russell Merritt has convincingly proven is a hallmark of Griffith's work with actors (Merritt, 1976). The actress playing the young woman is introduced by the simple tide "Artlessness", and the rest is filled in by a series of carefully observed touches. In Biograph's own description of the film, we first see her as "[s]he sits on the porch of her humble home endeavoring to arrange her raven tresses as she sees pictured before her in the fashion paper." When Norris approaches her, she is barefoot, and she playfully pulls at the tongue of one of her removed shoes. As is often the case in Griffith, this telltale element, presented as incidental and casually observed, establishes more than a host of tides could. First, her shoes being off indicates the young woman has been caught unawares, making her especially 66

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

susceptible to Norris's charm. Further, as corroboration of the title "Artlessness", their removal reveals her unpretentious manner, signalled all the more strongly by Norris appearing to be overdressed, as he is outfitted in car-touring gear, replete with long gloves. (In what constitutes the film's most inspired moment, Norris clutches his leather riding glove, a sign of his social station and sophistication, while the woman, facing him in a mirrored composition, brandishes her unworn shoe as unintentional proof of her simplicity.) Finally, the young woman's failure to put her shoes on, even after Norris has appeared, confirms the attraction she feels toward him; he provides a distraction so compelling she can't be bothered with social propriety. This single detail helps to supply motivation for the woman's subsequent reckless actions, precisely the type of character-centred strategy not pursued in establishing Norris's later conversion to rectitude. Like so many of Griffith's Biographs, A Change of Heart reveals the inconsistency bred by short shooting schedules and repetitious material. Inspired one moment, programmatic the next, the average Biograph typically pleases and frustrates in equal measure. Charlie Keil

67

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

195 BlOGRAPH

THE LITTLE TEACHER Filming date: 1/3/8 September 1909 Location: Greenwich, Connecticut/Leonia [Station], New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 11 October 1909 Release length: 982 feet Copyright date: 7 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin Cast: Mary Pickford {The little teacher); Arthur Johnson (Jack Browning); Edward Dillon (Dave, the bully); Kate Bruce (The mother); George O. Nicholls, ? (Men in schoolroom); William A. Quirk, Gladys Egan, Gertrude Robinson, Edith Haldeman (Students); ? (Browning's wife) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection); National Film and Television Archive, London, 35mm nitrate positive A COMEDY O F RUSTIC SCHOOL-DAYS Youth and authority never go hand in hand. To command, the commander must have either age or whiskers, and it is not to be wondered at the scholars of the little country school rebelling, when the little teacher, a pretty girl, smaller and younger than many of her charges, was put in the position "To teach the young idea how to shoot". She had a promonition that the task was a disagreeable one, and it required the persuasive urging of the school committee to induce her to take charge. Her very entrance in the schoolroom is met with suppressed derision, and the trouble comes when she requests Dave, the bully of the class, to get up and recite. H e refuses point blank, and incites a mutiny, during which the entire class bolts. Weeping, she leaves the schoolhouse for home, discouraged and embarassed. On the way she meets Jack Browning, a surveyor, who, upon learning the cause of her grief, volunteers to lend her aid. With her, he goes to the schoolroom, where, meanwhile, the scholars have returned and are raising Cain. At their entrance quiet is induced and Dave is thrashed into submission by the surveyor, and quite willfully does he recite his lesson. Still, he is chagrined, and the gibes of his classmates arouse his ire further, so he decides to bow to Nemesis and meet the surveyor after school. The meeting takes place, for the surveyor, anticipating trouble, calls to protect the little teacher on her way home. The determined but misguided Dave receives another bump, and is now docile. Furthermore, he begins to see his teacher in a new light. H e becomes deeply smitten with her and gathers wild flowers to adorn her desk, despite the fact that Patsy says he is "mush". The teacher's thoughts, however, are in another direction, for the well-meant protection of the surveyor unwittingly wins her heart. The surveyor is a married man, whose wife now joins him, and he is quite innocent of the suffering he has caused, never dreaming that the little girl esteemed him more than a friend. But then it is the unsophisticatedness of the teacher that induces this misunderstanding, and she soon recovers to notice the true, honest love of her big pupil, Dave. You may imagine Dave's elation upon learning of the surveyor's harmlessness, and so at once sets seige upon the little teacher's heart and is victorious. The subject is one of dainty, rustic simplicity and is bound to please all, particularly the ladies and children. Biograph Bulletin, No. 282, October 11, 1909 68

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

A young female teacher is enlisted to oversee a particularly unruly class in a rural school. She soon loses control, and her pupils mount a revolt, eventually leaving the classroom. Wandering outside at loose ends, the teacher encounters a helpful surveyor, Jack Browning, who returns with her to the school and restores order. Central to the insurrection has been Dave, an older pupil, who challenges Jack to a fight after class. The teacher intervenes in the fight, which seems to spark a romantic interest in Dave, who soon becomes smitten with her. The teacher, however, has become enamoured of Jack, but her hopes are dashed when Jack introduces her to his wife. In the final shot, Dave offers the teacher solace once Jack and his wife depart, and the possibility of romance between Dave and the teacher is suggested.

Typical of the bucolic romantic comedies Griffith would continue to develop into the feature era, The Little Teacher also helps establish the Mary Pickford persona, as it foregrounds the qualities of pluck and winsomeness with which she came to be associated. The film affords Pickford ample opportunities to show a range of emotion, as she must contend with the outrageous antics of her classroom charges in the early portion of the film, settle a fight at the film's midpoint, and then respond to romantic disappointment in the concluding shots. Griffith sets her off in a number of pleasant exterior settings, of which the picturesque field where she meets the surveyor is probably the most visually striking. The Little Teacher demonstrates how, by mid-1909, Griffith was still developing numerous formal strategies which would inform the remainder of his Biograph output. Directed glances figure prominently in the latter portion of the film, and, as we might expect of Griffith, their function incorporates both the articulation of space and the intensification of emotional bonds. In the shot sequence extending from # 9 through # 1 3 , Griffith adopts a simple alternating spatial schema of ABABA. Pickford and Arthur Johnson (playing Jack), move from one space (#9) to another (#10), with Johnson leaving to return to the space of # 9 for shot # 1 1 . The fight between Johnson and Edward Dillon (Dave) then erupts, interrupted by a cut back to Pickford (shot # 1 2 ; space of #10), who looks toward and then points off frame right before exiting, and eventually stopping the fight in shot # 1 3 . Griffith makes sure to establish that the audience is aware of Pickford's awareness prior to shot # 1 3 , and underlines the relevance of her directed glance by accompanying it with the gesture of pointing. But by separating Pickford and the combatants into two distinct spaces joined by cuts, Griffith is counting on editing and the glance to create something akin to point of view. This is different in nature from the diegetically impossible views editing and outward directed stares had suggested in earlier films such &s After Many Years and The Golden Louis, where glances across a cut suggest characters' thoughts rather than what they can actually see. And it is a strategy distinct from the practice of placing the character behind or to the side of the viewed action, but within the same shot. Griffith is still a long way from anything approximating the shot/reverse shot procedure, but the separation of viewer and viewed into two shots is doubtless spurred by the nature of the action being viewed (a rowdy fight) and its being filmed outdoors. The other instances of directed glances involve a series of rhyming shots near the end of the film which neatly parallel the unrequited nature of both Dillon and Pickford's romantic longing and prepare for the two being brought together. At the end of shot # 1 7 , Dillon is left alone in the frame, staring off at the recendy departed Pickford and Johnson. Similarly, at the end of # 1 8 , Pickford continues to gaze in Johnson's direction once he has left. When Johnson's wife first appears in shot #19, Pickford stares off in disbelief at the couple once 69

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

they have gone, standing in the same spot Dillon had in shot # 1 8 . Finally, in shot # 2 0 , Pickford is joined by Dillon, and both stare off disconsolately once the surveyor and his wife have said goodbye. Griffith complements the potency of this series of longing looks with a developed set of meanings connected to one of his privileged props, hand-held flowers. The first of several bunches of flowers makes its appearance in shot # 1 5 , when Dillon gives one to Pickford as evidence of his growing affection. She carries it with her as long as he accompanies her, but by shot # 1 8 , when she is alone again with Johnson, it has disappeared, doubtless discarded by the preoccupied Pickford. In the final shot, Johnson and his wife offer her a noticeably more ostentatious bouquet, which Pickford almost drops once they have departed. Dillon catches them for her, but then lets them fall, substituting his own more modest bunch. Griffith's efforts here did not go unnoticed by The New York Dramatic Mirror, which noted a "touch of true poetry is given to the scene when the girl permits the youth to cast away the hothouse bouquet and accepts his simple offering in its place" (October 23, 1909, p. 15). Even so, the complicated emotions conveyed by this scene are not captured adequately by the Mirror's description. Pickford does accept Dillon's gesture, but her actual response is obscured because she lowers her head at the moment of acceptance. The delicacy of both Dillon and Pickford's acting, coupled with the charged associations of the contrasted bouquets, suggests resignation as much as resolution, and looks forward to another bittersweet ending marked by a proffered bouquet, in 1913's much darker Death's Marathon. Charlie Keil

70

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

196 BlOGRAPH

HIS LOST LOVE Filming date: 7/8/10 September 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 18 October 1909 Release length: 968 feet Copyright date: 19 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood (Luke); Owen Moore (James); Mary Pickford (Mary); George O. Nicholls (Her father); Kate Bruce, ? (Maids); Marion Leonard (Sister); Gertrude Robinson (Grown child); Anthony O'Sullivan (In cabin); Dorothy West, Mack Sennett, Lottie Pickford?, Gladys Egan, Anthony O'Sullivan, Violet Mersereau, Frank Evans, Marion Leonard (At wedding); ? (Church caretaker); ? (Doctor); ? (Minister) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A BROTHER'S SACRIFICE AND ITS OUTCOME To yield our beloved for the sake of their happiness is one of the noblest sacrifices man can make. There is a note of unselfishness in it that is without parallel. Such was the deed of the hero of this story. Luke and James are brothers in an old English family. James went to London when quite a boy to engage in business, but Luke remained at home among the simple country folks. Mary, the daughter of a neighbor, and Luke and James, were playmates in their early days, and Mary and James were childhood sweethearts. As years went, with, James engrossed in the business whirl of the metropolis, he forgot Mary, and Luke's honest, noble nature appeals to her, and they become engaged. James at this time is obsessed with a desire to visit his old home, and upon his return, the meeting of he and Mary revive the old memories and enkindle the love of their childhood days. Mary, of course, is irresistibly attracted by the manly bearing of handsome James. Luke realizes the situation, and with almost breaking heart surrenders in favor of his brother, considering only Mary's happiness. Oh! the suffering attending a love blighted life - but Luke is content to suffer if it means happiness for Mary. The young couple marry, and their life is one of sunshine, until Mary's sister pays them a visit. There is at once a mutual feeling between James and the sister, and though they stuggle against self, the fight seems hopeless. Meanwhile, a little child blesses the union of James and Mary, and one would believe that this at least would be the means of determining for them the path of duty, but not so, and the sister finally resolves to leave fearful of the consequences. The announcement of her determination to James makes him forget all else but her, and he goes so far as to declare his intention of leaving with her. All this is heard by the young wife and Luke, who would have struck him at his feet but for the interception of poor Mary. James leaves, however, and the poor wife's heart breaks and she falls into Luke's arms never to rise. Her death is the harvest of James' weakness. Noblehearted Luke now kneels by the side of his dead sister-in-law, crushed in spirit for he reasons that his sacrifice instead of bringing happiness has brought death to Mary and orphanage to 71

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

her child. The thought of the child arouses him. That, at least, could he do - protect the little innocent. So taking the baby from its crib he resolves to give his life for its welfare. Years after we find the baby grown up to innocent girlhood. But the world has not been too kind to Luke, and it is a struggle for him to get along. On the other hand, James has prospered, but his success is only a means by which his conscience may all the more haunt him. His life is unhappy and he longs for his child. Seeking his brother's home, he makes himself known to the little one, and Luke gives her the right to choose between them. She will not leave Luke, for she loves him as the only father she has ever known. James is denied even the love of his own child. In this production, the Biograph presents a subject that is bound to sink deep into the hearts of the spectators. Biograph Bulletin, No. 284, October 18, 1909

Luke pledges his love for Mary, who agrees to become his wife. The return of Luke's longabsent younger brother, James, causes Mary to change her mind. Luke gallantly cedes to his brother, and Mary and James are married. Ironically, when Mary's sister visits, James becomes attracted to her. The visiting sister resolves to leave and avoid causing any further problems. Unfortunately, her attempts to part result in James displaying his affection, a scene which Mary unintentionally espies. James declares himself unable to be without the sister, and the shock kills Mary, who has only recently given birth. Luke takes it upon himself to raise the child. After an interval of many years, the child, now grown to be a young woman, is living in relative poverty with Luke. James, who has enjoyed financial success, appears at their cottage and tries to convince his daughter to come with him. She rebuffs him and declares her ongoing devotion to Luke.

Anyone convinced that Griffith always presented a world ruled by consistendy applied notions of moral fairness has overlooked films such as His Lost Love. James, the agent of a fair amount of misfortune in the film, elects to abandon his wife and recently born daughter for his wife's sister and, not only does he not suffer, he prospers in the process. Of course, the real point of the film is the elevation of James's brother Luke to the status of martyr, which requires the remaining principals to behave with little regard for others' feelings, and, in the case of Mary, die rather suddenly. If it's difficult to take the narrative oîHis Lost Love seriously, it is as much a function of the story's compression into a single reel as it is the onslaught of improbably dire events. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the film's single shot epilogue, which rushes ahead some twenty years with little in the way of preparation. It is unusual for Biographs of this period (and, indeed, films from any company) to attempt stories involving significant temporal ellipses of this nature, and from the experience of His Lost Love it is easy to see why. Relying primarily on dramatic changes in costume and makeup to convey the passage of years, Griffith risks confusing his audience by rendering the main male characters nearly unrecognizable. (The daughter, of course, was last seen as an infant, so ascertaining her identity proves even more of a challenge.) But beyond the difficulties the sudden leap forward poses for simple viewer comprehension, the contraction of story time inherent in such an ellipsis inevitably makes the film's conclusion emerge as rushed and dramatically unsatisfying. One is hard pressed to imagine how the story of His Lost Love could ever be effective within the durational constraints of the one-reeler. Putting narrative problems aside, one can still note Griffith's facility in blocking actors within circumscribed spaces. The set employed for shot # 1 , used three times, affords numerous examples of Griffith's skill in this area. In the first shot, Mary and Luke occupy 12

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

opposite sides of the frame initially, with Mary's father all but obscured while sitting behind her. As the subject of their betrothal is raised, the father emerges from his chair to stand between the couple, giving them his blessing. Griffith seems to favour this strategy of bringing forward or simply revealing a momentarily significant character from a virtual off-screen position, and one can cite numerous instances in later films such as Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912). Inventive use is also made of the table at the centre of the set, which Luke leans onto upon his entrance, bringing himself closer to the seated figure of Mary. At the end of the shot, the two will embrace while seated on the table, a whimsical moment which nicely establishes Luke's infatuation with Mary. Griffith uses this same set to chart the transfer of Mary's affections from Luke to James, conveyed economically but believably in two successive shots. In the first of these, Luke comes around from behind the table and brings Mary over to meet the newly arrived James, positioning himself in the middle. Called out by Mary's father, Luke leaves the two behind, and James eventually sits against the table, with Mary about to join him before Luke returns to the room. In this way, the intimate pairing of Luke and Mary from shot # 1 is nearly duplicated, suggesting James could well supplant Luke as Mary's love. The shot ends with Luke repositioning himself beside Mary, though they remain standing and she discreedy brushes his kiss from her lips. In the next shot, James comes upon Mary in the same room and they eventually embrace, only to be discovered by Luke. He slowly moves into the space left by their now separated bodies and crumples onto the same table he had sat upon with such casual happiness in the first shot. Realizing the couple's love for each other, he relinquishes his claim to Mary, remaining resolutely behind the table while he acts out his decision via a number of coded arm gestures, and then leaves. The father, who has also re-entered the room, stands at the centre of the set between Mary and James before moving off to his initial position in shot # 1 and finally exiting (neatly reversing the pattern of his actions from the first shot). The shot ends with Mary and James turning back toward the other, each laying a hand on the table before clasping hands and ultimately embracing. As in the rhyming shots and recurring props described in my analysis of The Little Teacher, the parallels employed in these opening shots of His Lost Love effectively highlight changes in characters' emotional reactions. Moreover, they serve as reminders of Griffith's talent at narrational economy on the level of intershot and intrashot relation - even when proper structuring of the narrative in toto eludes him. Charlie Keil

73

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

197 BlOGRAPH

THE EXPIATION Filming date: 15/16 September 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 21 October 1909 Release length: 992 feet Copyright date: 23 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Owen Moore {Edward Waterbury); Marion Leonard {Helen, his wife); Arthur Johnson {William Trevor); Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Evans {Servants); Mack Sennett {Trevor s friend); ? {Maids); Guy Hedland? {Trevor's servant); George O. Nicholls, Frank Evans {Men in cabin) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; George Eastman House, 35mm nitrate positive ATONEMENT OF A SELF-ACCUSED WRONG Expiation is almost invariably the act of a noble heart. It is a self-satisfaction as well as reparation for a deed the world may fully condone, but the consistent mind will accept no such condonation if the conscience is disturbed. Hence, voluntary expiation is the most commendable form of atonement. Such forms the theme of this Biograph production, though the real cause of suffering is through the curse of drink. Edward Waterbury is a confirmed dipsomaniac and is assisted to his home from the club by William Trevor, a friend of the family. Trevor's kindly nature has impressed Mrs. Waterbury and there is a slight suggestion that they love but both being the souls of honor, hide it from each other. However, Trevor, appreciating the fact that Mrs. Waterbury, is wedded to a hopeless drunkard, he feels half inclined to declare his love for the suffering woman, and persuade her to leave Waterbury. But, no. H e reasons such a step would not be honorable, so he decides to go away to avoid a wrong. Hence, he plans to go to the far West. He cannot leave without saying good-bye, and repairs to their home with this intention only. Waterbury from the next room, whither he has gone surreptitiously to drink, witnesses their parting and misconstrues the intent of the meeting, deeming it an intrigue. Trevor leaves for the West, and Mrs. Waterbury retires to her room. Waterbury enters and seizing a revolver is at first inclined to satisfy his jealous rage, but on the second thought he feels he himself is to blame, and the weapon he would use on them should more justifably be turned on himself. This decides him, and he writes the following: "My dear Helen: I realize my weakness is incurable. I am your curse. Will be so no longer. You and Trevor love. My last toast - "To you both". Leaving the letter on the table, he takes a glass of brandy in one hand and, with the pistol in the other, makes good his assertion. The house is at once panic stricken, and when the wife sees the lifeless form of her husband in the chair and reads his letter she at once blames herself for his act, although drink was really the cause, and resolves to expiate her self-accused wrong. A friend of Trevor writes to him of the sad affair and he determines to return and declare his love for the widow. However, the poor woman has avowed to lead a penitential life and no persuasion can induce her to change her 74

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

determination, so Trevor must bow to the inevitable and leaves. The subject is rather out of the ordinary, and being beautifully staged and acted will prove intensely interesting. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], October 21, 1909

William Trevor finds himself drawn to his friend's wife, Helen. The friend, Edward Waterbury, is causing damage to his marriage with his unrepentant drunkenness. William, sensing his feelings might lead him into an affair with Helen, decides to go away. When he comes to say goodbye to Helen, his appearance at their home leads Edward, spying from behind the curtains, to believe they are involved. Believing himself to be a barrier to Helen and William's happiness, Edward shoots himself. When William learns of Edward's death, he returns with the intention of convincing Helen to become his wife. She, however, blames herself for Edward's suicide and resigns herself to solitary expiation for the guilt associated with his actions. William leaves, and Helen takes comfort by kneeling with a crucifix.

On occasion, Griffith involved himself with scenarios revolving around issues of religious faith, evidenced by films such as Resurrection, To Save Her Soul, and Rose O'Salem-Town. During the same period, Vitagraph often opted for the biblical adaptation, but the Biograph treatment of religion tends more toward the depiction of the soul's response to the travails of earthly existence. This is in keeping with Griffith's ongoing interest in exploring character psychology, and one could argue that many more of his films are religious if one accepts that term as defining a drama of moralistic spirituality. In The Expiation, dramatic interest resides more in the struggle of the obvious sinner, the drunken husband Edward, than it does the reaction of the long-suffering wife. The film's highlight is undoubtedly the moment when Edward takes his life, which, as Tom Gunning points out in an unpublished section from his dissertation, follows rather closely on the heels of a similar, if more explicit depiction of suicide in Fools of Fate, shot less than a month earlier. What commends the scene in The Expiation is the manner in which the husband's drinking remains tied in to the act of shooting himself. In fact, he hoists both decanter and gun simultaneously, literally taking a shot of each. Even his suicide note plays grimly on the necessary mtemvining of drink and death, when he offers Helen (and William) his "last toast - to you both". That Edward's act of suicide should be figured in terms of alcohol is fitting, because his drinking is responsible. This is true whether one thinks his misrecognition of Helen's interaction with William as proof of adultery occurs simply because he is drunk or one sees his conviction in this matter fueled by the strain his alcoholism has caused to the marriage. Though none of the films from the group I have described makes especially noteworthy use of editing - probably the only film of interest in this regard is The Little Teacher - Griffith does elect to interrupt the lead-up to the suicide with a cutaway to William as he is departing on his trip. This fusing of cause and effect through the cut is one of the more celebrated functions of certain of Griffith's parallel edits; its use within a suicide scene will reappear with considerably more force when Henry Walthall's character takes his life in The Usurer. If Griffith's attention to editing does emerge as uncharacteristically non-committal during the late August/mid-September period of 1909, it may be due to his continued experimentation with lighting effects. The most famous of these efforts is Pippa Passes, a film shot just prior to those in the group I am describing. But one sees similar self-conscious employment of directional lighting in A Change of Heart, His Lost Love, and The Expiation. 75

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Of the three, The Expiation features lighting effects most clearly designed to highlight the narrative climax. Once the husband has committed suicide, the room in question appears darkened, with a muted light throwing into relief a limited number of key props, most pertinently Edward's now-empty armchair and a mounted crucifix. Unfortunately, the print I viewed had suffered deterioration, allowing only a vague sense of the lighting's atmospheric effects. But certainly, its chief function seems to echo Tom Gunning's general contention about such effects in Biographs of the period: "A directional light illuminating figures in an otherwise darkened area usually accompanies scenes of spiritual devotion or conversion" (Gunning, 1991, p. 182). On a more prosaic level, one could argue that the lighting effects are necessary to invest the wife's plight with sufficient emotional weight to counterbalance the impression made by the husband's actions. The film is called The Expiation, after all, and Griffith has to pull out all the stops to make the "pathetic ending of an unexpected nature" (The New York Dramatic Mirror, October 30, 1909, p. 14) register with an audience, given the inherently passive nature of the wife's decision. In this, I think it is safe to say he fails, and The Expiation remains a film which depicts spiritual resolve rather than dramatising it. Charlie Keil

76

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

198 BlOGRAPH

THE GIBSON GODDESS Filming date: 11/17 September 1909 Location: Highlands, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 1 November 1909 Release length: 576 feet Copyright date: 1 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Marion Leonard {Nanette Renfrea); ? (Her valet); James Kirkwood, Mack Sennett, William A. Quirk, J. Waltham, Arthur Johnson (Her admirers); Anthony O'Sullivan (Commodore Fitzmorrice); Kate Bruce, Mary Pickford, Gertrude Robinson (On sidewalks); Dorothy West (Maid); Frank Evans (On pier); George O. Nicholls (Manager of beach house) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate positive (AFI/Tayler Collection) "Oh! Why do they call me the Gibson Girl?" These lines of a popular song were uttered with a sigh by the heroine of this Biograph comedy, for beauty is sometimes an annoying possession. Nanette Renfrea, after an arduous season of society's whirl, decides to spend a quiet summer at a secluded summer resort. The place selected is one frequented by the middle class, where she feels she will be free from the tormenting attentions of the male sex that her beauty has induced in the past. She arrives without ostentation accompanied only by her maid, but her extreme pulchritude and graceful bearing soon enraptured the male contingent of the place to the jealous rage of other women folks, who find themselves deserted. It is most annoying she cannot stir, but there is a score of admirers present. A walk on the beach; a stroll through the park is invariably attended by a regiment of gallants, until to her they become positive pests. One would have been acceptable, but twenty - well, it seems as if she is destined to pass time in the seclusion of her room. The maid, however, is ingenious and suggests a new way to get rid of the troublesome pests. She attires her mistress in a bathing suit and puts on a hideous pair of stockings lined with raw cotton, which gives her a Gargantuan appearance, at least as to her nethers. Of course, the persistent tormentors flee in panic when they behold, but, you know "none but the brave, deserve the fair", and Commodore Fitzmorris sticks, thereby making a decided impression upon Nanette. You may imagine the chagrin of the others when they learn of the hoax. Fitzie is now the favored one. As for the others, they are a disgruntled bunch, for the other girls, slighted before, turn cold shoulders on them. Biograph Bulletin, [?]

A beautiful woman is pursued by a growing pack of admirers who make her every move at a seaside resort unpleasant. She and her maid devise a plan to deter the erstwhile suitors: when she appears in a leg-revealing swimsuit, the stockings have been stuffed with cotton 77

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

to make her limbs appear misshapen. All but one of the men is driven off by her ruse, but the fairweather admirers come to regret their decision when she removes the misleading leg coverings.

After the rather grim-faced proceedings involved in A Change of Heart, His Lost Love and especially The Expiation, it must have been a relief for Griffith to turn to the low comedy antics of The Gibson Goddess. Basically a throw-away, the film is nonetheless visually refreshing, if for no other reason than the succession of appealing outdoor locations. (The latter two dramas had relied exclusively on interior sets, which rendered their atmosphere even more claustrophobic.) Griffith clearly revels in the plein d'air shooting circumstances of The Gibson Goddess, which are only fully evident if one views a 35mm print, such as the one at The Library of Congress, taken from the nitrate positive. Especially vibrant is the dockside setting of shot # 7 , where the waves roll in with surprising ferocity as a backdrop for the frivolous antics of the film's assorted comic buffoons. As for the narrative itself, it's something of a throwback to the structure of the "motivated link" John Fell has associated with films from 1907-1908 (Fell, pp. 272-83). Une Dame vraiment bien comes to mind as a model, although here, at least, the woman has the last laugh. The final gag, wherein the beautiful woman turns her attractiveness into an instrument of scopophilic displeasure, can be seen as a knowing joke about the voyeurism /fetishism inherent in cinematic fascination, typically dependent on the spectacle of the female body. Then again, it may simply be a confirmation of same, and an easy way to parade Marion Leonard's shapely form. To quell debate, we can concede that the film exposes the male desire to look at the same time it indulges that desire. In any case, The New York Dramatic Mirror was not impressed: "[The film] is given an ending that is neither clever nor convincing, and depends for its laughs solely on an indelicate proceeding that does not go well in motion pictures. ...This sort of thing can be done on the vaudeville stage without offence" (November 13, 1909, p. 15). Perhaps Biograph should have released The Gibson Goddess in tandem with The Expiation, and saved itself some trouble. Charlie Keil

78

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

199 BlOGRAPH

LINES OF WHITE ON A SULLEN SEA Filming date: 11/18 September 1909 Location: New York Studio/Highlands, New Jersey Release date: 28 October 1909 Release length: 975 feet Copyright date: 21 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: "Lines of White on a Sullen Sea", poem by William Carleton Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Linda Arvidson {Emily); George O. Nicholls {Joe); James Kirkwood {Bill); Kate Bruce {Mother); Marion Leonard {Second wife); Dorothy West {Her friend); William A. Quirk, Gertrude Robinson {First couple); Mary Pickford, ? {Second couple); Frank Powell {Doctor); Mack Sennett, Frank Evans, William A. Quirk, Anthony O'Sullivan {Fishermen in first port); Owen Moore {In second port) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A STORY O F UNREQUITED LOVE "Oh, the love of woman! No coldness, no neglect, no harshness, no cruelty, can extinguish thee!" These lines of William Carleton were never more forcibly exemplified than in this Biograph film story, which shows the unswerving constancy of a pretty fishermaiden, who sacrificed her life upon the altar of unrequited love. Emily Brackett is wooed by two fishermen of the village, and rejecting the proffered ring of Joe, accepts Bill, who places upon her wrist a bracelet, which he locks, he keeping the key. In this manner they plight their troth. Joe is almost heart-broken, but dissembles wishing Emily well. The time arrives for Bill to ship and the parting with Emily is undoubtedly sincere. H e promises to make her his wife upon his return. But, alas, Bill is one of those impressionable beings, suspectible to conditions and when he arrives at the foreign port he meets a pretty girl whose charms and innocent mien appeal to him. Hence, little Emily is forgotton [sic]. Bill being a handsome fellow, his proposal is accepted by the girl and they are married, taking up their residence in this foreign village, where he becomes Commander of a fishing ship. But what of Emily? The poor soul is waiting ever hopeful. Each mail she is disappointed at not receiving any word from Bill. She watches the return of the boats after each fishing trip, but all in vain. Day after day does she go to and scans the sullen sea which only brings back to the beach huge lines of white, which seem to taunt her as they break upon the sands. Often has faithful Joe importuned to place upon her finger the ring he still holds hopefully for her. But she has pledged her word to Bill. Weeks, months, and years pass, yet she waits in vain, until finally she gives way under the strain of anxiety and death is inevitable. Six years have rolled around and the sands of her life have almost run, when Bill makes his apperance in the village accompanied by his wife and child. When Joe meets him, he is at first inclined to strike him down, but no, there is at least a chance to make the last few moments of Emily's life happy, thereby easing death's sting. So Joe forces Bill to go with him to Emily's bedside, place his ring on her finger, pretending it his own, and that he has returned to fulfill his promise. This he does, and not too soon, for the 79

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

poor girl, a victim of a charitable deception, smiles and trying to raise herself from her pillow drops back to yield up her pure faithful soul to God. The subject is a most beautiful one, depicting the simple life of the humble fisherfolk, comprising a service of beach scenes never excelled. Biograph Bulletin, No. 877[?], October 28, 1909

Sitting on a beach mending nets, Emily turns down a proposal of marriage from the sailor Joe, then accepts another sailor, Bill. The pair announce their engagement to the fishing community. After an idyllic interlude, Bill goes to sea, giving Emily a bracelet which she vows to wear until his return. She begins a faithful vigil. Landing in another port, Bill is attracted to another woman and soon marries her. Despite the lack of news and the teasing of local people, Emily waits for six years, finally becoming dangerously ill. When Bill suddenly appears in town with his family, the faithful Joe forces him to make Emily's final moments happy by pretending he has returned to marry her.

The film's tide calls attention to the film's extraordinary use of ocean waves as a visual motif. In several shots, the heroine stares out across the breakers in the hope of spotting the faithless lover who does not appear. Yet Griffith has shown equal skill in creating backdrops using the dark shapes of the fisherman's boats, scattered in varying patterns across the beaches in the backgrounds of many shots. He also places numerous fishermen and their families, working unobtrusively among the boats even though their presence is not essential to the plot's action. The result links basic passions to natural landscapes with an intensity often associated with Victor Sjôstrôm. While in his earliest films of 1909 Griffith had rather laboriously explored the newfound possibilités of cross-cutting, by September he is using the technique with greater ease and subdety. Perhaps partly as a result, his skill with other techniques is more apparent. The impressive shot of Emily waving good-bye to Bill as his fishing boat sets sail displays Griffith's command of deep staging. The shot begins by emphasizing the nearest plane of action as the couple enters from front left and pause in tight long shot to embrace. Emily remains there, standing frame center with her back to the camera as Bill joins the men aboard the boat. Now these planes are equally important as the vessel struggles to clear the waves and the couple continue to wave to each other. But the spectator becomes aware that one of the men helping launch the boat is the rejected suitor, Joe, and he forms a middle focal point on the diagonal between the two lovers. We watch as Joe moves slowly forward past Emily, pausing in hope of some sign of notice from her and receiving none. Time and again in the Biographs one gets the sense that Griffith is striving to achieve large-scale effects that are beyond the scope of the one-reel film. Here he must convey the breakdown of a woman disappointed in love over a six-year timespan. H e solves the problem with a strikingly original effect that suggests the passage of time. In medium-long shot, Emily enters and stands by the wooden railing overlooking the sea where Bill had given her the bracelet that seemed to plight their troth. After tapping the bracelet, speaking, and nodding, as if to confirm her faith, she stands looking out to sea. After a brief action in which Joe enters, decides not to attempt to renew his courtship of Emily, and departs, she continues staring across the water. An abrupt partial fade darkens the shot for approximately its final 24 seconds, de-emphasizing Emily's light-colored dress in the foreground and highlighting the white lines of the breakers beyond against the dark ocean. The result, in combination with the following tide ("Six years later, sick unto death with waiting"), com80

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

bines an objective passage of time and a subjective suggestion that Emily's continued vigil is a sort of suspended existence where the empty sea has overwhelmed her life on land. Also worth noting is the use of a line of dialogue in the scene where Bill gives Emily the bracelet. This shot is preceded by a title: "He joins the fishing fleet, [in smaller type and with no quotation marks:] This shall I wear till you return." Dialogue tides are rare at this point, but Emily's promise would be difficult to convey with pantomine. Indeed, the actors mime this action: after putting the bracelet on Emily, Bill points to her, then out to sea, finally putting his hand on his chest; she gestures off in the same direction and then points to the bracelet; he then grins and puts his arm around her. Although some spectators might grasp the significance of all this, the exchange is too crucial to the plot to leave its comprehension to chance. Kristin Thompson

81

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

200 BlOGRAPH

IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT Filming date: 13/14/20 September 1909 Location: Edgewater, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 25 October 1909 Release length: 996 feet Copyright date: 27 October 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Frank Powell (Henry Brainard); George O. Nicholls (John Whitney); Marion Leonard (His wife); Gladys Egan (Child); Kate Bruce, ? (Maids); Anthony O'Sullivan, Mack Sennett (Policemen); Dorothy West, Mary Pickford (At Brainard's) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A STORY O F THE SILVER LINING O F THE CLOUDS O F DESPAIR More torturing than the "rack" is desperation, for the being is in just as complete a state of helplessness. Furthermore, desperation almost invariably affects not only the desperate one, but all dependent on him, making his anguish the more intense, for very often the sufferer could his quietus make without a qualm, were it not for the thought of those he would leave behind him a state of uncertainly [sic]. In the honorable, desperation is almost lancinating to the heart, for the unscrupulous would resort to means of amelioration that the upright would resist. Edward Forbes, a mechanic, has been up against a siege of bad luck. Out of work, with his little child dangerously ill, his home is indeed, a house of despair. As a last resort he writes a note and goes with it to Mr. Henry Brainard, a wealthy merchant, applying for some employment no matter how humble or meager the pay. It would at least relieve in a measure his anxiety and help meet his obligations. Mr. Brainard, however, though kindly deposed, has nothing to offer, as Forbes has made it clear that he doesn't seek charity, but work, and bearing a reputation of honesty and consciousness, Brainard is grieved to have to turn him away. Back to his home Forbes goes in the extreme of despondency. The sight of his sick child and his woe-stricken wife fairly turns his brain, and induces in his mind thoughts he never entertained in all his life before - robbery. Quite beside himself he makes his way back to Brainard's house, and being now late at night, effects an entrance easily and from a desk drawer secures articles of jewelry. Returning home, his wife is amazed at his story and recalling him to his better self compels him to take back the loot. This he does, entering the house as easily as before, and putting the trinkets back into the drawer. Unfortunately, Brainard is aroused and apprehends him before he has time to escape, and hands him over to a policeman, who happens to be an old friend of Forbes. The officers on the way to the station allows him to go and say good-bye to his wife. Learning the true nature of the affair, the officer steps into the hallway ostensibly to allow them to say goôd-bye alone, but in reality to dispatch his brother officer to Brainard's to induce him to be merciful. While alone with his wife Forbes picks up a pistol that had dropped from the officer's pocket and is about to resort to desperate means to wipe out his disgrace, when the officers enter with Brainard who not only withdraws the 82

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

charge, but lends material aid to the poor family. One of the most intense and touching scenes ever depicted is this last one, and sure to cause a thrill and a sympathetic tear. Biograph Bulletin, No. 286, October 25, 1909

An honest worker, John Whitney, finds himself unemployed and unable to provide for his wife and ailing daughter. Appealing to a rich man for help, he is sent away. Desperate, he burgles the man's home, but his wife discovers the crime and sends him to return the valuables. The rich man apprehends him and has him arrested. One of the police officers is an old friend of Whitney's and accompanies him to home to allow a farewell with his wife. Humiliated and hopeless, Whitney decides to kill himself and his family, but the police officer has sent his colleague to inform the rich man of the situation. The latter arrives in time to save the family and drops the charges. The friendly cop turns the man's bribe over to Whitney's sick daughter. (Note: the Biograph Bulletin synopsis identifies the hero as Edward Forbes, but the insert letter in the film names him John Whitney. The wealthy man is not named in the film.)

The basic plot establishes a simple contrast between rich and poor, with Whitney's sick daughter and worried wife set off against the frivolous women of the wealthy household, excitedly examining luxurious clothing. All the action shuttles back and forth between the two homes. In early films, the transitional shots between scenes often become quite mechanical: character exits through a door, character goes down a flight of steps, character enters a taxicab, and so on. In the Watches of the Night instead uses these same brief scenes of movements between major spaces to create subtle contrasts in tone and meaning. Most basically, when Whitney sets out in a determined fashion to seek employment, he exits from the initial view of his home's interior. A cut to an exterior reveals him coming out of a stark rectilinear wooden house with some simple railings. The next shot contrasts this building with the arched porch of the rich man's mansion, with leaded-glass windows, an elaborate rocking chair, and several potted plants. After being rejected, Whitney slowly returns home. The same view of the rich porch is again contrasted with the humble exterior of Whitney's building. This time, however, the latter is followed by a view of a new space, the simple hallway of his apartment building, before the final shot of him re-entering his flat. The additional shot accentuates his slow walk through all the spaces and reflects his disappointment and despair. When Whitney determines to burglarize the rich man's house, he exits his flat hurriedly. There is no view of the hallway, but a quick shot of the building's exterior as Whitney hurries toward his goal. Again there is a straight, contrasting cut to the mansion's porch. Later, once Whitney's wife has persuaded him to return the stolen items, the framing holds on her in the flat as she slowly begins to weep; this action substitutes for the view of Whitney outside the family's house, and the next shot shows him arriving at the porch of the mansion. Once Whitney is arrested in the mansion, the friendly cop escorts him out through a lavish hallway that contrasts with the pitifully bare one in his own apartment building. (The parallel is reflected in the layout of the respective scenes, with a stairway at the right and a doorway at the left in each.) The culmination of the pattern comes near the end. Whitney's hallway becomes a major setting when the cop discreetly steps outside and waits there for the couple to say their farewells - a gesture that backfires when Whitney tries to kill himself and his family. After the playing-out of such an intense drama, the film ends very oddly. As the family clusters at the left of the frame, expressing their emotions at being saved, the cop stands at 83

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the right, clearly soliciting the rich man to bribe him to drop the burglary charges against Whitney. The rich man obliges him and leaves. The pantomimic gestures at this point are quick and hard to catch, but clearly the friendly cop initially intends to keep the bribe money and somewhat reluctantly hands it to the sick child. The Biograph Bulletin puts an altogether more cheery spin on this ending. A number of Griffith's films of this era drew reviewers' comments on their somewhat grim content. The Moving Picture World said of In the Watches of the Night: "This subject is not pleasant, yet its strength cannot be denied and the impression it makes cannot be questioned. One is fascinated when looking at it and turns away to wish he had not seen it, which is perhaps a sufficient commentary upon the picture and the acting which goes to make it complete" (November 6, 1909, p. 644). Indeed, aside from its odd, semi-comic ending, the film succeeds in sustaining a sense of the Whitney family's slide toward near calamity. Kristin Thompson

84

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

201 BlOGRAPH

WHAT'S YOUR HURRY? Filming date: 21/27 September 1909 Location: Fort Lee, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 1 November 1909 Release length: 403 feet Copyright date: 1 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Mary Pickford (Mary); George O. Nicholls (Herfather); Kate Bruce (Her mother); Gladys Egan, ? (Her sisters); William A. Quirk (Harry); Bessie McCoy?, ? (Maids); Frank Evans (Butler); Dorothy West, Gertrude Robinson, Anthony O'Sullivan, Violet Mersereau, Mack Sennett, J. Waltham (On street) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm acetate fine grain master; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print "What's your hurry? Here's your hat". Well they didn't have to hand Harry his hat on this particular occasion. He left in such a hurry that if he had not had his hat in his hand at the time he would have left without it. It occurred on papa's birthday. When papa appears at breakfast there is a wealth of presents awaiting him, the most prized among which is a double barrelled shot gun, for papa is somewhat of a sportsman. He can hardly finish his meal in his anxiety, to fondle the fowling-piece, and show it to his friends. Mary's sweetheart Harry calls and becoming bold, kisses her - not only once, but twice in the same place - mercy! Mary threatens to tell papa if he dares to do it again. He dares, and she rushes off ostensibly to tell; but, does she? Of course not. Papa is still enraptured with his gun and goes in to show it to Harry. He, of course, guilty conscienced, thinks his time has come, and beats it, and every time he comes within range of papa he hurriedly lengthens the distance between them, until at last papa apprehends him and learns this extreme amusement what the trouble is. Biograph Bulletin, [?]

In a middle-class dining room, Papa opens birthday presents, surrounded by his wife and four daughters. A servant brings in the favorite gift - a shotgun. As Papa examines it, the oldest daughter, Mary, receives a note from her boyfriend, Harry, who is home from college. The amorous Harry arrives for a visit, and Mary threatens that she will tell her father if he continues to kiss her. Secretly she is delighted by the kisses and invites Papa to meet Harry. Carrying his new shotgun Papa appears, and Harry misunderstands and departs in terror. In a series of scenes, Harry continues to encounter Papa everywhere and to flee precipitously, baffling the old man. At last Papa hauls Harry back home for an explanation and a reunion with Mary.

85

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Here Griffith plays with the potentially amusing premise of a chase film in which there is a terrified quarry but no pursuer. Unfortunately it is clear that in the pressures of turning out films so quickly, he had little time to work out the trajectory of action for this split-reel comedy. The brief opening scene of the birthday party consists of frantic bustle rather than orchestrated staging, with the servants seemingly setting up for a meal while Papa opens his presents and Mary reads the note from Harry. (At one point eight actors are moving around this cramped set!) The subsequent scene between the young couple in the parlor unfolds in a clearer fashion. Most notably, the two chairs set up at the far sides of the frame at the opening hint at the moment when Harry will scoot his chair rapidly over to Mary's for a series of kisses. (For aficionados of early lighting practice, the shiny black globe of the lamp at the center rear provides an ideal surface for spotting reflections of the scene's arrangement of arc and mercury-vapor lamps in Biograph's New York studio.) The hasty assemblage of the chase that follows can be gauged by a piece of clumsy continuity. As Harry rushes out of the parlor in terror at Papa's apparent intent to shoot him for kissing Mary, Papa wears a dressing gown. Cut to a shot of Harry bounding over the house's front gate and rushing out front left. Only seconds later, Papa strolls out the front gate, carrying the new shotgun to show his friends and wearing a suit and bowler hat. The rest of the chase hangs together only loosely, with no sense of progression among the moments when Harry encounters Papa. One interesting moment comes early on when a dialogue title is inserted after the shot in which it is spoken. At this moment in film history, dialogue tides were still a novelty and tended to be inserted before the shot in which they were spoken. Here Mary enters the dining room after being kissed by Harry, expresses her delight, and tells Papa that Harry is there. Papa cheerfully flourishes his new shotgun and goes out to meet Harry, followed by Mary. Only at the cut do we see the title, "OH! PAPA! HARRY IS HERE. SHOW HIM YOUR PRESENT." The only explanation I can give for this odd placement is that the title would have been even more awkward if placed before this shot. In the previous shot in the parlor, Mary had flounced away from Harry, exiting toward the left with a grim face. The cut to the dining room showed her entering from the right, still apparently annoyed, then suddenly smiles, looks back, hugs herself, and generally revealing her pleasure with Harry's romantic behavior. This turnabout would be spoiled by being interrupted by an intertitle, and so the title is delayed until after the shot in which it is spoken. In sum, this is a pleasant litde film that serves mainly as a contrast with the more amply crafted works that Griffith was creating alongside it. Kristin Thompson

86

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

202 BlOGRAPH

NURSING A VIPER Filming date: 24/29 September 1909 Location: New York Studio/Englewood, New Jersey Release date: 4 November 1909 Release length: 920 feet Copyright date: 5 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Arthur Johnson (Husband); Marion Leonard (Wife); Frank Powell (The Viper); William A. Quirk, Gertrude Robinson, Owen Moore (Fleeing aristocrats); Ruth Hart, Mabel Trunelle (Victimized women); George O. Nicholls, James Kirkwood, Mack Sennett, Frank Evans, Anthony O'Sullivan, Owen Moore, Henry Lehrman, J. Waltham (In mob) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; National Film and Television Archive, London, 35mm nitrate positive A STORY O F THE FRENCH REVOLUTION That frightful era in French history beginning with the outbreak of insurrectionary movements in Paris, July 12, 1789, and the taking of the Bastille, July 14, has been the subject of song, story and drama, and it is small wonder that it should prove thrilling material for motion pictures, as this Biograph production will evince. Prior to that period, termed the Reign of Terror, from the above date until July 28, 1794, when the leader, Maximilian Robespierre, suffered death on the guillotine, French nobility was sunk in profligacy, and while they were exempt from land tax, the lower class shouldered the burden of labor and of paying taxes. They rebelled against absolutism and demanded political independence, equal rights and universal freedom. The outcome was the perpetration of atrocities never equaled in the world's history. Many of the absolutists fled the country for safety, while others feigned assumption of republican sentiments. Our story shows a party of the nobility endeavoring to evade the insurrectionists, but only one succeeds in outdistancing them. H e rushes into the house of an aristocrat who is immune from trouble on account of his professed republicanism. Here he begs succor, which is granted, and he manages to elude his pursurers in the role of the aristocrat's servant. However, the riotous mob ransack the house and grounds in a depredatory manner, taking up quarters on the outside from which point to work deeds of lawlessness. It is not assumed that the hunted man adhered to his principles through loyalty or honor. No, he was rather the cowardly cur, as we shall see. Hardly ensconced in the house, he at once shows his despicable nature by questionable advances toward the wife of his saviour. She, at first does not realize the meaning of his attentions, assuming them to be an exaggerated show of gratitude, but it is not long before she awakens to the truth, and the timely arrival of her husband saves her from the viper's clutches. The husband would at first shoot him down like a dog - but no; on second thought a better plan occurs to him. Making him, at the point of a pistol, resume his original attire, he forces him out among the mob where he meets his just fate. In conclusion, we must add that the above but vaguely describes 87

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

one of the most thrilling moving picture subjects ever attempted. The costuming, staging and locale, together with the acting, is most convincing. This, coupled with a photographic excellence that is superlative, makes it a production of rare value. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 4, 1909

During the French Revolution, a wealthy couple are living safely by professing republican beliefs. When a nearby château is attacked by a mob that chases and kills some of its inhabitants, one aristocrat bursts into the couple's home; they disguise him as a servant, thus saving his life. As the mob continues to run riot outside, the disguised aristocrat begins to flirt with the wife. As the husband writes a letter in an attempt to stop the rioting, the aristocrat attempts to rape the wife. Hearing their struggle, the husband intervenes and, stripping the aristocrat of his disguise, thrusts him outdoors to be killed by the mob.

Although a very uneven film, Nursing a Viper displays an apparent attempt on Griffith's part to utilize one of his favorite devices, parallelism created through cross-cutting. Nothing is made explicit, but the cutting juxtaposes several shots of the lawless mob running amok on the "republican" couple's lawn with other shots of the hypocritical aristocrat leeringly planning to try and seduce his savior's wife. Thus a comparison of the open lawlessness of the mob and the covert lawlessness of the villain emerges. The period atmosphere created by the scenes inside the couple's house is fairly effective. But much of the action is set outdoors, and we are treated to the bizarre spectacle of the excesses of the French Revolution being played out in what is obviously a respectable New Jersey neighborhood. (A large garden urn in the central couple's front yard is apparendy intended to suggest that this modern suburban home is a French chateau.) The result makes an interesting comparison indeed with Orphans of the Storm (1921). Stylistically the film's most impressive moment comes early on, in the second shot after the opening expository title. In the foreground, a group of aristocrats hide by a stone wall, some of them looking in apprehension at a tower in the distance. (This appears to be the corner of some large public building playing the role of another French château.) During the early portion of the shot, three of the men keep a lookout while a fourth supports his sleeping wife. After the couple move off frame left, a mob suddenly erupts from the background building and comes rushing toward the three men in the foreground. The latter dash out just to the right of the camera, and the rioters run forward and chase after them. The quiet, tense mood of the opening, during which we are not exactly sure what the little group is worrying about, is sustained for an unusually long time as we scan the large empty space between the wall and the tower. This tension heightens the effect of the crowd's sudden appearance and their rapid movements as they fill the empty space and then nearly overwhelm the camera as they race past it. The action is surprisingly violent for an early film. Although most of the mob's rioting consists of drunken milling about, at one point the men manhandle some aristocratic ladies, obviously in a prelude to raping them, and their male companion is thrown to the ground and beaten and kicked to death. A head impaled on a pike is flourished in a couple of the shots, and though it is none too realistic, it must have seemed grisly to 1909 spectators. As with In the Watches of the Night, The Moving Picture World tempered its praise for the film with a comment on its subject matter: "One cannot say that a picture like this is pleasant, but one cannot consistently [sic] question the dramatic quality, nor the art of the actors. Both rise to heights which are seldom reached in motion picture work and perhaps have 88

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

never been surpassed. If some of the more gruesome parts had been cut down the film would be more universally approved. But is it wise or necessary to depict those dark spots of past history? Why not let them be forgotten?" (November 20, 1909, p. 721). Yet clearly Griffith wanted to give the audience a sense of the mob's violence so that they could imagine the brutality of the villain's death, which occurs discreetly offscreen at the end as the husband savors his revenge and comforts his wife. Kristin Thompson

89

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

203 BlOGRAPH

THE LIGHT THAT CAME Filming date: 30 September, 2/4 October 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 11 November 1909 Release length: 998 feet Copyright date: 13 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Marion Leonard, Mary Pickford (Vivian and Daisy); Ruth Hart (Grace); Kate Bruce (Their mother); Owen Moore (Carl Wagner); George O. Nicholls (Doctor); Arthur Johnson (Young doctor); Anthony O'Sullivan, William A. Quirk, Mack Sennett, Francis J. Grandon (Suitors); James Kirkwood, Arthur Johnson, Guy Hedlund, Dorothy West, Gertrude Robinson, Frank Powell, Anthony O'Sullivan, Mabel Trunelle, Frank Evans, J. Waltham (At the hall) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; George Eastman House, 35mm nitrate positive ROMANCE O F A BLIND MUSICIAN We, of course, assume that being most unfortunate over whose sight fate has drawn the mantle of darkness, and it is reasonable to do so, but Divine Providence is sure to compensate those so afflicted with ameliorating gifts that help them bear their ills with fortitude, and not only that, their powers of discernment are far more acute than those endowed with sight. There is the sight of the soul, which see farther than the eyes. This may be called intuition; but whatever it may be, it is a rare gift. Carl Wagner was bereft of his sight when a small child, and in order that he might be independent and earn a livelihood he learned music, that art in which the blind become most proficient. H e played violin for the dancing at many of the eastside balls. Grace, Vivian and Daisy are sisters in the family of the workaday class. Vivian and Daisy are pretty young girls, while Grace is considered homely on account of an ugly scar on her cheek, the result of an accident at her work. The two pretty sisters are great favorites, enjoying social distinction, while drudgery and loneliness is the lot of poor Grace. We see the contrast on Saturday. Vivian and Daisy are getting ready to go to a party and Grace is allowed to mope at home. Mother, however, urges Grace to go, and helps her to dress in a becoming frock. At the ball Vivian and Daisy are the center of attraction, engaging all the gallants' attention, but Grace remains the wallflower. The ball is over, and the poor girl would be allowed to leave without an escort, but Carl, the blind musician, gropes his way through the hall and the girl appreciating his social proscription from the experience of her own sad lot, offers him her hand to lead the way. In that grasp of the hands there is a communication of two pure souls and tender hearts. It is the kindling of love between them, and they become sweethearts. Shortly afterwards their betrothal is announced, when a young doctor, upon an examination, declares that Carl's sight can be restored, but it would require money to have it done, as the services of a specialist would be necessary. Now the poor fellow is more miserable than before, feeling that his cure is possible, yet he is without the necessary 90

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

funds, as his engagements have only afforded him a bare living, and frugal as he might be he could not hope to accumulate sufficient to pay the doctor. Grace, however, has saved something and is at first elated with the idea to help him, but on viewing herself in the mirror she reasons that when the light comes he will see her as she is and she will then lose his love. Her hesitation is but for a moment, for the true heart is unselfish, and she at least can make him happy. The eminent doctor is employed, and his work is successful. But what a pathetic scene is the removing of the last bandage. H e is in the seventh heaven of delight and calls for her. She at first is loath to show herself, fearing the consequences, but he does not consider her personal appearance, which is at best transitory, and which he now sees for the first time, but her heart the purity of which he has known by intuition. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 11, 1909

In a middle-class household, two beautiful sisters enjoy fashionable clothes and parties. The third sister, Martha, is disfigured by a scar on her face; she wistfully and vicariously enjoys the pair's social life, helping out as they host a group of young men at their home. Later their mother persuades the two beauties to take their sister to a dance, where she is completely ignored. As the revellers depart, Martha encounters Carl, a blind violinist. They strike up a romance and become engaged. A young doctor friend of the beautiful sisters reveals that Carl could regain his sight through an expensive operation. Fearing that he will cease to love her when he sees her scar, Martha nevertheless funds the operation. Upon seeing Martha for the first time, Carl reaffirms his love for her. (Note: the Biograph Bulletin identifies the heroine as Grace, but a letter insert reveals her to be Martha.)

The Light That Came was far more acceptable to the Moving Picture World reviewer than had been the "unpleasant" subject matter of In the Watches of the Night and Nursing a Viper, with their tales of crime and treachery. Indeed, the film won high praise for its inspirational value: "A certain delicious and soothing tenderness pervades this film, which casts a hallowed influence over the audience and holds them in an impressive silence which lasts as long as the picture remains with them." After a plot synopsis, the reviewer concludes: "Living characters [i.e., stage actors] could not make it [the story] plainer and in places the silent drama seems even more impressive than spoken lines could make it. The imagination is stimulated and enables one to appreciate more fully the dramatic situations which are inherent in the picture. In some respects this is the greatest film of the week. Its suggestiveness is so strong that one does not forget it easily and it will serve as a basis of comparison for many days to come" (November 27, 1909, p. 757). The Bulletin description of the film also stresses its high-toned thematic treatment of the blindness motif. And no doubt the romance between Martha and Carl is touching, primarily because of Ruth Hart's affecting performance as the former. Yet neither the review quoted above nor the Bulletin text hints at the strangely uneven tone of the film. One must suspect that Griffith's breakneck speed of production did not always give him time to work out his plots. Most obviously, Carl is not introduced - contrary to what the Bulletin suggests - until fairly late in the film. The early scenes establish Martha's sad existence, overshadowed by her beautiful sisters. (Griffith also takes the trouble to establish Martha's frugal savings, motivating her later ability to pay for Carl's operation.) Yet the litde party the sisters hosts for four young men creates an inappropriately comic tone, as Mack Sennett and the other 91

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

actors mug in distaste at the lemonade. Perhaps we might posit that they are established as superficial types in order to contrast with the more spiritual Carl later on. Still, the comic business undercuts the sentimental nature of the main plotline. Similarly at the dance, there is further amusing byplay as Sennett attempts to court a young woman who is incidental to the plot. In fact, Carl is playing the violin in the background of this ballroom scene, yet the narration makes no attempt to introduce him or draw attention to him in any way. Only after the dance ends does he come forward and enter into the action. From this point onward the film finally concentrates on the main romance, but it seems very rushed. For example, the moment when the couple becomes engaged is followed immediately by an unintentionally comic effect as the mother, sisters, and their four beaux all rush into the room to register surprise and delight, and this in turn leads immediately into the moment when the young doctor pronounces Carl's blindness curable. The staging in this shot is badly planned. At one point Carl makes the only gesture in the film to suggest that he became blind as a child (a point specified in the Bulletin): he places his open hand palm down at child height (the standard "child" gesture of early pantomime). Yet Martha, reacting in amazement, reaches over to clutch the doctor's coat and thus blocks most of Carl's gesture. As effective as the performances of the main characters are, it would clearly have been better had Carl been introduced much earlier, in parallel with Martha. (The insistent utilization of the two rooms of the main family house suggests that the producers were economizing on sets and did not want to show Carl at home.) Similarly, a more exclusive focus on them and a downplaying of the comic suitors could have made The Light That Came one of Griffith's classic Biographs. One small device is worth noting. At one point Martha is agonizing over whether to pay for Carl's operation. Initially elated, she gets the savings from the dining room and moves toward the sitting room. A dialogue title follows, indicated as such with quotation marks: "WHEN THE LIGHT COMES HE WILL SEE ME AS I AM, AND I WILL LOSE HIS LOVE." I n the next

shot, still cheerful, she enters the sitting room where he is waiting. Catching sight of herself in the mirror, she becomes despondent and moves her lips slightly, though not enough to utter the line quoted above. Indeed, she would not speak her thoughts aloud in Carl's presence, and we must assume that this dialogue title is a sort of "voice over", revealing something that she only thinks to herself. Kristin Thompson

92

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

204 BlOGRAPH

THE RESTORATION Filming date: 22 September, 1/7 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Littie Falls, New Jersey Release date: 8 November 1909 Release length: 964 feet Copyright date: 10 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood (Mr. Morley); Marion Leonard (Mrs. Morley); Owen Moore (Jack); Mary Pickford (Alice Ashford); George O. Nicholls (Doctor); Kate Bruce, Gertrude Robinson, Guy Hedlund, Frank Evans, Ruth Hart (Servants) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; National Film and Television Archive, London, 35mm nitrate positive, German titles (The Josef Joye Collection) A DOCTOR'S PLAN TO RETRIEVE A SHATTERED MIND The world's history would contain many blank pages if it were not for the frequent occasions of misconstruction of intent. How many commendable deeds have been misconstrued and made the genesis of woe. Wrong impressions, converted ideas and hallucinations have formed the greater part of the causes of calamity, and there is no stronger ideological force than jealousy, and jealousy thrives most in the fagged brain. Henry Morley was suffering from what seemed to be an attack of hypochondriasis. H e was low spirited, irresolute of purpose, and in fact on the verge of nervous collapse. His wife becomes solicitous and urges outdoor exercise, such as hunting, driving and the like. Feeling that she will be very much alone, she invites her cousin, Miss Alice Ashford, to spend the summer with her, which invitation is accepted. Now Miss Ashford has a sweetheast, Jack Dudley, who, having met Morley, misapprehends his moody manner, and imagines he is disliked, prefers to meet the girl in the garden. O n e of these clandestine meetings takes place just as Morley is leaving for a drive. Jack and Alice indulge in a little quarrel over a photograph he has, the identity of which he teasingly refuses to disclose. Alice leaves him in a huff, declaring that she will never speak to him again. Jack now realizes he has carried the joke too far, and endeavors to explain, but she is deaf to his entreaties and goes to her room refuseing [sic] to see him again. In desperation, Jack seeks Mrs. Morley and begs that she intercede for him towards a conciliation. This she consents to do, and volunteers to be the bearer of a note from him to Alice. Alice, however, tears the note in two throws it to the floor and stalks haughtily out of the room followed by Mrs. Morley. Now the first meeting of Jack and Mrs. Morley was witnessed by Morley, who miscontrues the intent, hence his jealousy is aroused, and upon entering, he finds the note which reads "Dear Girl: Don't be hard on me. Meet me in the garden at seven. Jack". This, of course, he believes is intended for his wife, and he rushes out in a frenzy of jealousy. Not finding them in the garden, he starts back to the house. Meanwhile, Mrs. Morley has effected a meeting between Alice and Jack, and throwing her shawl playfully about their shoulders, leaves them practically bound together to settle their little tiff. They are standing by the window, Alice in the shadow, 93

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

with her cousin's shawl around her when Morley enters. One glance is enough to convince him, and the heavy handle of his whip sends Jack to the floor apparently dead. In an instant he realizes his mistake, and rushes from the house raving mad. Through the grounds he dashes, imagining his victim is pursuing him. In this condition he is apprehended by the doctor, who has resusitated Jack, and brought back to be shown the harmlessness of his act. But, alas, his reason is unbalanced and he still imagines Jack the shadow of himself. The physician thereupon devises a plan to restore his reason, and that is to re-enact the episode, which scheme is successful. It not only dissipates his horrible hallucination, but seems to lift him from his lethargic despondency. This subject is rather a novel idea, logical as well as ingenious. Biograph Bulletin, [?]

At a large country estate, a Husband and Wife stroll in the grounds while nearby the Wife's pretty young Cousin meets her Lover. When he drops a photo of another woman, the Cousin quarrels with him and stalks away. The Lover appeals to the Wife for help, but the Husband, seeing them together, suspects they are having an affair. Inside, the Wife brings the young lovers together, putting her own shawl on her Cousin. Seeing the couple in an embrace, the Husband mistakes the Cousin for his Wife and strikes the Lover on the head. Assuming the lad to be dead, the Husband wanders the grounds. Although he is shown the Lover alive, his delusion persists until a doctor has the scene of the "murder" re-enacted.

The Restoration is notable in part as an example of the sort of plots based on rather peculiar interpretations of the newly emerging field of psychoanalysis. Here a man driven mad by thinking he has killed someone cannot be cured by a simple revelation of the young man alive; instead he must be led to relive the trauma and thus be cured (very rapidly and thoroughly) by the experience. Much of the backstory provided in the Biograph Bulletin account is simply not in the film. There is no real indication that the Husband is suffering from hypochondriasis or that his riding habit indicates an activity that is part of his cure. Rather, the whole misunderstanding seems to result from that old standby, excessive jealousy. Despite its rather peculiar plot premises, which may make it rather difficult for the modern spectator to become thoroughly caught up in the characters' plights, the film has some distinctive stylistic touches. In the interior scene where the Husband sees the young couple embracing and mistakes the Cousin for his Wife, the set is in darkness, with some artificial light coming in through the window at the right. This situation obviously motivates the Husband's error. Later, when the scene is replayed, the whole set is lit so that he can see the Cousin clearly. Earlier, just after the Husband sees what he thinks is an assignation between his Wife and the Lover, he chases after the latter through the garden. Remarkably, one shot changes, or racks, focus three distinct times. First the Lover paces and, seeing the Husband coming toward him, rushes out foreground left, with the focus racking to follow him. This shift renders the trees in the background out of focus, and the lens again racks to refocus on them. Finally the Husband dashes into the shot from the rear, and again the focus shifts to follow him as he runs out the foreground after the Lover. The shifting focus must have been tricky to execute. Moreover, one cannot really see why the filmmakers would bother, since none of the exits toward the foreground in other shots receives this treatment. Still, this odd little flourish suggests that Bitzer was experimenting. Finally, a beautiful piece of staging later in the film is worth comment. Thinking he has 94

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

killed the Lover, the Husband wanders through the grounds, reacting in fear as he "sees" the ghost of his victim apparently chasing him. (This is conveyed entirely through the acting rather than through any subjective superimpositions.) In one shot, he enters at the rear left and slowly moves forward, looking behind him. The plantings in the middle ground at right and left frame the open area at the rear. As he crouches in the left foreground and stares through the gap between the bushes, the composition gives a vivid sense of exacdy where he thinks his pursuer is standing. Kristin Thompson

95

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

205 BlOGRAPH

A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE Filming date: 5/6/8 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Location not noted Release date: 18 November 1909 Release length: 519 feet Copyright date: 20 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin Cast: William A. Quirk (Frank); Mary Pickford (Eleanor); Dorothy West (Mercedes); Kate Bruce (Eleanor's mother); Mack Sennett (Sgt. Reginald Vandyke Worthington); George O. Nicholls (Frank's friend); Anthony O'Sullivan, Arthur Johnson, Frank Evans (Policemen); Ruth Hart (Eleanor's maid) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) "The golden sun was sinking in the West, as it was wont to do, at the dying of an Autumn day, bathing the silent landscape in a ruddy glow. There was a suppression that seemed on the verge of bursting, when the distant patter of horsehoofs was heard. Was this the mere simulation of the property man, or was it a reality? This thought held Lucile in breathless suspense as she stood awaiting him. Her fears were soon dispelled, as a moment later the gallant Knight Armand rode up on caparisoned steed - he despised trolley cars. With a leap he was at her side, and - ". This was the line of slush that Mercedes' brain was sopping up from a novel by Clara Jean Dippy, when her beau Frank called. Mercedes was a confirmed disciple of the aforesaid Clara, and would be wooed by a gallant Knight of "ye olden tyme", and as Frank looked as much like a gallant Knight as a mouse resembled a rhinoceros, he stands a poor show. However, she is reasonable and gives him a chance to do something daring and audacious. H e is required to enter the home of a friend of Mercedes and surreptitously secure a photograph of herself. As he does not know the family, the act is indeed an adventure. Disguised as a robber, he enters the house, secures the picture, and is about to decamp when caught by Miss Eleanor, Mercedes' friend, who, thinking him a bold bad burglar, hands him over to Sergeant Reginald Vandyke Worthington, the society guardian of the peace (meaning cop). The situation is precarious for Frank, and it looks for a time that he will enjoy a season of quietude in the "cooler". However, on the way to the way [sic] to the detention camp, a friend is met, explanations are listened to, and Frank is released. Taking to Mercedes the result of his daring, he hands her the photograph and then shakes a "day-day". She is so delighted that she doesn't notice his last move, and prepares to return to Eleanor the pilfered portrait, only to arrive there in time to see Eleanor enfolded in the arms of Fearless Frank, for though he stole the photograph, she stole his heart. Mercedes, ejaculating that classical expression "stung" falls fainting into a Morris chair. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 18, 1909

96

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Bookworm Mercedes orders her sweetheart to prove his love by doing something dangerously heroic. He agrees, breaking into another young woman's house in order to steal Mercedes's photograph. The young woman catches him in the act and has him arrested, but he is released when a family friend bribes the police. Mercedes eventually returns the stolen photograph only to find her boyfriend in the other woman's arms.

A minor entry in the Pickford-Quirk comedy series. Even Biograph cheerleader Frank Woods had to admit that the farce was "hardly up to the usual Biograph standard", and that it added "nothing to the Biograph reputation", even though (Woods's brave effort at consolation) it could not "be called a complete failure" (The New York Dramatic Mirror, November 27, 1909). It must have looked fine on paper where apparently the spotlight was on the romantic bookworm whose addled scheme triggers the comic caper. In any case, the Biograph Bulletin improves on the movie by spending half its space describing the hapless Mercedes whose devotion to the "slush novels" of Clara Jean Dippy and girlish dreams of gallant knights leads to her half-witted request. A story-intoxicated heroine who weaves romantic sentences around everything she sees, Mercedes has possibilities, but Griffith brushes her off with a cursory introduction in order to concentrate on the burglary she inspires and its aftermath. So what we are left with is Quirk, her would-be suitor, as an amateur burglar who goes to a neighbor's house to steal one of Mercedes's photographs; his arrest by venial cops; and his successful flirtation with the girl whose household he has disrupted. It's a thick-headed comedy where nobody looks good. Original critics singled out Mack Sennett as the comic, easily bribeable high society police lieutenant. Sennett had been playing farcical cops and dandies for Griffith almost from the start. As early as Summer 1908 he was cracking heads in Deceived Slumming Party and Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court. A Midnight Adventure gives him his largest role yet as a policeman, one that blends in his other specialty: the effeminate dandy. What may be curious to us is the stress on police corruption. Biograph had developed a thing for corrupt and brutal cops throughout 1909. The bribeable patrolman who debuts in late February in Jones and His New Neighbors (also played by Sennett) quickly became a staple, the comic counterpart to the brutal enforcer with a nightstick that starts in serious Biographs withal Corner in Wheat. By 1912, the grafting New York policeman has become one of the "links in the system" (the famous Lincoln Steffens phrase that Griffith quotes in Musketeers of Pig Alley), who takes his cut from the gangster and saloon keeper. By 1913 he is assaulting striking oil factory workers in Biograph's By Man's Law. Eileen Bowser (see her note for Jones and His New Neighbors, DWG Project, #116) has linked these cops to Biograph productions of an earlier era, such as How They Rob Men in Chicago (1900) or Love in the Suburbs (1902). But their sudden re-emergence is most likely part of ongoing outcries about 1909 New York police scandals. Exposés of police graft were at the heart of the reform campaign that culminated New York's historic 1909 city and state elections that took place two weeks after the delivery of A Midnight Adventure. This was the anti-Tammany sweep that elected William Gaynor mayor, a judge who had made his reputation on the local Supreme Court for cracking down on city police. He's also the one who defeated George B. McClellan and let the city's nickelodeon theaters stay open on Sundays. Russell Merritt

97

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

206 BlOGRAPH

TWO WOMEN AND A MAN Filming date: 25 September, 6/12 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Fort Lee, New Jersey Release date: 15 November 1909 Release length: 988 feet Copyright date: 17 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Frank Powell (John Randolph); Kate Bruce (Molly Randolph); Mabel Trunelle (The second Mrs. Randolph); Ruth Hart, Anthony O'Sullivan (Servants); Owen Moore (Friend); ? (Her maid); Mack Sennett, Gertrude Robinson, Ruth Hart, Francis J. Grandon, Dorothy West (Atparty); George O. Nicholls, James Kirkwood, William A. Quirk, Francis J. Grandon (At laivye/s); Arthur Johnson, Mack Sennett, Charles H. West, Francis J. Grandon, Ruth Hart, Owen Moore, Verner Clarges? (At reception) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print THE FASCINATING WOMAN CONTRASTED WITH THE FAITHFUL O N E It is not man's nature to be fickle, and if at times he changes his allegiance it is not through a fickle nature, but rather an aberrance induced by subtle forces. Frequent are these occasions during life, which occur to all to strengthen our will power, but there are times when in a state of unrest, our natures are more receptive of a change, and we yield in opposition to ethics. Hence we should ever be on our guard, for once astray from the moral ethics, we may never regain its path. Off that path we are as the mariner without his compass, buffeted by the sea, and each shining beacon we steer for only lures us upon a shoal on which many other poor unfortunates have floundered. This Biograph story envinces the above most forcibly, for John Randolph was truly a happy man when he brought Molly as his wife to the humble little home in the village. John was a bright, ambitious young man, who sought to improve their condition in life. It is true he worked hard, but it grieved him to see his wife toiling at her arduous household duties. His fondest dream was to have his dear wife mistress of her home, with those around her to do the labors. At length his dream is realized. Having studied the stock market, he becomes successful therein, and they remove to New York, where they occupy a palatial home. Alas, how much better off would they have been in their simple country house. But one never can tell. It is the old story, earned success brings happiness, easy money, woe. In New York success attends his every move, and he is soon a very rich man, and a power in the stock market. It is now that domesticity chafes and he seeks recreation outside his own home, mingling with a set in which his wife would be entirely out of place. While at a Bohemian gathering, he becomes smitten with a music hall singer. After this it is all for her, and neglect for his wife. H e showers bouquets and presents upon her, the most costly being a magnificient diamond and pearl collar. This neglect is felt by the wife and a separation and divorce is the outcome, with a settlement on his discarded wife. Free from further obligations in that direction, he marries the singer. This step is ominous for he at once reaches the turning 98

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

point. Beaten in the market, his friends turn from him. His only chance is to secure his second wife's jewels, all his presents, with which to start anew. Would she yield them? Would she make one tithe the sacrifice poor Molly made? Not much. She deserts him coldly. What a lesson here is depicted. Ruined, friendless, he wanders back to the old village home, which is as he left it, and finds rest again, where he found rest before, in the old-fashioned rocker. In conclusion we can only add that this subject in staging, acting and photography is excellent. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 15, 1909

When John Randolph strikes it big on the stock market, he and his wife move from their cottage to New York City. He succumbs to the charms of a designing music hall singer and divorces his wife to re-marry. He gets his come-uppance when his stocks collapse and his new wife refuses to pawn her diamonds. Chastened, he returns to his village a pauper and re-enters his abandoned cottage. His first wife finds him collapsed amidst the discarded, stored-up furniture.

Griffith plays off his richest vein of drama, the pastoral romance, continuing to explore new aspects of the genre he had started to work only four months earlier. The city mouse/country mouse contrast he develops in Two Women and a Man comes with the territory, inherent in pastoral convention and already evident in the two films Griffith made a few weeks earlier, His Lost Love and A Change of Heart. But here Griffith blends in a new motif that will later prove of considerable importance: the countryside associated with the past, memory, loss, and separation. The Randolphs' country cottage is contrasted with the city town house in ways we have come to expect: in the cottage, true love, simplicity, and hard work thrive; in the town house, selfishness, infidelity, and luxury put the Randolphs' marriage on the rocks. What gives the film interest, though, is Griffith's attempt to turn the abandoned country cottage into an emblem of longing and regret for an earlier life that has been discarded and may not be recoverable. For the first time Griffith gives his pastoral a temporal dimension, associating the city with the hectic modern world and the village with past times. This juxtaposition of past and present will, of course, become a mainspring in his pastoral features, culminating in Way Down East (1920) where he creates two entirely separate time zones to help distinguish the country from the city. In Two Women and a Man Griffith works with two devices to create the illusion of lost time, techniques that he had been developing since the early months of 1909. The first is the use of a recurring anchor shot to mark the changing phases of his couple's declining fortunes. Both the exterior and interior of the cottage are set up to resonate with accumulated meaning as husband and wife keep returning to them. The exterior shot, introduced when the newlyweds take possession of the property, reappears twice: first, when the couple abandon their home for the city, Mrs. Randolph (Kate Bruce) tearfully bidding adieu to the large shrub and the shutters; then again when, abandoned by her husband for a show girl, she returns to revisit the site of her former happiness. We return to the interior in the final shot when the husband too, now destitute and disillusioned, has wandered back to ponder the stored-up furniture and household wares. Griffith had already used a similar technique in April 1909 for What Drink Did, his most intricately designed temperance drama, where the hero's deteriorating family life is marked by the recurring shot of a dining room. There husband, wife, and daughters are shown in successive states of distress, the husband first sitting upright on a French chair, then returning to slouch upon it, and - after he has murdered his daughter - finally falling on his knees 99

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

beside it. But in Two Women and a Man the cottage itself functions as the embodiment of loss and discarded happiness. It has become a storage space where husband and wife return to abandoned mementoes, fixating on a disused ironing board, a stove, an iron, and a rocking chair as emblems of their early marriage. With each visit, the house accumulates new associations, and Griffith plays subtle tricks with time. For instance, the first time Mrs. Randolph returns, Griffith crosscuts between her visit and her ex-husband's second wedding. Wedding guests congratulate the smiling couple; Mrs. Randolph, alone, contemplates her old front yard, ready to pass through the front gate. We cut back to Randolph's parlor, but now some time has elapsed: Randolph and his new wife are alone, and a messenger enters with bad financial news. When we cut back to Mrs. Randolph at the cottage, however, we are continuing with her original visit. Now Mrs. Randolph is leaving the cottage, sorrowfully closing the front gate and exiting screen right. The duration of Randolph's happiness in his second marriage has been contained within the length of a single emblematic tour of the old homestead. The oneiric implications are made explicit in the last shot where Mrs. Randolph returns again and encounters her husband, now abandoned and exhausted too, asleep in a disused rocking chair. The image opens up the possibility of reconciliation and the restoration of lost time, but Griffith cushions the sentiment with darker implications of sleep and dream imagery. What keeps Two Women and a Man from being a first-rate Biograph is the dullish rendering of the Randolphs in the city. In the townhouse, the best Griffith can do is give Kate Bruce a book and elegant clothes, then set her to indicate discontent by moping and reading. The set, a parlor adorned with fantastical mirrors and yards of drapery, is a sophomoric try at suggesting tasteless wealth; it's less a representation of a living space than a cluttered assortment of garish props. The show girl's bland, disjointed parlor isn't much better. But Randolph's brokerage office shows real possibilities, mainly because it doesn't use decor to signal urban decadence. This is where Randolph loses his money and gets his divorce; and as the anti-home, it is wonderfully low key, with the unobtrusive props of the business world - telephone, ticker-tape machine, roll-top desk, and swivel chairs - providing a counterpart to the kitchen and laundry bric-a-brac inside the cottage. The realistically detailed set plays off the abstracted, tableau-like staging of the scene where the Randolphs sign the divorce papers. The somber, deliberate actions of the divorces and their attorneys are made all the sadder and colder amidst the trappings of the secular business world. In other Biographs like Jones and the Lady Book Agent, The Song of the Shirt, and Her First Biscuits, behavior in the office is ritualized, with special attention paid to the dexterity of manipulating ticker tape, telephones, typewriters, and even cigars. Here, however, office objects are simple atmosphere; it is home objects - particularly the flatiron, ironing board, and stove - that resonate. The scheming show girl is played by petite Mabel Trunelle, an Edison veteran who lasted only two weeks at Biograph. Here she plays her only major Biograph role. She seems somewhat miscast as an adventuress. Her sweet, charming smile serves her better as the ingenue than the selfish, greedy wife. But what happened to her after finishing the movie is unknown. She was married to the British actor, Herbert Pryor, a secondary player who had already left Biograph several months earlier. Both of them evaporate, although Linda Arvidson remembered them as one of the few husband-wife teams at Biograph who weren't resented by other actors. Russell Merritt

100

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

207 BlOGRAPH

THE OPEN GATE Filming date: 9/12 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Coytesville, New Jersey Release date: 22 November 1909 Release length: 988 feet Copyright date: 24 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: George O. Nicholls (George); Kate Bruce (Hetty); Edith Haldeman (Mary, as a child); Gertrude Robinson (Mary, as an adult); Owen Moore (Jack); Ruth Hart, Jeannie MacPherson, Dorothy West, ? (Hetty's relatives); Mack Sennett (Hetty's brother-in-law); Anthony O'Sullivan (Messenger); Anthony O'Sullivan (Gardener) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A BEAUTIFUL MOTION PICTURE PASTORAL The two dominant features of the character of a true woman are love and duty, and no two elements are more belligerent than these, for love is often beset by duty, in which struggle duty, in the honest, inavariably [sic] prevails. Such an occasion forms the theme of this Biograph subject. Hetty and George were old-time sweethearts, and as years went by George could never muscle up courage to "pop the question". Finally, he bought an engagement ring, and calling Hetty out to the garden gate, with extreme effort, declares his love and puts the ring on her finger, before he realized the great extent of his daring. What a sigh of relief he breathed when it was over and she had accepted. Well, the earth contained no two happier souls than George and Hetty on that day. But, alas, the sunshine soon turned to shade, for on the evening of the same day, Hetty receives a letter telling her of the sudden death of her sister, who, leaving a little daughter three years old, made a last request, that as she had cared for Hetty through her childhood, Hetty would care for her little one, Mary. This was, indeed a blow, and after a mental struggle, her plain duty to her sister's child forces her to break off her engagement with George. Sending for him, she meets him at the gate, and expressing her determination, gives him back the ring. The poor fellow is stunned, at first, crushed in the extreme. Then he tries to reason, but in vain. Finally, dashing through the gate, he throws it open with such force, that it flies back against the fence and sticks, with a broken hinge. Off he goes and is soon out of sight, never, he declares, to return. Years roll on, and often does Hetty stand at the gate and dream of the one who threw it open, and open it remains, for he has gone apparently forever. It is now fifteen years later, and Mary has grown to young womanhood. Jack, the nephew of George, and Mary are now sweethearts and meet at the open gate, where the old, old story is again told. Aunt Hetty must be consulted, and she, of course, gives hearty consent. Jack has received a letter from his uncle George, stating that he is tired of his wandering and may return at any moment. So the boy has much to happy for. However, the course of true love never runs smooth, and the young lovers quarrel. Mary returns the ring, and Jack also goes through the gate determined never to return. Aunt Hetty, 101

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

learning of this, takes Mary to the gate and tells how a hasty tiff blighted her life and begs her to be reasonable and go after him. Meanwhile, Uncle George has arrived and meets Jack, who tells him his tale of woe. Uncle George volunteers to intercede with the girl, not knowing who she really is, and takes the boy's ring to heal the wound. Arriving at the gate, he is surprised to find it leads to Hetty's old home. Aunt Hetty hears the old call, and hastening, out finds her old sweetheart standing where he stood fifteen years before. Hetty then tells him the gate has remained open since his departure. George then closes the gate, renews his suit and is accepted. In lieu of a ring, Uncle George appropriates the boy's, so when Mary, who has gone to bring back Jack, arrives with him and asks "Where is my ring"? Aunt Hetty shows her hand adorned with it. There is now a double wedding. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 22, 1909

Hetty is engaged to George, but after her sister dies she breaks the engagement in order to raise her sister's orphaned daughter. Years pass. Hetty's niece has grown up and loves George's nephew, but the young couple have quarreled too. George, still heartbroken at losing Hetty, has returned from his wanderings, and in helping his nephew patch up his affair with Hetty's niece, reconciles with his own long-lost sweetheart.

Another pastoral, this one builds directly on Two Women and a Man, the film Griffith was shooting during the same week. Here Griffith elaborates on the pastoral's associations with memory, separation, and lost time, creating a particularly elegant cycle that links youth with age, the past with the present, and loss with regeneration. Once again he uses repeated anchor shots to mark the changing fortunes of a love affair, but now the repeated shots become more expressive and evocative, embracing not one but two couples, and the shots accumulate richer and more nuanced associations as the narrative progresses. Almost half the shots in the movie (twelve of them) return us to the white picket fence of the tide; about the same number (in fact, thirteen) take us to a parlor where a spinster in black tends to her ward and pines for her lost love. Both images - particularly the deteriorating gate overrun with picturesque vines - are given strong emotional associations and narrative roles. Also notable, Griffith weaves into his pastoral (likely for the first time) formulas that derive from the legends of the ante-bellum South. This intertwining of pastoral with Southern codes opens up a world of possibilities that he will explore with greater assurance later. The Open Gate starts in a vaguely defined historical past, marked by crinoline dresses, beaver top hats, fur-lined morning coats, candelabras and elegant teas. So vague are the historic markers that the setting could be nineteenth century England (the costumes in the first two shots are recycled from The Cricket on the Hearth) or the American South - the Biograph Bulletin provides no clue. But what matters to Griffith is that this is a bygone world of mannered formality, elegance, and gentility. The film opens when each of four sisters, elaborately dressed in white, takes her leave of Hetty, the eldest (Kate Bruce), at the end of a high tea. Quaint customs take a more serious turn when in the wake of a sister's death, Hetty's sense of family honor requires that she break off her engagement to her sweetheart in order to raise the orphan. By the end of the month, Griffith would explore more repressive aspects of the strict Southern code, with the mother (also Kate Bruce) in The Mountaineer's Honor murdering her son in order to uphold family pride. Hetty's sacrifice here is of a different order, but it has its pathological aspects. When the child arrives, Hetty kneels before it, clasps her hands, and bows her head. By casting Hetty's actions in an historical framework, Griffith also suggests an arcane form of zeal meant to appear slightiy archaic in the modern 102

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

world (for Biograph moderns like the cop and his wife in One Touch of Nature, a foster child presents no obstacle to marriage). At the heart of the broken engagement is the recurring image of a wooden gate which has become the setting for the proposal of marriage, the arrival of the adopted toddler, and the sad return of the wedding ring. Frustrated and furious, George (George Nicholls) yanks the gate open, nearly tearing it off its hinges. At Hetty's command, it remains broken, the embodiment of the couple's unhappy condition. Like them, to paraphrase Tom Gunning, it is separated, disjointed, and now mouldering. But the image is curiously ambiguous, also suggesting hope: a door left open, a relationship unresolved. More generally, what started as Hetty's gate, the entrance to her private property, has now become Hetty and George's gate, a memorial of their love affair. In the first half of the film, Hetty's parlor undergoes only a perfunctory change: a crib is added to accomodate the adopted baby. But after an intertitle notes the passage of fifteen years, substantial shifts in the parlor underscore the historicity and formality of the original trappings. Candelabras give way to a hurricane lamp; the sampler framed on the wall is updated; the brocade covering of the dining table has been exchanged for a modern damask with abstract zigzag designs. The high tea has given way to an informal lunch, prepared with a wire broiler and corn popper. And most ominous: Hetty's elegant white Angora cat has been traded for a teenager. The gate, growing decrepit, signals change too, but it also adds overtones of continuity and cyclical repetition. An intertitle introduces the theme, presenting the new generation of lovers as younger versions of their predecessors: "AT THE GATE/ THE OLD, OLD STORY." Hetty's niece Mary (Gertrude Robinson) loves George's nephew Jack (Owen Moore), and, utilizing the same spaces and camera set-ups, their affair recapitulates the one we've just seen: marriage proposal/ quarrel/ return of a ring. But the gate acquires an added association when Jack's uncle, hoping to patch up his nephew's affair, walks up to the open gate looking for Mary. In previous films like After Many Years and The Broken Locket, Griffith had worked the formula of couples separating over long periods of time and then reuniting. But what is distinctive here is the importance attached to a symbolized object that displaces the loved one in providing the shock of recognition. For George, the gate, recalling past associations, is the structure that shocks him into recognizing his lost love. Space and time are now used to provide comic ironies. Hetty, telling her niece the story of the gate, has sent her away to find Owen and accept the ring she returned; George, determined to intercede for his nephew, takes the ring to press it upon the niece. Uncle and niece cross in the woods, neither recognizing the other. So, when both couples are reconciled in front of the wooden gate, the young couple's ring has been used to seal the engagement of the senior couple. Laughter all around as Kate Bruce raises her finger - her wedding finger. With the double reconciliation the gate is closed and the circle completed. Tom Gunning, as far as I know the only historian to have written on this movie, argues that The Open Gate provides the most developed use of a recurring image for any 1909 Biograph (Gunning, 1991, pp. 239-40). The oddly worded intertitles too suggest Griffith's frenetic attempt to compress past, present, and future tenses. Consider the tide introducing Uncle George's intercession with his nephew: "FATE/ UNCLE GEORGE WILL INTERCEDE. AND TAKES THE RING BACK TO THE BOY'S SWEETHEART." It is one of those linguistic pretzels that verges on incoherence, especially when placed at the start of the shot it tries to introduce. The wording combines an expression of Uncle George's future intention ("Uncle George will intercede") with a summary of his present action ("[he] takes the ring back to the boy's sweetheart") and a substantive noun ("Fate") that may or may not connect with either of these actions. Further, we remain uncertain as to which actions "Fate" and "intercession" precisely apply: George's surprise meeting with his nephew, his taking of the ring, 103

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

his leave-taking from the nephew, his unwitting encounter with Hetty's niece, his arrival at the gate, or the combination of all six shots. Grammatical unruliness adds to the sense of past meeting with the future, with Uncle George functioning as both the personification of fate and its target. Meanwhile, Griffith provides one of his customary elegant turns with mise-en-scène. The subtle subtext of the final half of The Open Gate centers on the preparation, disruption, and final consumption of an informal meal. Hetty has laid out lunch of sorts for the young sweethearts, but no one gets to eat it. While helping put food on the table, George's nephew inadvertently drops a letter which precipitates the quarrel and break-up. Hetty is preparing another meal with the same wire broiler, but again is disrupted, this time by the sighting of long-lost George. She drops the broiler, and runs out of the house. Reconciliation and a return to the hearth: where now everyone has gathered around to enjoy home-made popcorn. Russell Merritt

104

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

208 BlOGRAPH

SWEET REVENGE Filming date: 11/13 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Central Park, New York City Release date: 18 November 1909 Release length: 471 feet Copyright date: 20 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Marion Leonard (The Jilted One); Arthur Johnson (Paul Hiller); ? (Messenger); Jeannie MacPherson (Alice Baross, the second fiancée); Frank Powell (Alice's father); ? (Alice's mother); Robert Harron (On bridge) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Revenge is sweet, but like many sweet things it often leaves a bad taste. How many wreak vengeance only to be heartily sorry after its commission? How many are there who would give anything to undo deeds done, that they at the time of perpetration felt justified? Sweet revenge - it is a bitter sweet. In this Biograph subject is shown an exemplification of the theory, with rather better results than is usually attended vengeful moves. The young man jilts his first sweetheart to marry another. He apprises her of this by leaving a newspaper containing the notice of his approaching marriage. She flies into a frenzy of rage, and for revenge dispatches a messenger boy to the bride-elect with a package of his love letters and a joint photograph of themselves. The boy departs and she follows with her mind's eye this bearer of her malice, when suddenly her hand falls upon one of his gloves on the table. This is like a shock, for she now realizes the woe she has apparently caused. What would she not do to recall the messenger, but fate has intervened, for the boy has accidently dropped the package from a bridge into the river. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 18, 1909

When Paul Hiller jilts his first sweetheart to marry Alice Baross, the jilted one plots her revenge. She sends Hiller's old love letters to his fiancee and imagines the reaction. She sights her lover's glove on a table, however, softens and repents her act. Happily for her, the courier accidently drops the packet into Central Park's lake.

Scott Simmon has argued (in his note to The Jilt, DWG Project, #137 ) that the powers of a capricious woman seem to terrify Griffith. In films like The Reckoning, Two Memories, and The Jilt, her faithlessness drives men to hysteria. Here in Sweet Revenge, the tables are turned. Marion Leonard, Biograph's czarina of faithless love, now takes her lumps as the spurned lover. She is plainly made of sterner stuff than her male prey. If the fickle Marion is meant to stimulate outrage, the vengeful Marion fascinates with her creative energy. In 105

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

An Awful Moment, A Drive for Life, and With Her Card, her ingenuity turned diabolical: she rigs up a shotgun to a doorknob, injects a box of chocolates with strychnine, and manipulates the stock market. But in Sweet Revenge the delights of retribution war with the agonies of trying to forgive. In a self-conscious tour-de-force, Griffith turns the revenge formula into an extended interior monologue. Sweet Revenge seems a direct response to The Jilt, another story about a spurned lover who uses the false sweetheart's letters to ruin an imminent wedding. The two maniacal male soliloquies in The Jilt give way to Leonard's extended female soliloquy in Sweet Revenge; the lover's fixation on the faithless one's portrait in the first movie is repeated as the fixation on a glove in the second. But similarities only highlight differences. In the six months that separate the two films, Griffith has grown far more adroit in rendering the workings of a distraught mind, and more sophisticated in developing what Roberta Pearson has called the gestural soliloquy. We can also see, thanks to the survival of an intertitled print, how Griffith uses titles to blend subjective with objective action. This simple half-reeler, dismissed by the original trade reviewers as dull filler ("It has very little dramatic power", wrote the Moving Picture World reviewer) provides a handy progress report on Griffith's growing skill with actors, mise-en-scène, and editing. Tom Gunning has noticed how, perhaps for the first time, a Griffith intertitle gives the film image a psychological dimension. Gunning points to the shot of Leonard in her apartment followed by an intertitle which reads "GLOATING, SHE FOLLOWS WITH 'HER MINDS EYE,' THE BEARER OF MALICE." We are tempted to read the subsequent shot of the letter-bearing messenger as Leonard's subjective imagining, or more precisely, a combination of what Leonard imagines and what is actually taking place. As Gunning notes, much in the image, including the boy's encounter with his pals and the loss of the letters, cannot be part of Leonard's thought process because the actions are unknown to her. But the intertitle combined with the repeated glance-object eye movements create a counterforce that give the sequence a subjective overtone. Griffith had been interpolating shots that signaled mental projections from the start of the year, and in The Convict's Sacrifice had even made an interpolated shot depict a line of spoken dialog. Sweet Revenge is more peculiar: Griffith works with a metal picture frame as the trigger for Leonard's mental wanderings. The frame, which once held a photograph of Marion and her ex-fiancé, is now treated as a magic mirror. Leonard stares at it four times and, after each look, turns to the camera to mime the messenger's progress and her own deepening feelings of vengeful delight. It is as though she can see both the messenger and her lover in this mirror/picture frame, and is transmitting to us what she sees. The psychological aspect of Sweet Revenge is carried mainly by Leonard's performance and her interaction with the props that have been set on the cigarette table. What is most notable is how carefully it all has been thought out: by the time she uses them, each of the objects she touches and handles has been given a micro-history. After she is done with the picture frame, she discovers one of her ex's stray gloves. Arthur had left it there when, in the first shot of the film, he returned to retrieve his umbrella. Like the umbrella, the glove becomes a momento of the absent-minded Arthur; linked to the umbrella, it immediately softens Leonard's heart and takes the mime in a new direction. This is the sort of thing that Pickford, Griffith's quickest student, remembered and absorbed into her own more deliberate and subtler style. Russell Merritt

106

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

209 BlOGRAPH

THE MOUNTAINEER'S HONOR Filming date: 14/19/20 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Cuddebackville, New York Release date: 25 November 1909 Release length: 977 feet Copyright date: 26 November 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Mary Pickford (Harum-Scarum); Owen Moore (Her suitor); James Kirkwood (Her brother); Kate Bruce (Her mother); George O. Nicholls (Her father); Arthur Johnson (The man from the valley); Anthony O'Sullivan (Sheriff); Mack Sennett, Frank Evans (In posse); Ruth Hart, William A. Quirk, Gertrude Robinson (Townsfolk); Dorothy West (Also at dance) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) A STORY OF THE KENTUCKY HILLS In the hills of old Kentucky death was always preferable to dishonor, and once there occurred a blot on the family's good name it was never effaced. Such, whose fate it befell to incur the tarnish, were shunned as moral lepers. This was the awful anticipation of the mother, when she did the deed that terminates our story. The family, comprising mother, father, son and a harumscarum daughter, knew nothing of the world outside the old blue hills where they lived. Their ways were simple and honest. The harum-scarum was loved by an humble mountain poet, but she, hare-brained, could not appreciate his candor. One evening a belated traveller from the valleys calls and asks food and shelter for the night, and although they are at first inclined to turn him away, Harum-Scarum, no doubt struck with his manly appearance, induces them to accommodate him. The valley man at first is amused by the antics of the harum-scarum, and as he leaves in the morning is impressed by the fact that the little rattle-brained girl is in love with him. The consent to meet him is easily obtained, and during the husking dance she steals away to the spot selected. These clandestine meetings become regular occasions, until at last the brother's suspicion is aroused. H e follows her on one of her journeys, and arrives just in time to see her cruelly deserted by her lover of the valleys. H e questions her, but an answer is unnecessary, and drives her home, just as the old father comes into view over the rocks. The boy, unarmed, borrows the old man's revolver, and bolts off, leaving the father standing perpelexed, for he is unaware of his motive. Following the valley man, he catches up with him as he enters the village. Here he demands that the man go back and right the wrong. His demand is refused and the valley man pays the penalty. The vigilance party are soon on the boy's trail and surround his home. They are met by the old mother, who fights ferociously with them at the door. She is overpowered, however, and the sheriff finds the boy hidden in the fireplace. Taking him outside, the mother, who has revived, asks what they intend doing with him. H e is to be hanged at once. Hanged! Oh, the ignominy of such an end. What a smirch to the family honor. Cunningly she contrives to avert this awful end. Begging the officer to be allowed to get her son 107

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

a drink, she goes, and returns with a dipper of water. As he drinks, she shows him a pistol concealed beneath her apron. He nods assent, and it meant but a touch of the trigger to cheat the gibbet. The party, seeing their work anticipated, depart. At this point, the girl realizing that she is the cause of it all rushes out and falls prostrate on her dead brother, but the mother hurls her aside and, with an invective casts her adrift. The humble mountain poet, still deeply in love with her, is more charitable, and blaming the stranger, and not the unsophisticated mountain girl, takes her in his arms and leads her away. We last see them making their way over the hills, with the shades of night slowly shutting them from view. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 25, 1909

When a harum-scarum mountain girl is seduced by a traveller from the valley, her brother tracks the seducer down and kills him. In retaliation, a sheriffs posse captures the brother and prepares to lynch him. Mother intervenes and, to save her son the disgrace of hanging, shoots him in the head.

Until Griffith made A Corner in Wheat a few weeks later, The Mountaineers Honor was the highlight of his fall season. The finale, Kate Bruce putting a bullet through her son to save him from the hangman, defines melodramatic excess, but what saves the movie from freakdom is the poignance of the love affair between Mary Pickford as the awestruck Harum-Scarum and the dashing stranger played by Arthur Johnson. Griffith captures the poignance of a naive, even half-witted heroine who is caught between a brutish family and a charming, faithless lover. This is the first in a series of Southern dramas in which parents kill their children to protect family honor. Southern codes of duty had helped shape Biographs before, as in The Open Gate, finished a few days earlier. But here he starts with the pathology of Southern family codes and their consequences. Two months later, he makes The Honor of His Family, where a father shoots his son to conceal the boy's cowardice on a battlefield. But, more generally, The Mountaineer's Honor anticipates The Painted Lady (1912) where, torn between a repressive father and a false lover, the heroine descends into madness. A measure of the strange bleakness of the film is that the banishment of the daughter seems crueler than the murder of the son. The ironies in The Mountaineer's Honor start with the tide (the meaning of honor depends on who is meant as the mountaineer) and extend into a narrative that weaves together two plot formulas. The film starts as a deception romance in which a country girl is seduced and abandoned, then shunned by her own family. The Valley Man's cruel deception of HarumScarum is combined with the girl's thoughtless infidelity towards her bashful beau. The film then shifts gears to a story centered on revenge and family honor, where to avenge his sister, a mountain man tracks down the seducer and kills him in a gun fight. The shooting is done out of a sense of family duty. Yet Harum-Scarum's sense of shame and abandonment plainly means nothing to the avenging brother. He and his father see themselves as the aggrieved parties, treating Harum-Scarum as an untouchable. Mother gets into the act by extending the principle to the son, shooting him before a hanging can further dishonor the family name. Structurally, the blending of the two narratives creates a curious helix, turning Harum-Scarum from instigator to bystander, a casualty in a battle which she scarcely understands. By the time the story returns to her, she has been reunited with the boy who has always loved her, and she gets to leave the valley she had hoped to leave with her seducer. But by now she is not only a pariah to her family, her departure has become a postscript to her brother's climactic death, her fate upstaged by his flamboyant demise. From main character, she has devolved 108

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

into an afterthought. Pickford's performance, particularly her early scenes with Owen Moore, take getting used to. It's a surprise to learn that this superbly controlled actress is the inventor of the Griffith hoyden, the twittering innocent forever hopping up and down, given to finger-twisting and nailbiting anticipating the characters that Mae Marsh made famous in Griffith features. Pickford does what she can with the hyperactive skips and darts, but plainly she is more comfortable and assured in the quieter scenes, after she has lost her virginity. Curiously, for all the consequences it brings, the seduction scene itself is never shown. A single shot, interrupted by a jump cut, records Pickford leaving for her assignation with Johnson, then returning, saddened and bewildered. Had the print been copyrighted before 14 October 1909 when paper prints lacked intertitles, we might have assumed a missing title inserted to bridge the awkward gap. But we now know that even in fully titled 1909 prints jump cuts were not uncommon. We can also speculate that a shot or title has been censored. But what is striking is that in a film where the heroine fades from perpetrator to onlooker the jump cut functions to erase the crucial moment of transformation. Compared to the complex, intricate staging of the murder of the seducer and the monumental staging of the avenger's death, Harum-Scarum's fateful moment goes unseen. The Mountaineer's Honor appears at a curious time, when the country's perception of Appalachian culture was underdoing an important sea change, and the movie is tantalizing in the hints it provides of the change. The hillbilly had long been an entrenched figure in American lore, created by local color writers in the 1870s as a mythic American type. In the short stories and novels of Mary Noailles Murfree, James Lane Allen, and John Fox, the images had been fixed: peculiar and sullen families, feuding clans, illegal liquor, and tragic love affairs with hints of incest. Biograph's first mountain film, The Moonshiner, released in July 1904 and for many years the company's all-time best-seller, worked comfortably within the formula: a moonshiner's wife shoots the revenuer who pursues and kills her brutish, loving husband. After the First World War, the feuding hillbilly became a national joke, and by the 1930s he was a staple of American cartoons (Li'l Abner, Snuffy Smith, all those skinny black-bearded sluggards with liquor jugs invented by Paul Webb for Esquire magazine). But in the tradition Griffith inherited, the mountain man was taken seriously, as a disturbing, mysterious American type. Above all, hillbilly people, like Harum-Scarum's family, were seen as remote, behind the times, surviving from an earlier stage of historical (and perhaps evolutionary) development. Griffith's story is a case in point. The anathematized love affair between a naive mountain girl and an educated visitor is used to underscore the unbridgeable gap between primitive and modern cultures. According to Appalachian specialist Henry Shapiro, this was the most common kind of tale used in mountain fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. In spring 1908 Selig had started mining this motif, perhaps for the first time in movies, in In the Nick of Time making the visitor an aristocrat from bluegrass Kentucky and the girl a recluse living in a mountain cabin. But Selig's movie had watered the theme down by uniting the lovers in a happy ending. Griffith is evidently the first filmmaker to make the barriers permanent. Feuds, bushwacking, and rough mountain justice had also become an important part of the picture, especially after Kentucky's highly-publicized killing sprees of 1903 and 1904. A pre-Griffith Biograph called A Kentucky Feud had been only one of several one-reelers to play off headlines about the Hatfields and McCoys; non-Biographs like The Moonshiner's Daughter and A Mountain Feud dramatized the wars in Kentucky's "bloody Breathitt" County which featured the ambush of the Governor-elect on the statehouse steps. True, by the time Griffith made The Feud and the Turkey and The Mountaineers Honor, there were still only a handful of feuding hillbilly movies (by J. W. Williamson's count in Southern Mountaineers in Silent Film, no more than a dozen over a five-year period), but the tide was rapidly rising. By 109

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the end of 1910, Williamson counts twenty-two new titles and by 1914, more than one new mountain film every week. But what gives The Mountaineer's Honor its historical interest is that it appears as mountain culture was being dramatically reconceptualized. Countering the image of poor white trash were articles in the popular press suggesting a sophisticated folk society with traditions that extended back to the English Renaissance. The momentous discoveries about Appalachian folk music as a repository of Old English and Scottish ballads were already being enthusiastically reported, while mountain dance music was being recognized as an enormously diverse collection of old jigs, clogs, reels, German schottisches, and Yankee fife tunes that dated back to the Revolutionary War. Homespun crafts from Appalachia and the Ozarks were stimulating similar interest. Thanks to the St. Louis Exposition of 1901 and various local fairs, Appalachian quilts, baskets, and pottery were being widely displayed and studied, admired as expressions of a primal "American spirit", evidence of hidden artistic genius. While Griffith was directing The Mountaineer's Honor, William Frost renovated "Fireside Industries", his industrial school at Berea, Kentucky, in order to market the bedspreads, rugs, pottery, and baskets his students were creating in their classes. With the opening of Fireside Industries, the merchandizing of Appalachian folk products and the selling of the American crafts movement had begun. These new discoveries about Appalachia dovetailed with the idea that mountaineers were racially pure, an undiluted part of the American folk, in a word Southern thoroughbreds. Unlike the urban immigrant, the argument went, the hillbilly and the mountain girl could trace their blood-lines directly back to noble Scottish and Scottish-Irish settlers. The feud itself, instead of being written off as a variation of the Sicilian or Corsican vendetta, was now linked to the noble, ancient feuds of Irish and Scottish clans. Increasingly, sociologists and missionaries published reports connecting the hillbilly to Southern aristocrats and Homeric chieftans. The newer hillbilly stories - J o h n Fox's enormously popular novel, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine ( 1908), is a prime example - began adapting motifs found in Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, making explicit comparisons between the Appalachian feudists and their Scottish predecessors, the Campbells and MacGregors. Part of what makes The Mountaineer's Honor a Biograph fascinator is the way in which these new motifs braid themselves into the old, resulting in a mountain culture that is both noble and degenerate at the same time, the strange customs treated as the twisted adaptation of a chivalric old-world temper and ideals. The impact of the crafts movement can be most readily seen in the detailed attention to costume and decor, especially when compared to the perfunctorily dressed sets of The Feud and the Turkey, made exactly a year earlier. The cabin interior is richly furbished with a homemade corn husk ornament, strings of garlic and dried peppers, a row of apples lined along the mantle, and pelts hanging over the alcove. Outside, a gourd pole and bird feeder stand beyond the porch; even the father's armsling adds to the homey effect, foregrounding the oddly checked patterns on the bandana. The husking dance is staged with a similar eye to detail, the fiddler and caller set off in profile against dancers who are decked out in a wide assortment of granny dresses, vests, and slouch hats. More generally, the twisted codes that result in a son's death and a daughter's ostracism are portrayed not in terms of Biograph Grand Guignol, but with a kind of paternalistic reverence. Griffith treats his fellow Kentuckians as exotics, whose mysterious origins result in mysterious practices, with a logic all their own. As the Moving Picture World reviewer writes, "the peculiar standards which make hanging such an ignominious form of execution will be scarcely comprehensible to one who has never known of the peculiarities" {The Moving Picture World, December 4, 1909, p. 799). The film depends on our sense of judgment being held in check by our sense of incomprehension. Russell Merritt 110

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

210 BlOGRAPH

THE TRICK THAT FAILED Filming date: 23 October 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 29 November 1909 Release length: 645 feet Copyright date: 3 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Mary Pickford {Nellie Burt); Arthur Johnson {Billy Hart); Anthony O'Sullivan {Hans Kessler); George O. Nicholls {Gallery owner); Dorothy West, Gertrude Robinson, Guy Hedlund, Jeannie MacPherson, Owen Moore, Frank Evans, Ruth Hart? {At gallery); Mack Sennett, William A. Quirk, Kate Bruce {Buyers) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." With Nellie Burt greatness was thrust upon her but it was indeed transitory. Nellie is an artist struggling for fame, at the expense of a vacancy in the digestive region. It cannot be said that she was not possessed of a sensitive pneumogastric nerve, but she had a will power that proved an anaesthetic to the pangs of hunger. Painting after painting does she finish and carry to the art dealer, but he gently tries to dissuade her by showing a stack of her work with still no purchasers, Still she persists. Now Billy Hart, a successful artist, sees her plight, and being desperately in love with her proposes marriage, as does also Hans Kessler, another artist. Nellie, however, is wedded to art, and declines Billy's offer, stating that she will not consider his very flattering offer until she has sold pictures enough to establish her fame. An idea strikes Billy. He will make her famous by the following scheme: He enlists the services of several friends, his housekeeper and valet, giving them money to buy up the stock of Nellie's paintings at the art dealer, and when the dealer turns over to Nell her share, she feels that she is at last great, so goes to Billy's studio to tell him of her good fortune, and inclined to accept his proposal. All would have gone well for Billy had not the awkwardness of his valet exposed to view the pile of paintings. Nell realizes the deception perpetrated, and flies into a rage. Leaving the place with the exclamation "you'll not make a fool of me," she goes to her own atelier, where she accepts Kessler, who calls shortly after. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 29, 1909

Nellie Burt is a struggling artist whose paintings lie unsold in stacks in the art dealer's shop. A successful painter named Billy Hart loves her, but she writes him that she cannot marry until she sells her paintings. To hasten that day, Hart recruits his housekeeper, valet, and friends to buy his sweetheart's paintings. At first delighted by her sudden success, Nellie deflates when she discovers the trick and leaves her sweetheart to accept the proposal of a rival painter. Ill

T H E G R I F F I T H P R O J E C T : VOLUME 3

It is a pleasure to see Mary Pickford teamed again with Arthur Johnson in a comedy romance. Oddly, when casting Johnson in farces, Griffith usually buried his handsome leading man under comic makeup and gave him secondary or bit parts like the Puritanical minister in Eradicating Aunty or one of the buffoonish cutthroats in A Cardinal's Conspiracy. The Trick That Failed marks only the third time Griffith used him as Pickford's leading man, but he provides a delightful change of pace from Billy Quirk, Pickford's usual comic partner. He plunges into his part of the exuberant schemer with gusto, all the while maintaining his considerable poise. Johnson shows he can hold his own, but Pickford with characteristic resourcefulness steals the show. Decked out in a tailored coat and an untrimmed straw hat with decorative puffballs that respond to her every twirl, she even works her costume into her characterization. She is plainly more at home playing a comic ingenue than the twittering woodland sprites and impudent maids she had recently been obliged to portray. She is still working with scenes of ecstasy, frustration, and anger but now she eliminates the grimaces and exaggerated expressions. Johnson belongs to an older school, constantly repeating gestures without building on them. Pickford, working at a more deliberate pace, has greater control over her movements and is better trained to make each gesture count. When a startled Nellie actually gets paid for having sold a painting, Pickford exits with a twirling bunny hop, a carefully thought-out little victory dance that carries over to her apartment. When she returns, still twirling, she struggles with an armload and mouthload of groceries, artfully distributing them on and around Wagner's bust, ready for her first full meal. Pickford makes the whole thing look effortless, fresh, and playful. But Griffith by no means depended on her yet. Marion Leonard was still his most important and most versatile leading actress; after The Trick That Failed, Pickford didn't act again at Biograph for another full month. In one respect The Trick That Failed is an unusual Biograph: it's a comedy about a painter. Paintings themselves are everywhere at Biograph; there is scarcely a Griffith short that doesn't have one or two of them stuck on a wall. But painters of any kind are hard to find. The last one was Harvey, the struggling artist in The Deception, whose wife is forced to support him in a laundry. But for all it mattered to the plot, Harvey could as easily have been a writer, as could the major figures in The Trick That Failed. In fact, the plot for The Trick That Failed is recycled from The Mills of the Gods where the failed dilettante is a novelist and the trickster's scheme is directed at a publisher. All in all, when it came to portraying artists, Griffith was more comfortable with musicians, particularly violinists who made up by far the lion's share of Biograph creative types. Griffith cannot be said to have much feel for the painter's world. He avoids the streets of Greenwich Village, already the center of New York's art scene, and fakes his studio interiors. Nellie's atelier is Biograph's standard issue apartment decked out with busts of Wagner and Athena and the painting of a moose. The care he takes in showing the professional environments of businessmen, shopworkers, and other craftsmen doesn't extend to painters. We never see either Nellie or Billy wield a brush or contemplate an easel. This is one of the few fall/winter 1909 Biographs in the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection without intertides; happily the comic plot does not require them, although it would be good to know whether a tide could explain Nellie's attraction to Billy's squat, obsequious rival played by Tony O'Sullivan. It is a measure of the charm Pickford and Johnson bring to their roles that we feel let down when Pickford chooses O'Sullivan over Johnson. As the man at The New York Dramatic Mirror wrote, "This ending is a litde disappointing, but as we see no marriage ceremony performed, we shall live in hope that [Nellie] will relent and reward the rich author's devotion." Russell Merritt 112

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

211 BlOGRAPH

IN THE WINDOW RECESS Filming date: 15/16/28 October 1909 Location: New York Studio/Fort Lee, New Jersey Release date: 29 November 1909 Release length: 337 feet Copyright date: 3 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: George O. Nicholls {Officer Wallace)-, Marion Leonard (Mrs. Wallace); Adèle De Garde (Their child); James Kirkwood (Convict); Jeannie MacPherson, ? (Callers); Arthur Johnson, Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Evans (Guards) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Never was mortal placed in a more terrible and perplexing position than the woman in this story. Practically between two fires, she is forced to submissively receive the taunts of a suspicious husband, backed up by convincing evidence in order to save her child's life. Police Officer Wallace leaves his house for his post, to learn that a desperate convict had broken [sic] prison and was lurking in the neighborhood. This convict, dashing into the Wallace home, seizes the little child, and with pistol in hand, hides in the recess of the window, with the injunction to Mrs. Wallace that if she reveals his hiding place her child will suffer. The officer returning home, finds the convict's hat on the floor, and noticing his wife's agitation, of course suspects she has entertained someone in his absence. He proceeds to make a search, and pounces upon the convict so suddenly that he fails to carry out his threat. Hence, taken unawares he is overpowered, handcuffed, and handed over to the prison guards to be reincarcerated. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], November 29, 1909

An escaped convict takes refuge in the home of a police officer out on duty. He seizes the officer's young daughter and pulls her into concealment in a window recess, with a pistol to her head, warning her mother that the girl will be killed if she gives away his hiding place. Her husband returns and discovers the convict's hat. He suspects his wife is concealing an affair and she must avoid revealing the convict's presence for the sake of her daughter. The suspicious husband discovers the convict and luckily saves his daughter.

Biograph presented In the Window Recess as a split reel film (a film shorter than the thousandreel length, and so sharing the reel with another film) and this was definitely the "B" film of the offering, shorter and less elaborate. The longer film Biograph paired it with, a Mary Pickford comedy called The Trick that Failed, displayed Mary's charm in a very undramatic and light film. The pairing of the two films shows the company's desire to promote variety and a 113

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

change of genre within their split reel offers, since In the Window Recess offers a suspenseful and even gruesome situation, a real little Grand Guignol thriller taking place in basically one location and lasting less than ten minutes. One might more often expect the shorter film of the reel to be a comedy, but Pickford's popularity and her brand of comedy, which needed some time to develop character rather than simply play out gags, undoubtedly reversed the more common proportion. The unity of time, place, and action of this film makes one suspect there is a direct theatrical source, but even if there is not one, it clearly belongs to a tradition of one-act plays featuring a suspenseful, dangerous situation within a single location and revolving around a strong performance by an actress. A basic disparity of knowledge structures the drama: the wife knows her daughter's peril, while her husband does not and is unwittingly both unjustly accusing a woman we know is being valiant, and endangering his child's life. For the suspense to work, it is essential that we, the audience, share her knowledge and watch her husband's foolishness with great concern. The confined nature of the film, both spatially and temporally, does not give Griffith much room for invention, but we do see that Griffith now understands the need for alternation in creating suspense even within a single room. Previously, Griffith had dealt with similar concealed threats (as in The Prussian Spy or The Welcome Burglar) by placing the characters in an adjoining room or closet. Here, the space is part of the room, although separate enough to allow concealment. Therefore, Griffith is forced to cut within this single space, intercutting the smaller space of the recess and the larger space of the room (image cut off on the edge of the paper print I viewed made it difficult to tell if Griffith intercuts three different view points, a wider view of the whole room, a view of the recess, and a slightly less wide view of the room which renders the recess less visible, or only two views, wider and closer). The cuts not only articulate the space, but the hidden drama, of which the husband remains ignorant. Griffith more frequently intercuts separate spaces than analyzing one single space, but it would seem the unique architectural arrangement of the window recess made this difference less obvious. Griffith treats them like two separate spaces and breaks this rather short film into twenty-two separate shots (a number greater than the average for a full reel film the year before! ), including a few exterior shots. The cutting, however, is serviceable rather than innovative and treads firmly in pathways Griffith had already worn down to a simple, if effective, convention. Two years later in L'Epouvante produced by the Pathé subsidiary SCAGL, an unknown director created a true tour de force out of similar material with a woman becoming aware of a burglar concealed beneath her bed. But for Griffith this brief film was simply a fulfillment of his contract, employing enough storytelling ability to make it understandable and involving, if not truly memorable. Another reason one suspects a stage antecedent to this film is the opportunity it would provide an actress (as the similar situation in L'Epouvante provided Mistinguett) for a riveting and varied performance, conveying her dual levels of deep motherly concern and effected nonchalance, even in the face of an unmerited calumny. It is certainly a part suited to Marion Leonard, whom Griffith generally cast as a melodramatic heroine in the romantic mode of his one-time leading lady on stage, Nance O'Neil. As leading lady at Biograph, Leonard contrasted with Florence Lawrence both in her broader physical figure and correspondingly broader acting style. In the latter part of 1909, with Lawrence's exit from the Biograph acting company, Leonard contrasted even more sharply with ingenue Mary Pickford, who was being entrusted with longer and more complex roles. Pickford still specialized mainly in comedy roles (in fact His Wife's Visitor, starring Pickford a few months before this film, plays for laughs a similar situation of a husband's unwarranted suspicions based on a few suspicious objects). The contrast between the two actresses, their 114

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

respective styles, and the different genres would, of course, be directly demonstrated in the full reel as Biograph released it. The film was reviewed primarily as an actors' showcase, with The Moving Picture World pleased with "the facial expressions upon the various countenances clearly depicting what is passing through their minds" (The Moving Picture World, December 11, 1909, p. 840). Domesticity rules the Biograph films of this period both as ideology and narrative structure (if the two are different). Like most of the Biograph melodramas this one chronicles a threat to home and family and its successful resolution. The film combines (as did The Welcome Burglar) the two types of threats to family that appear in the Biograph films: the violent invader from the outside, characterized as an alien being, and the drama within the family of adultery. One is mistaken for the other here, and when all is sorted out, the reunited family embraces in the conventional image of narrative closure (much more popular in this period than a romantic kiss between a couple!). Tom Gunning

115

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

212 BlOGRAPH

THE DEATH DISC Filming date: 26/2S October 1909 Location: Coytesville, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 2 December 1909 Release length: 995 feet Copyright date: 3 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: "The Death Disk", the story by Mark Twain; according to Mark Twain, based on a "touching incident mentioned in Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell" Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: George O. Nicholls {The Catholic); Marion Leonard (His wife); Edith Haldeman (Their child); Frank Powell (Oliver Cromwell); James Kirkwood (His adviser); ? (His valet); Gertrude Robinson, Adèle De Garde, Dorothy West, Jeannie MacPherson (The wife's companions); Ruth Hart, Dorothy West (Ladies at court); Owen Moore, Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Evans, Arthur Johnson, Charles Craig (Soldiers) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; National Film and Television Archive, London, 35mm nitrate positive A STORY O F THE CROMWELLIAN PERIOD In the early part of the seventeenth century, England was in a state of turgid excitement. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth, was assiduous in his persecution of those who defiantly adhered to Catholicism. Few there was who had the temerity to openly profess their religious views, for such profession invariably meted execution. The Catholics, therefore, were forced to worship in secret. Many historians claim that while Cromwell was persistent in this persecution, he did it rather to satisfy his constituants than through the dictates of his own conscience. Spies on every hand industriously reported every exhibition of Catholic fervor and the Lord Protector was forced to accede to their tacit demands. Three soldiers are discovered as adherents to the faith and are imprisioned awaiting CormwelTs sentence. A respite, however, is offered them that they should cast lots and one would be executed, allowing the other two to return to the ranks of their own following to spread the warning among those true to the Church of Rome. This they refuse to do, so Cromwell sends for a child, the first the guards may meet, to be the messenger of life or death to the condemned, and by a strange fatality he obtained the child of one of the soldiers. The child is brought before Cromwell, and its presence prevents him strking down his best friend in a fit of anger. H e is so impressed with the little one particularly as it revives memories of his own dead child that he presents it with his signet ring promising to obey any command of hers invoked by its aid. Three discs are to determine which should live or die, and childlike, she decides to give her father the prettiest "The Death Disc", thus condemning her own father to death. The soldiers who return the child to her mother are moved to compassion and tell the poor woman the value of the signet ring. Through this she saves her husband on the eve of the execution and Cromwell redeemed his promise. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 2, 1909 116

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

During the reign of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, Catholic worship is forbidden on pain of death. Three of Cromwell's soldiers are arrested as Catholics and condemned to die by Cromwell. However, he decides to spare two of them and determine which should die by chance. The guards bring the first child they meet and whichever soldier she gives the "death disc" to, shall die. Cromwell is charmed by the girl they bring, who keeps him from getting embroiled in a physical argument. He gives her his signet ring, telling her that with this ring she can command him. By chance the child is the daughter of one of the soldiers and, unaware of its significance, gives the death disc to her father, because she thinks it's pretty. The child is returned home to her mother, who learns both of her husband's pending execution and of the power of the ring. She rushes to the place of execution and saves her husband with the ring.

It is hard to know what to make of this film, which seems caught between two styles. Certainly the Biograph Company envisioned it as a costume film of some pretension, another example of the influence the films d'art had on American producers in 1909 and on Griffith in particular. The film is based, although the Biograph Bulletin does not acknowledge it, on a rather sentimental short story of the same title by Mark Twain. Interestingly, however, in the Twain story, the men have been condemned for an infraction of military orders, not for their Catholicism. The film's theme of religious intolerance seems to be a Biograph addition. The historical drama and elaborate (although inaccurate) costumes further its cultural claims in a period in which films were anxious for recognition from educators and cultural guardians. Curiously, the intertitles are almost all in verse (!). Since the intertitles from Griffith's films from 1908 through September of 1909 have not been preserved, we don't know how unusual these verse titles are. Griffith had already made a number of films based on famous poems (Thomas Hood's The Song of the Shirt in 1908; Robert Browning's Pippa Passesy only a few months earlier in 1909), and we know that at least some verses from those poems appeared in the films as intertitles. But Twain's original story was not in verse and this raises the possibilities that other Biograph films not based on poems also had verse tides. How might Lines of White on a Sullen Sea seem with verse titles, or, say, a comedy like Schneiders Anti-Noise Crusade with comic verses as tides? Most likely such intertitles would have been commented on by the trade press (as the intertides for The Death Disc were), but this is negative evidence. However, given the quality of these doggerel verses ("THEN CROMWELL SAID, 'LET FATE DECIDE/ SINCE THEY WILL NOT, WHICH MAN MUST DIE/ GO FORTH AND BRING TO ME A CHILD/ THE FIRST YOU SEE PASSES BY'") prepared for this film (by whom? Griffith? Lee Dougherty who wrote the Biograph Bulletins? some other source?) we may not be missing much, if others have been lost. For the most part this film feels rather stodgy, although it has a more complex plot than is common, with a series of interlocking coincidences. Curiously, Griffith seems uninspired by it. The story revolves around two separate object tokens which have contrasting powers of condemnation and pardon, both of which are in the hands of the same child and end up canceling each other out. (Although Cromwell does give the little girl the power to command him in the original Twain story, there is no signet ring, so one of the tokens was added in this Biograph version, unless a stage source intervenes.) So many early films, not only at Biograph, but at other companies, revolved around such significant objects, that one expects more to be made of them here. They nearly cry out for a close-up. But Griffith resists, either because he still feels uncertain about a technique he has only used a few 117

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

times, or because he feels the high art genre of the film forbids it. For most of the film, Griffith relies on rather long lasting, rather self-contained shots, rather than editing. This full-reel film only comprises seventeen shots (exclusive of intertitles), in other words, five shots less than In the Window Recess (whose shooting dates overlapped with this film) which was only one third as long. Griffith does put editing to work at the climax, a classic rush to the rescue, as the soldier's wife rushes to stop her husband's execution. Already a familiar narrative device at Biograph (not to mention in stage melodrama and sensation novels), the specific situation here - an execution - inevitably summons up associations with the later Griffith features which also end with rescues from executions, Intolerance (1916) and Orphans of the Storm (1921). This sequence is rather perfunctory, covering less than half a dozen shots, but the cutting to the soldier being prepared for the execution and then tied to the chopping block, does carry some suspense. To my mind, however, the most impressive shot in the film shows the women and children frolicking in the forest until Cromwell's guards come and seize the soldier's daughter. The pastoral setting and freedom of action contrast nicely with the soldier's fatal purpose. The Moving Picture World responded to the film favorably, noting both its cultural claims and its accessibility to the nickelodeon viewer: "while the subject is one with rather complicated historical features, it holds the interest of the average audience" (The Moving Picture World, December 11, 1909, p. 880). However, cultural claims could be met with skepticism when tested by a viewer with some knowledge. During this period, the trade journals began to be filled by letters from viewers who disputed the accuracy of costumes, settings or historical fact. Nearly a whole column in The Moving Picture World by Hans Leigh, entitled "More Absurdities by American Manufacturers", was devoted to The Death Disc {The Moving Picture World, January 15, 1910). Mr. Leigh pointed out the error of the long flowing wigs worn by the "roundheads" and the morion helmets of Cromwell's soldiers ("if a soldier topped with a morion had suddenly appeared among them, the whole army would have shrieked with one voice, 'Where DID you get that hat?'"). He was especially scornful of the verse titles, including the opening : "Lord Cromwell has this day proclaimed/ For the Church of England's good/ The death of three brave soldiers/ Who have that faith withstood" - given that the Church of England was Cromwell's bitter foe. The film seems to have left the educated public it courted unimpressed, and I doubt it thrilled the nickelodeon crowds much. Tom Gunning

118

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

213 BlOGRAPH

THROUGH THE BREAKERS Filming date: 29/30 October, 1/10 November 1909 Location: Edgewater, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 6 December 1909 Release length: 97'4 feet Copyright date: 8 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: James Kirkwood {Mr. Nostrand); Marion Leonard {Mrs. Nostrand); Adele De Garde {Their child); Kate Bruce {Nurse); George O. Nicholls {Doctor); Charles Craig, Arthur Johnson, William A. Quirk, Henry Lehrman, Mack Sennett, Lottie Pickford? {At the ball); Ruth Hart, Jeannie MacPherson, Grace Henderson {Callers); Grace Henderson, Ruth Hart {At the whist party); Donald Crisp, Owen Moore, Robert Harron, Mack Sennett, Henry Lehrman {At the club); Gertrude Robinson, Henry Lehrman, Ruth Hart, Charles Craig, Arthur Johnson, Frank Evans, Grace Henderson, Jeannie MacPherson, J. Waltham {At the soirée); Frank Evans {Among servants); ? {Butler) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print BlOGRAPH STORY O F THE SLAVES O F SOCIETY Undoubtedly the cardinal sin of society's devotees is neglect of the home. The obligations are so compelling that the undivided attention of its members is induced to the entire disregard of all things domestic. The earth sustained no two happier beings than Mr. and Mrs. Nostrand, when God's greatest gift, their first born was bestowed. Life's vista seemed bathed in sunshine as their whole thoughts were centered in the little one. In fancy they saw it grow from infancy to girlhood and on to young womanhood. But, alas, how often do these anticipations go awry. Becoming more and more engrossed in the social whirl, they give the child over to the care of the governess, until eight years later we find the father's time entirely taken up at the club, while the mother devotes hers to her whist parties. Alone, neglected and forlorn, the child, crushed in spirit, becomes seriously ill. The father is now alarmed in the child's behalf and insists that the mother stay at home and care for it. H e reasons that that is what the little one most needs. H e is the first to reproach himself for neglience, and tries to point this out to his wife, but alas she is not perceptive, and attends the child in a rather halfhearted manner. She does not consider her child is as ill as they would make her believe, and chafes under the forced, and in her opinion, unreasonable demands. Nervous, tired and longing for diversion, she defiantly attends a fancy dress soiree. During her absence the child becomes worse, and the doctor endeavors to keep life in the little form until she comes, but in vain, for the pure soul has departed when she arrives. The tie broken, the husband leaves, and she now realizes how false and hollow is the world in which she has been living. She sees nothing beyond but expiation. But how can she expiate this sin of neglect? Her child dead, her husband gone, life is manded by gloom. At the grave of the child we see the poor woman, with bruised heart, breathe forth prayers of contrition, when the husband, drawn by the same 119

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

impulse, approaches. Softened by the same grief they are reunited, each blaming themselves for their own sorrow. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 6, 1909

Mr. and Mrs. Nostrand, a society couple, neglect their young daughter in favor of diversions, he at his club, she at parties. The child becomes seriously ill. Mr. Nostrand realizes the errors of his ways and stays home with her, demanding his wife do likewise. However, Mrs. Nostrand sneaks out to a dance and the child takes a turn for the worse. A servant is sent by the father to inform the mother, but, by the time she returns, the child is dead. Mr. Nostrand, furious and in despair, leaves his wife. She now sees her selfishness, and, visiting the child's grave, begs forgiveness. Mr. Nostrand, also drawn to the grave, hears her contrition and the two are reconciled.

The death of a child was a standard motif of the sentimental literature and theater of the Victorian period, represented by the death of Little Eva on this side of the Adantic and Little Nell in Britain. Although a new mood had already been announced by Oscar Wilde's claim that one had to have a heart of stone to read of Nell's death without laughing, such scenes still possessed an emotional draw in popular entertainment. Griffith had fashioned a truly moving child's death in The Country Doctor earlier in 1909 (although the power of that scene today comes more from the pan in the final shot than from the histrionics at the child's death), and he had been killing off children (sentimentally) since Behind the Scenes in 1908, and would keep on doing so throughout his Biograph career. The theme of a marriage breaking up then being reconciled by the memory of a dead child was first introduced earlier in 1909 in And a Little Child Shall Lead Them and would be most beautifully worked in out in one of Griffith's last films for Biograph, The Mothering Heart in 1913. Griffith had now perfected the narrative armature he uses in this film: parallel editing employed first for a contrast which embodies a moral judgment and then the same device used for suspenseful purposes. Griffith first establishes the value of home and family with a brief two shot prologue which shows the Nostrands' engagement and then the birth of their first child. The shot of the child's birth is preceded by an intertitle which both marks the time that has passed since the previous shot and expresses the moral value of the birth of the child: "LATER/ GOD'S GREATEST GIFT". The shot of the nurse bringing the baby to Mrs. Nostrand and then Mr. Nostrand entering has a subtly different lighting scheme, more directional, emphasizing the mother and child with the background less highly illuminated than is common in Biograph films, visually creating an atmosphere of reverence. Interestingly, The New York Dramatic Mirror felt the first scene of the film could have been eliminated "without injury to the story". However, Griffith's Biograph films show a constant desire to provide back story and extend the film narrative beyond the key incidents and time period of the central dramatic conflict. This gives these short films a sense of extension that seems more novelistic than theatrical (although such essentializations are, of course, tricky). The next intertitle marks a large gap in time (after only a couple minutes of screen time) and a change in mood: "EIGHT YEARS LATER/THE PARENT'S SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS CAUSE THEM TO NEGLECT THEIR CHILD." We could note that the moral judgment is contained in the tide already, and since the titles at Biograph are usually proleptic, describing a scene we are about to see, we already know what to make of the parents' actions. However, it is Griffith's visual rhetoric that truly expresses, or makes vivid, this moral judgment. We cut from the child becoming ill at home alone to Mr. Nostrand drinking merrily at his club. The contrast does 120

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

more than translate the judgment, it naturalizes it for the viewer, by allowing an omniscient viewpoint. The father's return home and discovery of the sick child then is cut with an even stronger contrast, Mrs. Nostrand at her whist party. The contrast is now not only between neglected child and careless parent, but between two types of parental behavior. Griffith cuts between father and sick child and mother and card party twice, driving the contrast home. The moral judgment of the mother intensifies once she leaves her daughter's sick bed to go out to the "fancy dress soiree". The Biograph Bulletin describes Mrs. Nostrand as a neurasthenic type, "nervous, tired and longing for diversion", a common stereotype of the modern middle-class wife. Griffith interrupts the sickroom drama once with a cut away to the mother at the party. This cutaway carries all the moral contrast of the previous ones, plus a degree of suspense: will she realize her error and return home? In the shot, Mrs. Nostrand dances by, then pauses briefly, then resumes her dance. One can see this as a momentary moral hesitation and perhaps even as a sort of presentiment of her child's danger. But she does not obey it and reaches home only after the child's death. The Nostrands' reconciliation at the child's grave site is the only exterior shot in the whole film and, like the slighdy different lighting at the child's birth, this difference provides an increased atmosphere to the scene which supports the emotional conversion that takes place here. Apparently, Griffith's moral rhetoric was not acceptable to some audiences: Variety reported that when the film was shown in New England "visitors to the theater not only objected personally to the house manager, but some wrote letters to the newspapers directing attention to the objectionable nature of the film.... New Englanders don't want to see that kind of woman even in pictures" {Variety, December 25, 1909, p. 1). The New York Dramatic Mirror, however, felt the film had a "strong moral message and heart appeal" {The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 18, 1909, p. 15). Mrs. Nostrand was played by Marion Leonard, whom I have described as the Biograph actress most often playing melodramatic leading lady of strong passions. Her physique and style contrasted with the more comédie, lithesome and athletic Florence Lawrence, who also garnered more attention generally from the trade press and, apparently, fans who dubbed her "the Biograph Girl". Lawrence had left Biograph a few months before this film and the review of Through the Breakers for The Moving Picture World revealed the confusions that may have been common in this era when players were not yet identified by credits on the screen but were already being recognized by audience members. The review begins: An alarming rumor having spread around New York City that the famous Biograph Girl - our girl, our only girl, whom we have silently worshipped in effigy these many months, and to whom by the way, in this column we have made many references which surely indicate our favorable opinion of this lady - rumor having gone around that 'she' was no longer to be seen in the Biograph pictures, we went specially to inspect Monday's release for the purpose of satisfying not only our own doubts on the point, but those of many of our readers. For the number of this lady's admirers is legion. She is the heroine of many charming stories on the silent stage. Indeed, she is just as much a personality in the Biograph Stock Company as any well known actress would be at a Broadway house. Our doubts were set to rest as soon as the film "Through the Breakers' commenced to appear....the subject is, perhaps, somewhat melancholy, but it is well carried out by the Biograph Company who show us some very finished acting. But we do not like the morbid or the melancholy on the moving picture stage and we prefer to see our heroine in light comedy. Anyhow, there she is, and we hope to see her again taking part in the well dressed, well mounted, well finished Biograph pictures which are always such fine, rich, even, uniform specimens of motion picture photography, flawless of

121

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

their kind, and object lessons in technique to recent entrants into the moving picture making field. {The Moving Picture World, December 18, 1909, p.881) This review gives a wonderful account of the early stage of motion picture popularity of nameless actresses and of the values the reviewer found in Biograph films, but it throws a curve ball into film history. This panegyric to "the famous Biograph Girl" - known by all film historians to have been Florence Lawrence - is addressed to Marion Leonard! Who was the Biograph Girl, after all? Some week later, the Correspondence section of The Moving Picture World printed a letter from a reader named P.C. Levar from Marshfield, Coos Bay, Oregon: Dear Sir - I have the honor to announce that your man who writes 'Comments on the Films' is crazy as a bedbug. Through the courtesy of Manager Keller of the Orpheum here, I have just seen what you say in your issue of December 18 about 'Through the Breakers' and "The Biograph Girl'. That picture was shown here during the past week and - that isn't the Biograph Girl at all. She is all right; she is the handsomest girl (or lady) on the motion picture stage; she is a superb and charming actress; she is in every way adorable; we are all glad to see her appearing again regularly, for we thought a while back that we had lost her - but she is not 'the Biograph Girl'; not THE Biograph Girl. Mr. Levar goes on to invoke and praise the (still nameless) Florence Lawrence, identified mainly with her "Mrs. Jones" roles at Biograph. All of this reveals both the strong investment viewers had made in film performers by this time, as well as both their ambiguity in sorting out who was who and the acuity some viewers developed to keep these nameless players straight. Tom Gunning

122

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

214 BlOGRAPH

THE REDMAN'S VTEW Filming date: 4/5/6 November 1909 Location: Mount Beacon, New York Release date: 9 December 1909 Release length: 971 feet Copyright date: 11 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: ? (Minnewanna); Owen Moore (Silver Eagle); James Kirkwood (His father); W. Chrystie Miller, Dorothy West, Kate Bruce, Ruth Hart, Edith Haldeman (Indians); Charles H. West, Henry Lehrman, Mack Sennett, George O. Nicholls, William A. Quirk, Arthur Johnson, Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Evans, Charles Craig (Conquerors) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A BlOGRAPH STORY O F T H E AMERICAN ABORIGINES The subject of the Redman's persecution has been so often the theme of story that it would appear an extreme exposition to say that this production is unique and novel, but such is the case, for there was never before presented a more beautiful depiction of trials of the early Indians than this. It shows how this poor redskin was made to trek from place to place by the march of progress which was ever forging its way into the West. Tranquil is the existence of the Kiowa tribe which our story involves until the approach of the conquerors, the white men, who claim the land that had long been possessed by this tribe of the Shoshone family. O n this eventful day, Silver Eagle and Minnewanna plight their troth by the side of the mountain brook. They have hardly returned to the wigwam of the chief, Silver Eagle's father, when an Indian rushes up with the news that the paleface is coming. Their little settlement is thrown into a panic of fearful anticipation, for they have endured many bitter experiences. Their fears are realized for the white men appear and order the poor Indians to move. This they do with stoicism, and packing up their effects they start on the long trek. Minnewanna, however, is detained by the men to act as a slavey. Silver Eagle is at first inclined to remain by her side, but his sense of duty toward his father, the chief, who is very old and feeble, forces him to go with him. From place to place they migrate, only to be urged still further on by the relentless presecutions [sic], until from the brow of a lofty mountain they exclaim "Oh! morning sun light us on to a better land; a land where we may rest our heads." In the meantime little Minnewanna has tried to escape, but she has not gotten far when apprehended and brought back. The long journey proves too much for the old chief and he succumbs to the ordeal. As he dies the tribe chant the song of death. He is then interred according to the custom of the tribe. A bier is erected on stakes and covered with moss and leaves. O n this the body is placed with his head to the East, a fire to light his way and food thay he may not hunger. The son, Silver Eagle, now that his duty is fulfilled, dashes back after his little Indian sweetheart. His endeavors to steal her away are discovered and several of the men are about to despatch [sic] him, when another, more altruistic than the rest, interposes and bids the young brave take his squaw and 123

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

go in peace, and we last see them with bowed heads at the bier of the chief. This subject portrays rather a new treatment of the Indian story, its poetic beauty being no small feature. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 9, 1909

In an Indian camp, a brave, Silver Eagle, woos Minnewanna. However, their romance is interrupted by a band of white men who force the Indians off their land and seize Minnewanna as a slave. Silver Eagle wants to stay with his beloved, but feels he must accompany his aged father on the trek. The tribe wanders in search of a new homeland, but white men continue to push them onward. Silver Eagle's father dies and is given a traditional platform burial. Released of his responsibilities, Silver Eagle returns to the whites' camp to take Minnewanna. The white men at first refuse, but a humane fellow intervenes, and the couple leave, traveling to Silver Eagle's father's burial site.

In the years 1908-1911, the Western became the American film genre par excellence•, as Robert Anderson has argued. Its portrayal of action, its use of landscape, its themes of violence and adventure all were eminently adaptable to both the scenic possibilities of the cinema and the demands of its popular audience which included by all accounts a large proportion of young boys. Further, in an era in which American manufacturers were wresting control from European (mainly French and preeminently Pathé) producers who had dominated American screens in the period 1906-1908, the Western was used as a means to define an unique American cinema, with American themes and values as well as American landscapes. The popularity of the Western stimulated film producers to travel far in search of the proper landscapes; studios were set up to film Westerns primarily (e.g. Flying A; 101 Bison) and made use of the already existing Wild West shows for both familiar situations and highly trained personnel, such as ranch hands, horsemen and authentic Indians. Reviewers and fans also began to criticize films for their lack of accuracy and studios competed for the most authentic portrayal (although many ignored the issue completely). Biograph's claim on the genre remained moderate, but it certainly did not ignore it. The company released about half a dozen films in 1909 that could be considered Westerns, all of them in the later half of the year. The possibility of filming more Westerns certainly stimulated the decision to send Griffith and his company to California at the beginning of 1910 for the duration of the winter, during which they shot about a dozen Westerns. The popularity of the genre led to product differentiation with each studio adding its own specialty to their Western productions. For a while at least, Biograph specialized in Indian films, focusing on Indian characters and customs. The Redman's View was one of this series, and its focus on the Indian point of view backed up the Bulletin s claim that the film was "unique and novel". The time spent on supposedly authentic Indian rituals, such as the courting between Silver Eagle and Minnewanna at the stream, or the burial platform of Silver Eagle's father are typical of the details Griffith worked into these films. Indians were an essential part of the Western genre, and although Griffith's film is not the first to take a sympathetic view of the Indian's plight, it was the less frequent portrayal. In fact, one can see a deliberate reversal of the traditional portrayal of the Native American here. It is the white men that are shown as brutal marauders, while the Indians are associated with family and tradition. The whites are violent whereas the Indians in a rather extreme reversal are shown as entirely passive, offering no resistance to their dispossession. The whites are a sort of primal horde with no women, whereas the heterosexual romance is given to the main Indian characters. Griffith accomplishes an inversion of the usual roles of the genre. 124

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

The New York Dramatic Mirror praised the film as "another Indian classic to the Biograph's credit" (The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 18,1909, p. 16), but also stressed its uniqueness not only in relation to the Western genre but to the unusual run of film stories. Referring back to it in a review of A Corner in Wheat released the next week, the writer linked the films together as "two films that are nothing if not editorials, and good ones at that" (The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 25, 1909, p. 15). The reviewer found it remarkable that films were now joining in the discussion of social issues, A Corner in Wheat, taking on the commodity market and monopolies, while The Redman's View "is an appeal in pictures on behalf of the Indian. The injustice that the red race has suffered at the hands of the white is held up to our eyes in convincing picture language, and the conclusion is conveyed that they are now receiving as wards of the nation only scant and belated recognition". For the reviewer, the importance of the film lay not simply in its plea for the red man, but in the fact that film could now make such a plea, an indication it had joined the rank of other media of social comment, such as the press. A new social identity such as this clearly helped accomplish the "uplift" of the industry that reformers and industry figures alike were calling for. But the first review the Dramatic Mirror offered of the film stressed less its engagement with political issues, than its unique style, describing the film as allegorical and symbolic and "an important step out of the beaten track", adding, "[w]hether the symbolism will be understood or not by the average spectator is another matter". The Film Index also described the film as an allegory (Film Index, December 25, 1909, p. 6). In other words, The Redman's View was recognized as a new mode of storytelling, as well as a form of social discourse. The Biograph Bulletin had likewise described the film as "poetic", and this adjective in itself also reverses the usual associations with the Western genre. What do these claims mean, and can we describe a "poetic genre" within Griffith's work at Biograph? First off, these descriptions of the film indicate that the reviewers recognized the action and staging as more than simply referential and "realistic". This film exemplifies the symbolic use of space that Helmut Fàrber finds in A Corner in Wheat. For instance, in A Corner in Wheat the farmers return from the market and enter the farm yard from the left. Briefly before the entrance, the farmwife points off screen left, as if seeing them in the distance. But the men's almost immediate entrance belies this gesture, as if space were suddenly compacted. An even more startling example occurs in The Redman's View as the Indian tribe setties down after their departure from their homeland, literally having just stopped and a few of them having just managed to sit down. Announced by an off-screen glance by one of the braves, an armed band of whites enter from the left and demand that they keep moving. Although viewers today see such action as naive, the reviewers of the time understood it as expressing a compression of space, time and action into a symbolic tableau of the treatment of the Indians by the whites. One might argue the success of Griffith's allegorical style here, but the intention is clear and alerts us to similar, if less pronounced, symbolic compressions of space and time in order to underscore significance in his other Biograph films. Throughout his Biograph career, Griffith broke his films into increasingly larger numbers of shots. This obsession with analyzing the action of his films into smaller units, required that he also devise ways to hold those shots together, to unify them into a single film. For the most part, action and suspense and narrative closure perform the role of unification in the Biograph films. However, as A Corner in Wheat demonstrates, Griffith also experimented with other means of unifying a film. In 1909 a large number of films are unified by a recurring location, object or image, such as the open gate of the film of that title. The Redman's View can be considered poetic, not only for its allegorical figures of compression but 125

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

for its use of a recurring image, the long line of Indians searching for a new homeland. This image too stands as an allegory, an image of the long trek of Native Americans driven from their homelands (and carrying resonance with the Cherokee "Trail of Tears" or the Cheyennes' attempt to return to their homeland). Griffith develops it visually in terms of the poetics of space, articulating the space of the entire frame with this masterfully arranged line of wanderers. In the first shot of the trek, Griffith begins the shot with an empty foreground of a rocky terrain. In the background, the Indians as small figures move single file along the edge of a ridge, with mountains visible in the far distance. Reaching the right edge of the frame, they pause. The chief then turns and leads them in a curving line towards the camera, exiting at the left edge of the frame in the foreground, now much larger figures. As Silver Eagle and his father come into the foreground, the old man staggers and grabs his heart. Silver Eagle looks back and gestures, presumably towards Minnewanna. But then they, and the line, move on. In this shot Griffith uses foreground and background for their unique pictorial and dramatic possibilities and creates the image that will unite most to the film, the onward moving line of retreat. This procession occurs in four shots of this eighteen-shot (exclusive of titles) film. As both allegorical image and structural anchor of the action, it exemplifies Griffith's search for new narrative forms, having mastered the action melodrama. Tom Gunning

126

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

215 BlOGRAPH

IN A HEMPEN BAG Filming date: 2/9 November 1909 Location: New York Studio/Edgewater, New Jersey Release date: 16 December 1909 Release length: 455 feet Copyright date: 20 Decemberl909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Grace Henderson {Mother); Ruth Hart (Maid); Dorothy West (Daughter); Kate Bruce (Nursemaid); Adèle De Garde, Gladys Egan (Children); Jack Pickford (On road); Mack Sennett (Gardener); Robert Harron (Young man); Henry B. Walthall, Jeannie MacPherson (Couple on road) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print Here is one occasion in which the letting the "cat out of the bag" almost resulted in an awful calamity. The house cat has become such a nuisance that the mistress decides that it shall be drowned. To this end she secures a bag, ties the feline pest in it and dispatches the maid for the old deaf gardner to take it to the river and throw it in. Meanwhile, the mistress has discovered the nurse drunk, and discharges her. The children, finding their pet tied up in the bag, let it out and carry it away to hide. The nurse, perturbed at her dismissal, to get even conceives the idea to hide the baby, and seeing the empty bag, being ignorant of its destination, puts the infant in it and ties it up. The deaf gardener enters and carries the bag off, making his way to the river. On the way he meets a couple of boys with a rifle who upon learning the contents of the bag, beg the old man to let them have a shot at it. To this he consents, but the gun jams, and won't work, so the man proceeds on his way. At the house there is a panic in the endeavor to find the baby until the presence of the cat tells them the impending danger. By this time the bag is brought to the river, but the boys run up just as the old man is about to throw it over. They have adjusted the rifle and beg for another chance. The old man tells them he will open the bag and they may shoot as the captive jumps out. You may imagine their surprise when instead of a cat they find a baby, just as the distracted terror-stricken mother rushes up. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 16, 1909

A woman decides to drown the family cat which has become a nuisance. She ties it in a hempen bag and gives it to the deaf gardener to throw in the river. However, the children discover the cat and let it out of the bag. Meanwhile, the maid is fired for drunkenness and in revenge she decides to hide the baby in the sack, unaware of its purpose. The deaf gardener takes the sack, not noticing its change in contents and unable to hear the infant. Along the way some boys want to use the bag for target practice with their gun, to which the gardener agrees, but the gun jams. Meanwhile, the family at home has discovered the baby 127

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

missing and suspect the situation. At the river, the gardener is going to allow the boys a shot as he opens the bag, but discovers the baby inside, just as the anxious mother arrives.

In a Hempen Bag formed one half of a reel, and the total reel as the Biograph company released it on 16 December 1909, was a mirror image of the reel released on 29 November 1909. That reel paired the short suspense melodrama In the Window Recess with a longer Mary Pickford comedy, The Trick that Failed. The Biograph Bulletin featured the Pickford film, which was also placed first on the reel. This reel shows the same combination, a short suspense melodrama, which again places a child in danger (even the titles are similar), and a Pickford comedy, The Test. However, this time the films are closer in length (the Pickford film just a bit longer), the publicity Bulletin featured In a Hempen Bag and it was placed at the top of the reel. Once again, this split reel demonstrates the Biograph decision to provide audiences with variety, the old Grand Guignol formula of "hot and cold showers" mixing horror plays and farces on the same bill. The decision to feature the melodrama is a bit surprising, given Pickford's growing popularity, but the company may be hedging its bets and seeing which billing gets a better response. The Test was also part of a new series Biograph was mounting with the young married couple the "Wright family", clearly designed to announce Pickford as the replacement for Florence Lawrence and "Mrs. Jones". As such, it might have been considered less as a stand alone feature. In a Hempen Bag plays out a conventional rush to the rescue and seems to combine motifs from earlier Biograph melodramas. The central situation of a infant put in danger by a servant seeking revenge recalls the gruesome 1908 The Maniac Cook in which a (maniac) cook places the baby in the oven, and the family starts to brew some coffee, unaware they are using baby for fuel! That film was certainly seen as an example of the sensation films reformers were attacking, and it is slightly surprising to see its basic plot recycled at this point, but the Censorship Board passed the film. Attempts have been made to mitigate the original plot: the servant doesn't realize the baby will be drowned, she just wants to scare the family, and the family themselves are not the direct cause of the baby's brush with death. But I am sure many reformers would have looked on this film askance. The added suspense element of the boys' target practice also recalls an earlier film, Those Boys! from early 1909 in which boys are about to shoot at a target hanging on an attic wall, unaware that their sisters are on the other side of the partition. In that film Griffith derived suspense primarily from a split set showing both sides of the partition. By the time of In A Hempen Bag, parallel editing had become as common a way to build a climax, as the happy embrace of the re-united family was to resolve one. The film combines delays in the action (the boy's gun jamming) with suspenseful cutting which emphasizes our knowledge (that the bag the gardener carries contains the baby) with the other characters' ignorance (the search for the baby at home). The last few shots intercut the mother rushing to the rescue with the gardener's progress. The plot, as is typical in American films of this period, identifies narrative order with restoring the coherence and security of the middle-class family. Exclusive of intertitles, the film consists of twenty shots, more shots than the historical drama The Death Disc which was twice as long. Like In a Window Recess, this is a slight film showing Griffith's mastery of a suspense situation which he will use throughout his career: disparity of knowledge, innocence in danger, spatial separation and temporal urgency, and was undoubtedly effective. The Moving Picture World described the film as "nerve wracking" and reported "a sigh of relief from the audience" when the baby was saved at the end (The Moving Picture World, Vol. 6, No.l, p. 16). In some ways seeing members of the Biograph stock company in uncharacteristic roles 128

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

provides the film's greatest pleasure. Kate Bruce, Griffith's archetypal gentle old lady (the mother in Way Down East and many other films) appears here in grotesque make-up as the drunken vengeful maid. And Mack Sennett plays the deaf old gardener with a strong physical characterization: his shuffling gait, bent posture and slightly moronic expression at points threatening to teeter into comedy. This is also the first large role given to an actress who will be a Biograph mainstay, Grace Henderson, the wife of Biograph actor Dell Henderson, as the distraught mother. Tom Gunning

129

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

216 BlOGRAPH

A CORNER IN WHEAT Filming date: 3-13 November 1909 Location: New York Studio/Jamaica, New York Release date: 13 December 1909 Release length: 953 feet Copyright date: 15 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: The Octopus and The Pit, the novels by Frank Norris; "A Deal in Wheat", the story by Frank Norris Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Frank Powell {The Wheat King); Grace Henderson (His wife); James Kirkwood, Linda Arvidson, W. Chrystie Miller, Gladys Egan {Farm family); Henry B. Walthall (Wheat King's assistant); Mack Sennett, George O. Nicholls, Frank Evans, Arthur Johnson, Charles Craig, William A. Quirk, Robert Harron, Owen Moore, Anthony O'Sullivan, Henry Lehrman?, William J. Butler (On the floor of the Exchange); Owen Moore, Arthur Johnson, William A. Quirk, Charles Craig, Frank Evans, Jeannie MacPherson (Banquet guests); Gertrude Robinson, Kate Bruce, Ruth Hart, Edith Haldeman (In store); Jeannie MacPherson, Dorothy West, Blanche Sweet (Visitors to the grain elevator); Frank Evans (Grain elevator attendant); ? (Petitioner to Wheat King); ? (Breadline rioters); ? (Baker); ? (Policemen); ? (Wheat Kings employees) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate positive; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A STIRRING BlOGRAPH DRAMA O F THE "CHANGE" No subject has ever been produced more timely than this powerful story of the wheat gambler, coming as it does when agitation is rife against that terrible practice of cornering commodities that are the necessities of life. Laws are being framed with a view of supressing [sic] such nefarious transactions, and no more convincing argument could be shown than that set forth in this picture. Every phase of the question is illumined, beginning with an animated reproduction of Jean Francois Millet's masterpieces, "The Sowers." From the barn they start and with the grain sack hung from their shoulders, the two bent and knotted forms are seen trudging wearily over the plowed ground their arms swinging in perfect chronometry with a slight gush of wheat grain pouring forth at each advance of the arm. In this scene we find the genesis of one of the mammoth industries of the earth. The foundation of life, for it is the foundation of the bread of life. How little do those poor honest souls realize the turmoil the fruit of their labors will incur. What a contrast is shown in the office of the Wheat King surrounded by his lieutenants, waiting for the word as he engineers the great corner, whereby he will obtain absolute control of the entire produce, not only of the present, but the future toiling of the poor sowers. Into the wheat pit on the "change" we go, and there find a struggling mob of brokers with their all slowly but surely melting under the blast of the King's determination. At length the battle is won, and the Wheat King stands majestically amid the debris of wrecked fortunes. Here is the the gold of the wheat. He is lauded for his acumen, wined and dined, and regarded as a man among men, little thinking of the misery and 130

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

suffering his so called genius has induced. Ah! that is the chaff of the wheat. The baker is obliged to pay twice as much as formerly for his flour and so must charge twice as much for the loaf. Consequendy, many a poor soul must go hungry. Furthermore the bread fund for the poor is cut down, and many a shivering wretch stands in the line only to be denied bread when his turn comes. There is no vengeance possible here but the hand of God, and God's vengeance when wreaked is terrible and unconditional, and one of the sins that cries to heaven for vengeance is denying food to the hungry. The cry is heard and as the King is showing his friends through the elevators into the bins which are flowing the steady stream of his golden grain, he trips and falls into one of the bins and is buried. He has been called before his God to answer. Our thoughts are carried back to the bent and knotted forms of the sowers trudging along, ignorant of the vengeance of the wheat. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 13, 1909

The Wheat King, a speculator in grain, has engineered a great "corner", buying up the world market of wheat. The film shows his effect on both the farmer who grows the wheat but receives none of the profit, and the consumer who is faced with inflated prices. The impoverished are especially hard hit, unable to afford the higher price of bread. The charitable Bread Fund sinks under the higher prices, so that many go hungry, and even turn to riot to gain their daily bread. The Wheat King, however, throws lavish parties and wines and dines his guest on his profits. He takes a group of his socialite friends on a tour of the grain elevators where the wheat is stored. Exulting over a telegram, after his guest have left, that informs him of his world wide monopoly, he slips into the elevator and is buried by his own grain. After his death we return to the farmer sowing the next crop of wheat.

No Griffith Biograph film has received as much attention as this film, and arguably none deserves it more. Critics and historians ranging from myself (Gunning, 1991, p. 240) to Russell Merritt (1997, p. 5) and Helmut Fàrber (p. 59) have indicated that in some ways this is Griffith's masterpiece, not only of the Biograph films but of his whole career. No one would claim it contains everything that Griffith does well: there is litde of the intimate development of character that can be found in An Arcadian Maid (1910) or Home Folks (1912); none of the landscape lyricism found in The Sands 0} Dee ( 1912) or A Pueblo Legend (1912); it lacks the spectacular staging of The Informer ( 1912) or The Massacre (1912); and its twentyfour shots (plus seven intertities and one insert of a letter) can't challenge the elaborate suspense editing in^l Girl and Her Trust (1912) or Death's Marathon (1913). And clearly, in one reel it can't supply the complex plotting and range of styles found in the feature films. But if no one would want to claim it could sum up Griffith's oeuvre, other critics and I would claim that in some respects Griffith never created a more complex or perfecdy structured film. The attention devoted to A Corner in Wheat includes pioneering essays by Vlada Petric and Eileen Bowser (1976), sections in my dissertation (Gunning, 1986, pp. 640-72) and its book version D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film (Gunning, 1991, pp. 240-53), and most recently a discussion by Scott Simmon in his book on Griffith, and a long and insightful analysis by Helmut Fàrber published originally in German and then in English and Italian as a special issue of Griffithiana. These discussions can be broken into three basic subjects: an investigation of textual issues to determine the proper order of shots; a discussion of the film's sources; and finally, a discussion of the film's structure. There was initially some debate about the proper order of shots in A Corner in Wheat, but since that 131

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

issue has been resolved definitively, I will not enter into it here. The Museum of Modern Art now holds and rents a correct version of the film. Sources and Griffith's Alchemy The sources of A Corner in Wheat and what Griffith made of them, will help us understand the unique quality of this film, which not only draws on complex and rich material but transforms it into new approaches to filmmaking. I will offer a summary of these sources here (my book and dissertation provide a more detailed account if one wants more information). Basically there are three types of non-filmic sources for this film: political rhetoric; the visual art of Jean François Millet; and the writings of Frank Norris. 1. Political Rhetoric The populist movement in late nineteenth-century United States, a protest movement which represented rural interests (primarily farmers and their associates), claimed farmers were being exploited by "Big Business" situated in the cities and its institutions: banks, stock and commodity markets, trusts and big corporations. Chief among these, the populists condemned the grain speculator - the man who, like a stock market broker, buys and sells farm commodities in terms of "futures" (the crop not yet harvested) and who can make (or lose) millions on the grain market without ever even seeing a sheath of wheat. The grain speculator, the populists claimed, manipulated prices and gained profits at the expense of the farmer, the true producer who planted and harvested the grain. Speculators would occasionally try to "corner" the market - achieve a near monopoly of grain - and thereby raise prices (and their profits) at the expense of the ordinary consumer who needs bread to survive. This political and economic criticism had been particularly powerful in the 1890s when William Jennings Bryan's campaign as the Democratic candidate for President adopted it. By the time of A Corner in Wheat, however, it was no longer a burning issue, although the economic organization of society was still hotly debated. The Socialist Party made impressive showings in both local (garnering a number of socialist mayors in major cities and several member of Congress) and national elections (with Eugene V. Debs as Socialist presidential candidate gaining half a million votes in 1908). Further, both Democratic and Republican Progressives campaigned for controls on big corporations and financial institutions, partly as a way to allay the attraction of socialism. 2. Jean François Millet The publicity Bulletin for ^4 Corner in Wheat announced that the film begins "with an animated reproduction of Jean François Millet's masterpiece "The Sowers'" (actually the reproduction comes in the film's second shot). Therefore, the film begins with a visual quotation of one of the most famous painting of its era, a painting which, like the other widely reproduced paintings by Millet {TheAngelus and The Man with a Hoe), had become associated with rural protest. Fàrber quotes Walt Whitman who saw in Millet's painting "the long precedent crushing of the masses of a heroic people into the earth, in abject poverty, hunger" (from Whitman's Specimen Days, quoted in Fârber, p. 71 ). Whether or not these were Millet's intentions, these images were enthusiastically adopted by the populist and farmers' movements in the United States as emblems of their cause, with the painting The Man with a Hoe becoming the subject of a famous "protest poem" of the same title. For Whitman, The Sowers expressed "pent fury", not simply a pastoral image, and it was most likely this association that Griffith counted on. At the same time, the image was also immensely popular, as were the other Millet paintings mentioned here. Billy Bitzer, the cameraman for this film, remembered that a reproduction of The Angelus hung in his childhood parlor (Bitzer, pp. 83-4). 132

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Only extremely familiar images were chosen for "realizations" or tableaux vivants, the reproduction of a painting that had started as the parlor entertainment of aristocrats and well-to-do families (see Goethe's Elective Affinities). However, Martin Meisel has made an important distinction between the parlor game and the use of a tableau reproducing a painting in a play, since "the dramatic tableau arrested motion, while the tableau vivant brought stillness to life" (Meisel, p.47). Meisel's study of this practice, Realizations, shows how the narrative quality of paintings, and the pictorial style of staging in the nineteenth century encouraged the convergence of the two media in this practice. One of the most famous and influential stage realizations also used paintings associated with rural injustice, David Wilke's Rent Day and Distraining for Rent which opened and closed, respectively, Douglas Jerrold's 1832 play Rent Day, although the play rather muted the protest implied by the paintings (Meisel, pp. 142-61). The recent work of Ben Brewster and Lea Jacobs, the exemplary Theater to Cinema, shows in detail the way early films grew out of the pictorial tradition in theater and also transformed it. Cinema almost immediately adopted the tableau tradition as it swallowed almost every form of contemporary visual entertainment. In 1897 Lumière offered a single shot realization of the famous painting by Alphonse de Neuville portraying an incident from the Franco-Prussian war, Les Dernières cartouches. Other early films consisted of similar tableaux vivants, occasionally, as was true of their theatrical presentation in stage revues, of a suggestive character. Very early multi-shot films included compositions modeled on paintings, such as the treatment of The Last Supper sequence in several Passion Plays, indebted (as stage versions had been) to Da Vinci's painting, or Biograph's version of Hogarth's print of Chatworth Fair in their 1905 film Tom Tom the Piper's Son. Richard Abel has found a Pathé film from 1907 which included a realization of Millet's The Angelus. However, the realization of a painting in early film did not always involve a freezing of the action, as both the Lumière film and Tom Tom demonstrate. Since film offered "moving pictures", there may have been a sense that stilling the image in a motion picture was a contradiction in terms. Biograph offers an "animated reproduction", Millet's painting brought to life and in motion, with, as Vlada Petric pointed out, a strong use of off-screen space as the sowers move off screen and then back onto screen as they make a turn in their field (Petric, p. 1). The film shows at least two compositional debts to Millet in the scenes dealing with the farmers, including not only the sowing shots, but also the shots in the farmyard. Bitzer films these scenes from a slightly high camera height and with a slightly high angle; this framing raises the horizon line, often above the heads of the characters, rooting them in the earth, as had Millet's composition. The scenes in the farmyard also make use of natural back and edge lighting, deriving undoubtedly from filming early in the morning or late in the evening and placing the actors against the source of light. Reflectors were used to kick light back into the actors' faces, which otherwise would have been obscure, a problem visible in some earlier Biograph films shot in exteriors. Bitzer's memoirs claim he studied "the light and shadows of reverse light pictures like [Millet's] 'The Gleaners' ... and we even heard exclamations from the front office , 'Ah, just like a Millay [sic] painting!'" (Bitzer, p. 84). Right from the start, this film shows an immersion in visual culture, both as quotation and as an influence on technique. 3. The Writings of Frank Norris The writings of American novelist Frank Norris form the major narrative source for this film. Although the film does not strictly adapt any single Norris work, it combines elements from three different pieces that Norris wrote dealing with the production and commodification of American wheat. Two of these are the novels Norris completed of his proposed "Wheat 133

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Trilogy", The Octopus (1901) and The Pit (1902) (the third volume, The Wolf, dealing with famine in Europe was never completed). According to Norris's plan, the trilogy was to deal with, respectively, the production, distribution and consumption of wheat. These are exactly the three narrative threads of Griffith's film, and a third Norris work, the short story "A Deal in Wheat" (1902), supplied the film with a powerful image of the consumption of wheat, the bread line. George C. Pratt first pointed out that this story formed the central source for the film's structure (Pratt, p. 67). It moves through the full wheat cycle in one compact work, following the fate of Sam Lewiston, a Kansas farmer. Lewiston has to sell his farm when the market is dominated by Truslow, "the great Bear", who profits by driving the price of wheat down ("selling short"). Lewiston then migrates to Chicago where, unemployed, he is refused bread on a bread line because the market, now dominated by Hornung, a "Bull", who profits by driving the price high, has made bread too expensive. Norris summarizes his economic point - and the three narrative threads of A Corner in Wheat - saying: The farmer - he who raised the wheat - was ruined upon one hand; the working man - he who consumed it - was ruined upon the other. But between the two, the great operators, who never saw the wheat, bought and sold the world's food, gambled in the nourishment of entire nations ... (Frank Norris, "A Deal in Wheat", quoted in Pratt, pp. 74-6) Pratt was quick to admit that the short story was not the film's only source (Pratt, p. 67). The Octopus, Norris's first novel of the trilogy concentrating on the plight of wheat farmers whose access to market is controlled by the railroad monopolies that fix high rates in order to drive them out, provided two essential elements to Griffith's film: the Wheat King's death and a sequence of contrast based on the opulent dinner of the railway magnates. The railway agent S. Behrman meets his end by falling unobserved into the hold of a ship as wheat is being poured into it, and, like Griffith's Wheat King, is drowned in the very stuff he hoped to control and profit from. In the dinner sequence, Norris "cuts" in increasingly short sections between the millionaire's dinner of fine wines and stuffed artichokes, and the wife and daughter of one of the dispossessed farmers as the woman dies of starvation. My anachronistic use of a cinematic term, "cuts", to describe a literary sequence written several years before any film was constructed in this way, simply underscores the astounding nature of Norris's "montage" passage. Pratt belittles the influence from Norris's novel The Pit, undoubtedly because for years the Museum of Modern Art distributed A Corner in Wheat with a title claiming it was based on that novel, which is in fact the least important of the three sources (Pratt, p. 67). However, the scenes in "the pit" (as the floor of the Chicago Commodities Exchange was called) certainly owe a lot to this novel, and probably to its dramatization on stage by William Brady, which recreated a scene of frenzied bidding on the floor. Although the plot of Griffith's film certainly does not follow The Pit, the decision to focus on the Wheat King probably came from the popularity of the novel and the play. The adaptation of films from literature and even the "quoting" of famous paintings in films had become a strategy in cinema's attempt to gain cultural capital and therefore approval from the reformers who had condemned the new form of cheap entertainment as sensational and vulgar. The Motion Picture Patents Company (the film "trust" to which the Biograph company belonged) had declared it would "uplift" the film industry through production of moral and educational films. However, the alchemy/! Corner in Wheat performs on its sources, while certainly fitting in with the policy of uplift, goes far beyond a cynical or opportunist ploy. Griffith's understanding of the possibilities Norris's writing held for the development of film editing, and Bitzer's appropriation of Millet's lighting for motion picture photography mark an important synthesis between film form and the other arts. The 134

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

aesthetic success of this synthesis rests on its radical approach to film editing and narrative, an approach that could be described as both unique and influential. Unique, because even Griffith never did anything exactly like it again (with the possible exception, as Russell Merritt and others have pointed out, of Intolerance; Fârber, quoting Merritt, p. 81, and Fàrber himself, p. 57); influential, because the tradition of montage cinema seems to be sketched out here. New Forms for a New Reality What makes the film's editing unique? We should begin with the fact that besides narrating the rise and (literal) fall of the Wheat King, A Corner in Wheat tells two other stories. The first is that of the farmers, who open and close the film by sowing the wheat. The second, in some ways the most radical, doesn't focus on characters at all, but on a place or situation: the bakery in which a variety of people (by my count, at least twenty-five different people appear in the bakery shots!) interact. I call these "narrative threads", partly to emphasize the way Griffith interweaves them with his cutting, and partly to indicate that, looked at separately, they don't really function as complete stories. The interweaving of the three threads can be expressed schematically, with F standing for Farmers, B for bakery, K for Wheat King, (for the sake of simplicity here I will include intertitles as shots, whereas I usually count them separately): Schema of intercutting of separate threads dinner sequence FFKKKKKK{KKBBKBKFBB}KKKKKKKKBKKKKF Or we could group shot and tides according to threads: Farmers: 1, 2, ... 16, ... 32 Wheat King: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ... 13, ... 15, ... 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, ... 28, 29,30,31 Bakery: 11, 12, ... 14, ... 17, 18 ... 27 None of the threads develop without being broken into by the others; as a narrative, each situation is made interdependent. This has led some commentators from 1909 until today to describe A Corner in Wheat as not telling a story. The review in The New York Dramatic Mirror in 1909 declared forcefully: "This picture is not a picture drama, although it is presented with dramatic force. It is an argument, an editorial, an essay on a vital subject of great interest to all" (The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 25, 1909, p. 15; reprinted in Pratt, pp. 67-8). Helmut Fàrber agrees, claiming that "no story evolves" in A Corner in Wheat (Fârber, p. 39). I would not go so far, but my disagreement is probably only terminological. If A Corner in Wheat tells a story, it tells it in a unique manner, which Fàrber's term, "composite narrative", describes very well (Fàrber, p. 55). The narrative interweaving that the schema above displays is a radical development of parallel editing as Griffith had been practicing it in 1908 and 1909. As we have seen, Griffith primarily developed parallel editing in suspense situations to interweave two converging lines of action, most often dealing with a race to the rescue. Griffith used the device to clarify temporal relations between shots and to increase audience involvement with the unfolding narrative. As Griffith cut from a character in danger in one location to a rescuer in another, the audience knew each action belonged to the same temporal trajectory: the countdown to the "last minute rescue". But, in A Corner in Wheat, time plays a secondary role. The cutting here stresses comparisons and relations. In the dinner sequence, Griffith 135

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

cuts from the Wheat King's lavish party to: first, the bakery where the price of bread has gone up and where the bread fund has been cut (therefore to images of want and hunger); then, to the farmers, returning from market empty handed. In this respect, the editing recalls the contrast Griffith often poses in a parallel cut, for instance, from the forlorn little girl neglected at home to her father playing cards at his club in Through the Breakers. Griffith had, in fact, already constructed a film in 1908 around such contrasts, The Song of the Shirt. Like A Corner in Wheat, the earlier film contains a social protest, underscored by contrast editing. Twice, Griffith cuts from the plight of the seamstress sewing in her cramped apartment with her sick sister in bed beside her to the owner of the shirt waist company for whom she slaves as he entertains a chorus girl in a restaurant. But in A Corner in Wheat, Griffith expands this sort of contrast, not only into the narrative armature of the whole film, but to create an entirely new form of social analysis, only hinted at in the previous film. The editing in A Corner in Wheat expresses more than a moral contrast: it creates a new level of abstraction in the portrayal of space and time through editing. When Griffith cuts for the first time between threads, from the farmer to the Wheat King in his office, the cut is not primarily a contrast, but rather indicates a relationship between the two, that of producer to middle man. The cut expresses an economic and social relation, and it is precisely this social system which draws all the threads together. Parallel editing creates a new topography, not of dramatic rescue or suspense, or even (primarily) of moral contrast (that is secondary). Editing expresses the ties that bind the various parts of a modern economy together - producer, middleman and consumer. The Song of the Shirt tells a story with a social dimension, a poor seamstress sewing to buy food and medicine for her sick sister is treated coldly by her bosses, who maintain a high lifestyle on the profits they make from her labor and that of others like her. When the seamstress begs them for the payment they owe her, they refuse. A Corner in Wheat does not tell a story of this sort. There is no direct encounter between the three threads of this film: the farmers, bakery customer and the Wheat King never meet, even through agents. It is the effect that each has on the other through economic relations that the film portrays. According to sociologist Anthony Giddens, the unique quality of modernity comes partly from a lack of face-to-face encounters with the forces which determine our lives. As Giddens puts it: The advent of modernity increasingly tears space away from place by fostering relations between "absent" others, locationally distant from any given situation of face-to-face interaction. In conditions of modernity, place becomes increasingly phantasmagoric; that is to say, locales are thoroughly penetrated by and shaped in terms of social influences quite distant from them. (Giddens, pp. 18-19) Giddens indicates that under modern economic and technological systems, relations between people, exchange of information and even cause and effect become more intangible, less physically rooted. We could also point out that they become less visible, less easy to see. How does one "see", for instance, a "corporation", that essential creation of American business law so hody debated around the turn of the century, a fictitious legal entity with no body but a great deal of power? The issues that dominated the debate between the populist movement and its opponents in this period, such as the nature of corporations, the commodities market and the Gold Standard for money, expressed concern over what Giddens calls the "disembedding" nature of modernity (Giddens, pp. 21-9). Literary critic Walter Benn Michaels shows how the period expressed anxieties over such abstractions as paper money, or the creation of a new realities (or unrealities) like the corporation in both political discourse and fiction. How could this new world be portrayed? Norris seemed to have anticipated cinema in his 1901 "montage" sequence precisely because he was grasping the ironies of modern space 136

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

and time. Griffith and his unknown scriptwriter (could the writer be Griffith himself?) saw that Norris's sequence related to the editing he was already using in his films. Through the parallel editing of A Corner in Wheat, Griffith did more than adapt a literary technique to the cinema. He recognized that the cinema could portray this new "disembedded" space and time of modernity, that the cinema could portray economic relations and patterns of causes and effects simply, clearly and powerfully. This would, of course, be recognized by Eisenstein and Vertov in the 1920s as they used montage to analyze economic effects, both as a critique (Eisenstein's tank sequence from October) or a celebration (Vertov's hymn to Soviet production in all his films). Griffith tells a new sort of story in A Corner in Wheat, a modern story not carried so much by the interaction between characters as the effects distant causes have on people's lives. When Griffith creates suspense through parallel editing, the audience has knowledge characters lack. We know the hempen bag contains a baby, not a cat, or that the convict holds a pistol to the daughter's head in the window recess, but some key character does not. In A Corner in Wheat by cutting from the bakery (where the price of flour has caused a rise in the price of bread) to the Wheat King's lavish party, Griffith gives us knowledge the characters lack: that here, concealed by the structures of modern economics, is the cause of their hunger. Thus the various threads of the story never need to meet; in fact, they remain ignorant of each other (the rioters attack the bakery, not the Wheat King). What moves between them are the symbolic tokens of modernity: money and information. The insert of the letter telling the Wheat King he has cornered the world market and added 14 million dollars to his fortune therefore occupies a pivotal place in the climax. The other threads of the film only appear to the speculator in this form, as figures in a letter. However, it is his exultation over this news that causes him to lose his footing. In this film Griffith pioneers a new abstract use of parallel editing which tackles the task of clearly and powerfully portraying the new conditions of modernity to an audience. As such, it is a revolutionary work. But it occupies an ambiguous position in relation to the modernity it portrays. As a new art form, it flaunts its ability to tell an abstract narrative. As a story, it seems to protest against the disembedded form of life, embodied in the Wheat King. Helmut Fàrber has said, somewhat enigmatically, "It is important that the film does not deal with canned meat but with wheat" (Fàrber, p. 57). Although I don't know if Fârber intends the reference, canned meat invokes another great turn-of-the-century novel of social protest set in Chicago, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which dealt with the Armour Meat Packing company and its modern systems of processing meat and exploiting workers. One might argue that Griffith could have made as powerful a film out of this source as from Norris's work. But I think Fàrber may be right in ways neither he nor Griffith would have suspected. Although the abstracting power of modernity could probably be traced through the practices of any number of modern institutions, wheat has a number of powerful associations. I imagine for Fàrber the key association is precisely wheat's identity as both food and as seed. The New Testament uses the grain of wheat as an image of resurrection, the seed which must be buried in the ground and die before it can produce a new shoot. Wheat contains the organic power of nourishment and new life. But within the context of modernity, the innovation of the grain elevator, that storage facility in which the Wheat King meets his demise, actually created a new realm of abstraction. As William Cronon details in his masterful account of Chicago, Nature's Metropolis, the railway and the elevator liberated grain from individual sacks and this innovation led directly to the system of the commodity exchange and speculators like the Wheat King (Cronon, pp. 109-32). Grain carried in sacks retained a single owner, marked on the sack. But once grain was carried in railway carloads 137

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

and stored in elevators, the concept of the single owner gave way to a system in which wheat was sorted by the Chicago Board of Trade into various grades of quality and these grades were stored together in elevator bins. Once shipped to the Chicago Elevators, the owner no longer had a heap of sacks of grain, but a piece of paper which represented a certain quantity of a certain grade of wheat which could be redeemed at any time, or could be sold. These paper receipts were traded on the floor of the exchange. Telegraphic connections to the farmers across the nation allowed this practice to become even more abstract, as grain speculators could buy quantities of wheat not yet harvested: "futures". This meant one could speculate on whether grain prices would rise or fall and make (or lose) money according to the accuracy of one's speculation. Such dealers in receipts need never see, or even literally possess, the grain itself. The wheat market in Chicago introduced innovations which abstracted the use value of the wheat into pure exchange value, slips of paper containing figures and information. I cannot help comparing the abstraction of quantity and quality of grain in the Chicago Board of Trade, an exemplary instance of the disembedding functions of modernity, to Griffith's innovations in editing during the Biograph era, an exemplary example of modern forms of storytelling. Griffith had realized (following leads offered by the Pathé films of 19061908, particularly) that the individual shot was not simply a container for action but could intervene on action as it unfolded and thereby structure it. Griffith found he could cut a shot in the middle of a gesture, switch from one line of action to another, suspend the outcome of a shot with a cut, and thus create another level of organization beyond the action portrayed in a shot. The systematic interaction of different shots created a new unity, a new coherence. Juxtaposing the shots of the Wheat King's dinner with either the bread line in the bakery or the farmer returning from market empty-handed demanded that a viewer find more abstract relations between the shots than simply the continuity of action. Thus Griffith's style of editing involves, as well as it portrays, the new abstract forms of modernity. But Griffith criticizes this abstraction as well. A major inaccuracy in the portrayal of the wheat market in A Corner in Wheat reveals Griffith's desire to avoid total abstraction. The trip to the elevator where the Wheat King displays his riches actually falsifies the nature of the speculators' deals. They dealt in paper, in information, not in actual grain. As Norris said, the great operators never even saw their wheat. Why does the film make this error? Given its familiarity with both Norris and the political debate, it is unlikely that it didn't understand the situation (after all, could anyone think that the Wheat King's elevator could contain all the wheat in the world?). The direct answer is simple, but contains more than practicality in its simplicity. The fiction of the Wheat King's private elevator makes the ending possible and vivid: the Wheat King's death through a direct encounter with the wheat. If film editing allowed a large degree of abstraction in space and time, film remained an art of visual specificity in its images, and the image of the wheat pouring over the speculator has undeniable power. As visual storytelling, the poetic license of an actual store of wheat seems permissible. But the ending also seems to portray the victory of the physical wheat over its abstraction by the speculator. For him all the world's wheat can be contained in the piece of paper he grasps. But, one second later, the weight and material existence of a tiny fragment of that "corner in wheat" snuffs out his life and breath. At two points in the film the intercutting becomes particularly intense: the dinner sequence inspired by The Octopus, and at the death of the Wheat King. Whereas the thread of the Wheat King is often presented in an uninterrupted succession of shots, as the schema of the film shows, during the dinner sequence Griffith cuts away several times: three times to the bakery and once back to the farmers. All three threads converge here in the film's tightest weave. The central image of the dinner provides a powerful image of consumption, as the 138

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Wheat King and his guest drink up the profits from his deals. The moral contrast is based on a contrast in consumption modes: the sumptuous party contrasted with the consumer end of the wheat cycle, the bakery. The first of the bakery shots shows the modest consumption of its customers who can afford the increased price of bread, but the shot ends with the elderly customer and her child who can not. Her loaf is repossessed; consumption is blocked. While the next shots of the Wheat King's party show uninterrupted consumption, the next shot of the bakery sequence is the famous tableau vivant, the shot of the bread line in which every actor stands in a frozen pose for the duration of the shot. Not only does this shot contrast with the constant movement and liveliness of the Wheat King's party, it shows again the act of consumption interrupted, jammed as it were. The next shot of the bakery shows the bread line, now in motion, but the supply gives out before the line of the hungry comes to an end and many leave empty handed. Each shot of the bakery ends with consumption curtailed, contrasting with shots of the Wheat King's riotous over-consumption. The placement of the final shot of the bakery, intercut with the Wheat King's death, generates an equally powerful series of contrasts and associations around the theme of consumption. After the curtailed bread line, a group of hungry customers invade the bakery demanding bread. Two cops appear and draw their pistols, forcing the crowd to raise their hands and freeze. Griffith cuts on this frozen moment, which although dramatically motivated, recalls the earlier frozen tableau of the bread line. Once again, consumption is curtailed, but here the threat of violence confronts legal force. This shot interrupts two shots of the violent fate of the Wheat King: the first shot in which he falls into the elevator bin and the grain begins to cover him as he struggles; the second, after the bakery riot, as the grain covers the last vestige of the man, his hand fluttering above a heap of grain. The intercutting sets up both contrasts and similarities. Both scenes show violence. In a sense the violence prevented at the bakery achieves its aim in the cut to the elevator (this is the man who truly causes the rioters' hunger). But the curtailed attempt to seize the bread at the bakery contrasts with the grain's unstoppable flow in the elevator bin. Walter Benn Michaels describes this scene's prototype - the death of S. Behrman in the wheat hold of the Swanhilda - as a grim parody of consumption, the wheat filling Behrman's mouth as he dies (Michaels, p. 184, 187). The man who seeks to reduce grain to numbers is slain by its vast materiality; the market manipulator who detours consumption from the masses to his own dining table, ends his life smothered in grain he cannot consume. It would seem materiality takes it revenge on the abstraction of modernity in this climax. There remain two aspects of this film which should be dealt with for their formal innovation and rich associations: the frozen tableau shot of the bread line in the bakery and the circular form given the film by the shots of the farmers sowing. Fàrber (p. 47), Brewster and Jacobs (p. 76), and I (Gunning, 1991, p. 249) have all remarked on the unique quality of the bakery shot. Two associations can be made, but neither explains it. The first is the tradition of tableaux vivants as realizations of famous paintings, already mentioned. But this shot does not realize a famous painting, and as we have seen, when the film does realize Millet's image, it does not need to freeze the action to make the connection. Second association: the freezing of action in the pictorial theater of the nineteenth and early twentieth century was a frequent stage practice, most often occurring at highly significant or dramatic moments and often at the end of an act. But this shot forgoes the dramatic effect of freezing a movement, since the actors do not move for the entire shot. Nevertheless, there is no mystery about the shot's effectiveness. Not only does it contrast with the motion of the Wheat King's party, it highlights the theme of stasis so constant in the film, even if it is only here that it reaches a point of abstraction and dominance. John Belton pointed out to me many years ago that Griffith expresses the power of the Wheat 139

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

King by reducing people to immobility. His assistants in the office stand motionless awaiting his orders. His guests at the party jump to their feet and hold forth their glasses to toast him. But the most dire moments of stasis come from his victims: the ruined man who collapses in the Pit, the farmers who stand motionless after their return from market, the crowd held at bay by the equally motionless policemen at the bakery. The deadly draining of life from his victims, their reduction to frozen figures, such static moments are reflected in the tableau of the bread line. I want to use this shot to discuss one of Fàrber's essential arguments about this film: its unique attitude towards the shot. Fârber makes the point, noting the many "errors" in continuity in the film (such as the fact that the Wheat King as he falls into the elevator is wearing gloves, but when he lands in the bin he is gloveless), that Griffith does not subscribe to a style of cinema which placed great value on the absolute consistency of the portrayed world, a style which views individual shots as arbitrary fragments of a seamless whole. Fàrber claims Griffith fairly scorns the devices that guarantee continuity in the Classical Hollywood Cinema, both the consistency of details or the later rules of matching. It is unlikely such errors are due to simple negligence, given the intense attention to details of characterization and setting found in the film (Fârber, pp. 47-55). Rather it would seem such consistency simply didn't interest Griffith. As Fàrber puts it, "the fact that and the manner in which the film is constructed from individual shots remains perceptible behind the portrayed world; because Griffith's films derive their coherence from the narrative, the film story itself, and not from that which is narrated" (Fàrber, p. 55). I believe that Fàrber's point here is that Griffith constructs the film out of individual shots in such a way that the act of construction remains foregrounded, rather than becoming invisible at the service of the story. The very construction of the film demonstrates this, breaking up the story line of the Wheat King with the other threads, constantly encouraging the viewer to perceive the switches from one thread to another, asking them to make comparisons and contrasts, to speculate on the connections between shots. Therefore, the actual freeze of the action in this shot stands as an overt acknowledgment of the pause Griffith wishes the viewer to bring to watching the film, the interruption in the action which calls for consideration and reflection. The very unusual nature of this shot proclaims, "think about this shot, reflect on it, don't simply see it as an instant in an on-going story". However, I think that Fàrber exaggerates when he says that A Corner in Wheat derives its power from that way Griffith conceives of each shot independently of a "prescribed spatial and temporal context" (Fàrber, p. 55). Fàrber is certainly right that Griffith ignores the illusion of a seamless reality in favor of a film which cuts up, comments on, and juxtaposes images. But the juxtaposition, the interrelation of the images, according to Griffith's own schema, creates the meaning of this film as much as the shots considered in isolation. Perhaps nothing exemplifies the unique sort of coherence Griffith sought to establish in this film as much as its second and closing shots. Both shots show the farmers sowing grain and both can be related to (different) versions of Millet's famous image. The second shot appears based on a crayon drawing which includes not only the sower, but also a man with horse and harrow seen in the background of the shot. The final shot shows the sower alone in the field, and so is closer to the composition of the most famous paintings Millet did of the theme. But contrast also seems to operate here. The second shot showed not only the sower and the man with horse and harrow, but another older sower. The disappearance of these figures from the last shot stresses the lone sower's isolation (and leads to speculation about the cause of the absence, such as the death of the old man). But once again similarities are important, too. Griffith creates a sense of continuation through repeating this composition and action. 140

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

It is proper that Griffith does not provide the spiritual key in which to read this repetition: hopeful resurrection or grim recurrence of the same. Although evoking the natural cycles of nature, its formal repetition draws our attention again to the highly visible structure of this film, its quality of poesis, of being a carefully made and constructed object. Griffith had made films with circular structures before this film, The Greaser's Gauntlet in 1908, and in 1909, The Country Doctor and Pippa Passes (all more strictly circular since the last shot mirrors the first shot, rather than the second as in A Corner in Wheat). But the repetition here also evokes the general style of interweaving threads in this film. We see Griffith's care for each individual image, his regard for the single shot as a unit; as Fàrber argues, the similarities in composition and action forbid us to see the shot simply as a fragment of reality. But, at the same time, each shot beckons to its twin across the space of nearly the entire film. Griffith creates a unity to this film stronger than a simple linear coherence of space, time and story. He creates a film which can portray and also comment on the new abstract space and time of the modern world, contrasting its inhumanity, not only with the cycles of nature, but with the new role of the film poet who constructs and juxtaposes images. Tom Gunning

141

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

217 BlOGRAPH

THE TEST Filming date: 11/13 November 1909 Location: New York Studio/Coytesville, New Jersey Release date: 16 December 1909 Release length: 545 feet Copyright date: 20 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: Arthur Marvin, G.W. Bitzer Cast: William A. Quirk (Harry); Mary Pickford (Bessie); ? (Maid); Marion Leonard, Arthur Johnson, Charles Craig, Anthony O'Sullivan, William J. Butler, Henry B. Walthall (At hotel); ? (Hotelmaid); Ruth Hart (Salvation Army member); ? (Porter) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print In this subject the Biograph presents another episode in the Wright family. Harry gets in bad for a time, but he wriggles out like a trout off a hook and comes up with that perennial grin or "The smile that won't come off." Harry is starting on a business trip and Bessie is sad, but he makes the big promise, showing her a photo of herself in his bill case, which shall ever be before him. As he turns to fasten his grip wifey extracts the photo, handing him the closed case, with the expression "We shall see". Putting the case in his pocket, he departs. Next we find him at the hotel of another town enjoying with convival society, a little game of draw. Ah, he must not forget a letter to wifey. He tells her how lonesome he feels, that her picture is now before him. When Bessie reads this, she storms. "What a fib. I thought so". She writes him of the trap she set, and when he looks at the case now for the first time, he is flabbergasted. "Now I'm in for it. Ah, an idea". He telegraphs to his mother to send him at once the photo she had of Bessie. The photo arrives and he starts for home. Of course you may imagine the reception, but when he shows himself possessed of her photo, Bessie pleads for forgiveness for having doubted him. Another victory for Harry. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 16, 1909

Harry, preparing to leave on a business trip, tells Bessie that her photograph will be always before him. To test his sincerity she removes the photo from his bill case, and when he writes her that he is looking at her picture, she writes back that she knows otherwise. Realizing that he has been found out, Harry obtains his mother's photograph of Bessie, and upon his return home convinces her that he had it all along.

Another entry in Biograph's domestic-comedy sweepstakes, with another minor marital crisis cunningly averted. But, of course, there's more to it than that. As Russell Merritt has pointed out (see his notes on Sweet and Twenty, DWG Project, #167), Griffith's increasing mastery of film technique permits a far greater range and subtlety here than in the earlier 142

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

"Jones" series. For one thing, deceptively simple staging has become second nature to Griffith by now. When Mary Pickford removes the photograph from Billy Quirk's bill case and secrets it behind the folds of her skirt, the action is perfecdy natural and unforced, yet remains clear to the audience at all times. And the bare bones of the story are fleshed out with a variety of comic business, like the drunken byplay of Arthur Johnson and Charles Craig at the hotel, which serves little or no narrative purpose but keeps the action moving without getting in the way. The basic situation is also interesting in that it places the principals in widely separated locations for most of the film; they are seen together only at the beginning and the end. Quirk doesn't get a solo scene out of this, but Mary does, and she makes the most of it. Observe her range of expression in perhaps the best film's best shot, when she receives Quirk's mcriminating letter. Her first reaction is amusement, followed in rapid succession by annoyance, irritation, and finally fully-fledged anger as she stamps up and down, working herself into a mounting fury (all this in the space of a few seconds). Of course all that righteous indignation adds extra momentum to the last scene - when she is suddenly humbled by the sight of Quirk's replacement photo - and makes it doubly funny. Such bits of business, springing from the humanity of the characters, relied heavily on the immense appeal of Griffith's company of players. They were undoubtedly a major factor in the popularity of these slight comedies. J.B. Kaufman

143

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

218 BlOGRAPH

A TRAP FOR SANTA CLAUS Filming date: 13/15/16/20 November 1909 Location: New York Studio/Fort Lee, New Jersey Release date: 20 December 1909 Release length: 989 feet Copyright date: 23 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Henry B. Walthall (Arthur Rogers); Marion Leonard (Helen Rogers); Gladys Egan (Their daughter); ? (Their son); Mack Sennett, Anthony O'Sullivan, Charles Craig, William J. Butier (In bar); W. Chrystie Miller (Old man); Kate Bruce (Maid); William J. Butler (Attorney) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate positive (AFWictor and Walter Cromwell Collection); Det Danske Filmmuseum, 35mm nitrate positive (Czech titles) H O W T H E ARTLESSNESS O F TWO CHILDREN RIGHTED A GREAT W R O N G He is a contemptible misanthrope who would dissipate in the minds of the little ones their faith in Santa Claus, the children's deity, to whom their fervent prayers are seldom unanswered. Scarcely do they leave their Thanksgiving dinner when they turn with wide-eyed expectancy towards the Yule season. What a beautiful sight, as the little innocents scamper from their cots in the morning to the room gaily festooned with evergreens where a stately tree stands, its branches pendent with ornaments of card and tinsel interspersed with tiny wax candles. Beneath this tree are arranged the special favours of Santa, while at the fireplace hangs their stocking cornicopiae bulging with good things. This is indeed the child's elysium. We all know how the little ones have tried to keep awake during the night with the hopes of getting a glimpse of that most elusive being; alert at every sound until their eyelids, heavy with sleep, shut them from the material to the land of dreams. It was on an occasion of this kind that two little children, determined to catch old Santa, brought peace and happiness to the home of sorrow. Arthur Rogers had been in the worst of luck for some time. Honest and industrious by nature, he was in the depths of despair at the sight of the misery his little family of a wife and two small children were subjected to. They were, in fact, on the verge of starvation. With crushed spirit, he seeks solace in drink, and in a drunken condition feels his wife would be better off without him, so he leaves. Immediately after his departure, a lawyer calls to apprise Mrs. Rogers that her aunt's estate, long in litigation, has been setded, leaving her a moderate fortune. This indeed is pleasant news, but if it had only come before her husband's rash act. However, they remove to new quarters, and the children, at least are happy. It is the night before Christmas, and they are ready for bed. They want to wait for Santa Claus, but mamma tells them if they don't go to sleep he will not come, for as there is no chimney he must come in through the window. They tumble into bed and mamma goes to prepare to play Santa - how different would be the day if Arthur was home. Meanwhile, the children plan to catch Santa, and creeping from bed they place a tub in front of the window 144

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

and tie a string to the window sash with the other end fastened to one of their feet, so that when the window is raised the string will awaken them and they will catch him for he will have fallen into the tub. The scheme works fine. The window is raised and a form is seen to enter the window, but the crash brings the mother, who sees there Arthur whom grim misfortune has forced to desperate deeds, and he had broken into the house not knowing its occupants. The wife realizes at once his sad plight, and with a hurried explanation, smuggles him into the side room, where he dons the Santa Claus suit she intended to wear, so when the children appear he pretends to be caught by their trap, and they are simply wild with delight. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 20, 1909

Arthur Rogers, out of work and with no prospects, deserts his wife and small children. Soon afterward, his wife inherits money, and she and the children relocate to a new home. Christmas is approaching, and the children, hoping to see Santa Claus, rig a makeshift trap underneath a window so that his entry will awaken them. Arthur, reduced to burglary and not knowing the occupants of the house are his own family, enters the window and is caught in the trap. His wife discovers him and quickly forgives him, and the incident becomes a happy reunion.

The "Christmas film", as exemplified by such latter-day favorites as It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle On 34th Street (1947), was already firmly established by 1909. Simple Nativity scenes or shots of Santa Claus delivering gifts had long since exhausted their novelty value, and had been replaced by prototypes of the kind of stories so beloved in the 1940s, of broken lives healed and given hope by the magic of the season. Griffith himself had produced The Christmas Burglars in 1908; and when Biograph's v4 Trap For Santa Claus was released that Christmas week in 1909, it could be seen in theaters alongside Lubin's The Policeman's Christmas Eve, Edison's A Happy Accident, Powers's Re-united By Santa Claus, and other seasonal attractions. Contemporary reviews indicate that Griffith's film was accepted as one of the best of these offerings. And despite the plot, which (like most melodrama) leans heavily on the long arm of coincidence - and the performances (especially Walthall's), in which the occasional grand theatrical gesture can still be seen - Griffith does a creditable job of drawing the viewer into his film. Within the constraints of the one-reel format, he invests the opening scenes with a measure of complexity: there's a palpable sense of despair which prompts Walthall's desertion of his family, and Walthall himself is depicted not as a thoughdess wastrel but as a loving family man who agonizes deeply over his decision to leave. At the climax, of course, it's Marion Leonard who epitomizes the love and forgiveness of the season in her near-instantaneous decision to take him back. What might have been a scene of bitter recrimination becomes instead a sweetly joyous occasion, with Walthall not only transformed but disguised as a decidedly pre-Haddon Sundblom Santa Claus. J.B. Kaufman

143

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

219 BlOGRAPH

IN LITTLE ITALY Filming date: 17-20 November 1909 Location: Fort Lee, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 23 December 1909 Release length: 956 feet Copyright date: 29 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Marion Leonard {Marie Cadrona); ? {Her companions); George O. Nicholls {Tony Guilletto); Henry B. Walthall {Victor Ratazzi); Gladys Egan, ? {Children); W. Chrystie Miller, Mack Sennett, William J. Butler, J. Waltham? {In bar); Anthony O'Sullivan {Peddler); Charles Craig, Owen Moore, William A. Quirk, Gertrude Robinson, Dorothy West, Kate Bruce, Jeannie MacPherson, Mack Sennett, Ruth Hart, Henry Lehrman, Blanche Sweet, Stephanie Longfellow?, Guy Hedlund? {At the ball); James Kirkwood {Sheriff); Frank Evans, ? (His deputies) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print THE STORY O F A REJECTED SUITOR'S PERSISTENCE One of the most dominant traits in the Sicilian's nature is indefatigability of purpose where a score is to be reckoned. No amount of hindrance or disappointments can shake his bulldog sedulity, for he will wait, days, weeks, and even years to accomplish his plan and this Biograph story portrays this propensity most vividly, making it one of the most thrilling subjects yet released. Marie Cadrona, a widowed mother of two small children, is sought in marriage by Victor Ratazzi, a barber, and Tony Guilletto, a laborer. Marie rejects Tony's suit, but harkens to the love songs of Victor, who serenades the pretty widow accompanied by the accordian. Tony, upon learning of Victor's acceptance, is determined to be revenged. H e decides to wait, surprise him and strike him down. Several times the opportunity seems to present itself, but just as the fatal blow is about to be given some one appears on the scene to prevent it. Meanwhile, Victor is totally ignorant of the threatening danger for Tony plays well the serpent. An Italian Ball is held, and Victor escorts Marie there. Tony is present and feels now is his chance. Victor and Marie are dancing and as they pass Tony Victor drops from a stab wound in the side - of course inflicted by Tony, who gets away unnoticed. The next morning he visits the corner saloon with an expression of satisfaction on his countenance only to learn that his deed was not fatal and his victim is being cared for at the home of the widow. Enraged beyond measure, he makes his way to her house and tries to get into the room where Victor lies on a cot, wounded. The door being barricaded, he tries to effect an entrance through the window, but a portable cupboard placed in front prevents him, so kicking in the cellar door he climbs up a ladder to a trap in the floor; on this trap the widow places a heavy trunk and she and one of the children sit on it to increase the weight, while she dispatches the other child for the constable. Tony soon overcomes this resistance and forcing his way through the trap is just about to finish the destruction of Victor, when a well directed shot from the 146

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

constable's gun, who has just arrived, causes the stiletto to fall from his hand. Tony is taken into custody, and Marie, unmolested attends Victor, looking forward to the day when he will be well enough to make her his wife. In conclusion, we must add that this is positively one of the most intensely thrilling, as well as consistent, productions ever issued. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 23, 1909

Marie, a widow, has two suitors. She accepts Victor and rejects Tony. Tony, mad with jealousy, plots to kill Victor and finally stabs him. Upon learning that Victor was not killed but only wounded, and is being cared for in Marie's home, Tony attempts to break into the sickroom and attack Victor again. He finally succeeds in getting into the room with Marie, and is threatening her when lawmen burst in and apprehend him.

In its basic situation (and its thoughtlessly casual acceptance of ethnic stereotypes), this film is a throwback to such earlier Biographs as An Awful Moment and The Cord of Life. What distinguishes this entry is Griffith's increasing facuity as a suspense filmmaker. Three times NichoUs prepares to stab Walthall; three times he is stopped by the timely appearance of other parties. Finally, when he thinks he has finished off his rival, the film follows what would later become the classic Hitchcock pattern: the tension relaxes - only to return, gready increased, when he learns that Walthall is still alive. Nicholls makes a formidable villain, and his relendess determination to pound, batter and kick his way into the widow's rooms must have generated a fair number of nightmares in 1909. The scenes of the three failed murder attempts are worth examining in some detail. Realistically considered, Nicholls would have seen or heard the approach of the passersby long before he does in at least two of the three scenes. But Griffith stages the scenes so that Nicholls's murderous approaches are surprised and cut short just as the other persons enter the frame. In effect we share Nicholls's surprise at the intruders' sudden appearances and, in the alternate reality we experience on the screen, the action seems convincing each time. The scene at the dance, in which he finally manages to stab Walthall, seems less pleasing; it's another of those busy, extended crowd scenes, swarrning with so much nonstop movement that the eye doesn't know where to look. But this might be defended in that it conveys a sense of the general confusion in the dance hall, in which an act of violence might well go unnoticed. One of the joys of the Biograph films is the sense of seeing Griffith at work in an experimental laboratory, trying out new ideas and techniques which sometimes have nothing to do with the story at hand. Veterans of the Biographs have testified that Griffith often encouraged them to improvise action in keeping with their characters, independent of the narrative thrust of the film. One such vignette, easily missed, is that of the sheriff played by James Kirkwood at the end of In Little Italy. His well-timed appearance saves Marion Leonard from danger, and she, overwhelmed with relief, tries to thank him. But Kirkwood brushes her off; his manner clearly conveys that he's merely doing his job and has no time for sentiment. This tiny moment, played against the grain of the scene, transforms the sheriff from a faceless nonentity into a believable human being. On such details - coundess numbers of them - was Griffith's art founded. J.B. Kaufman

147

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

220 BlOGRAPH

THE DAY AFTER Filming date: 24/26 November 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 30 December 1909 Release length: 460 feet Copyright date: 3 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: Mary Pickford? (identified as the author in Sweetheart, the biography by Robert Windeler) Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Arthur Johnson (Mr. Hilton); Marion Leonard (Mrs. Hilton); George O. Nicholls (Friend); James Kirkwood, Mack Sennett, Henry B. Walthall, Jeannie MacPherson, Gertrude Robinson, Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Evans, Henry Lehrman, Dorothy West, Paul Scardon? (Party guests); W. Chrystie Miller (The Old Year); Blanche Sweet (The New Year); Linda Arvidson, ? (Servants) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print SEEING THE OLD YEAR OUT "R-E-M-O-R-S-E, the water wagon is the place for me." How many will sing this well-known refrain on the first day of the New Year, making their determination to turn over a new leaf all the stronger. "Never Again"! will resound throughout the land like a reverberating echo, and the ice-water pitcher will be pressed into active service. This Biograph comedy shows a party, the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Hilton, seeing the Old Year out, in the time-honored custom. The guests begin to arrive, each couple costumed to represent a particular month or season. In the anteroom is a mammoth bowl of punch, but as Mrs. Hilton says, quoting a well-know administrator "John, this is for the guests, not for us". John is content, as his resolution was now young and healthy. Mrs. Hilton was the first to feel the chill of this unresponsive greeting, and turning to John says, "We'll take just one glass with these, our best friends". This one drink with our best friends is repeated many times until - well, John is feeling pretty good, and Mrs. Hilton is by no means in the depths of melancholy. In the ballroom, things are pretty lively, and when the Old Year, typified by an old man with a scythe, appears he is hustled off to give place to a young girl representing the New Year. The assemblage now becomes dithyrambic, blowing horns, hurling paper ribbons and confetto and dancing madly about. Meanwhile, John is having the time of his life as is also Mrs. Hilton. But, Oh! What a difference in the morning. In John we see a sorry sight. He is a sick and contrite being. He realizes his conduct has not been very becoming, and despairs of receiving his wife's forgiveness. However, he learns that Mrs. Hilton feels herself a most guilty personage, and that she is totally ignorant of his escapades, so he assumes an air of austere dignity and most condescendingly listens to her pleading for forgiveness, which he grants. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 30, 1909

148

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Mr. and Mrs. Hilton throw a New Year's Eve party. At first they agree not to drink any of the punch themselves, but as guests begin to arrive their resolve weakens, and soon they are both cavorting drunkenly. Next morning Mr. Hilton, feeling very sick, is conscience-stricken over his behavior the night before. H e fears to face his wife until he discovers that she feels vaguely guilty herself; at this he allows her to beg his forgiveness.

Apparendy Biograph, and its audiences, just couldn't get enough of Griffith's domestic comedies. Coming on the heels of the Cumpson-Lawrence "Jones" series and the QuirkPickford 'Wright" series, this film suggests that another series, pairing Arthur Johnson and Marion Leonard, was in the offing. It hardly seems possible that the similarity could be a coincidence, especially when the closing shot so closely mirrors the ending of the QuirkPickford comedy The Test, filmed a scant two weeks earlier. Characteristically, however, Griffith continues to experiment with the form, extending the comedy of the scene via the subde running byplay between Johnson and George Nicholls. The basic premise of this film is of course interesting in itself: a topical comedy designed to be shown in close proximity to the New Year holiday. Among other things it becomes a vehicle for the formal introduction of a fresh new talent: a very young Blanche Sweet, who masquerades at the party as the New Year. After working as an extra in several crowd scenes (and after a teasingly brief appearance as a dancer in To Save Her Soul), Blanche gets the spotlight to herself in this film - if only for a few seconds. Somehow it's an oddly appropriate introduction to the actress who will later dominate such landmark Griffith films as The Painted Lady (1912) and Judith ofBethulia (1913); Blanche pauses and poses, clearly reveling in all the attention. Even at this early date, her natural ease before the camera was noticed by onlookers. "I heard somebody say, 'You know, she doesn't seem to know there's a camera there,'" she later recalled. "I didn't know there was a camera there!" J. B. Kaufman

149

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

221 BlOGRAPH

TO SAVE HER SOUL Filming date: 22-21 November 1909 Location: New York Studio/Fort Lee, New Jersey Release date: 27 December 1909 Release length: 986 feet Copyright date: 28 December 1909 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin Cast: Arthur Johnson (Paul Redmond); Mary Pickford (Agnes Halley); ? (Her mother); W. Chrystie Miller (Church organist); George O. Nicholls (Manager); Kate Bruce (Housekeeper); Jack Pickford, Robert Harron (Stagehands); James Kirkwood, Mack Sennett, Blanche Sweet, ? (Backstage at debut); Frank Evans (Stage manager); Jeannie MacPherson, Gertrude Robinson, Henry Lehrman, Paul Scardon, Linda Arvidson (In audience); Ruth Hart, James Kirkwood, Dorothy West, Owen Moore, Blanche Sweet (At party); Robert Harron (Usher); Charles Craig, ? (Bumpkins) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection) THE ROMANCE OF THE LITTLE CHOIR SINGER There are two deaths, the physical and the moral, and the moral death is unquestionably the most fearful. Moral death crushes its victim eternally, and wounds those who are near and dear to the one crushed. How fervent should be our prayer "Lead us not into temptation", for temptation is the germ which inoculates us with the fatal disease of sin. Insidious and vulpine are the toxic allurements of temptations; and so powerful, that once given rein, no amount of resistance can subdue them. In just this position was placed Agnes Halley, the pretty little choir singer of the village church. Paul Redmond is the young curate of the church and has taken quite a fancy to the little singer, not fully realizing that he deeply, loved her until one day while Agnes was practicing the music on the organ her beautiful voice attracted the attention of a party in an automobile that has become disabled on the side of the road outside of the church. The occupant of the auto is none other than a great vaudeville manager, who, struck with this fresh young voice, offers the little singer an opportunity to shine at his music hall. It is now that Paul realizes how much he loves the girl, and appreciating the danger, that may beset her tries to persuade her not to accept the offer. Despite his pleading she goes and is soon introduced into a new and dazzling circle. Arduous study and rehearsals fit her for her debut, and her first night is a triumph. She is destined to become the toast of Bohemia. Paul reads in the newspaper of her success and decides to go see her. H e views her performance with elation until he hears the flippant remarks of the men seated around him. H e feels that her fate will be that of the oft told story, and he resolves to save her. Hastening to the stage, he arrives just after she has left with one of the reckless swells on their way to a banquet given in her honor. Upon arriving at the house, he forces his way into the banquet hall, and the sight that greets him freezes his blood. Wine is flowing like water, and little Agnes, with a glass of champagne in her hand is standing upon a chair about to respond to a toast to herself. Paul's abrupt entrance is met with derision, but Agnes, stunned at his appearance, consents to 150

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

an interview in the anteroom. Here she, now inflamed by the wine, derides and mocks him, and refuses to go away from this awful place with him, when he espies a revolver, and crazed by jealous love would have killed her that her soul might remain pure. This move is a shock to Agnes, and it tends to awaken in her the love for Paul that has laid dormant all the while. She now appreciates the escape she has made, and we next find them kneeling side by side at the altar of the litde village church giving thanks to God for her deliverance and his blessings. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 27, 1909

Agnes, a singer in a country church, is practicing one day when a vaudeville manager hears her and offers her a job. Over the objections of the curate who loves her, she accepts the offer and goes to the city. Later, the curate goes to hear Agnes perform and, fearing that her soul is being corrupted by show business, he asks her to return to the small town with him. When she refuses, he is prepared to kill her in order to protect the purity of her soul. This brings about her change of heart, and together they return to the little church.

An interesting index to the changes in social mores and audience expectations in the intervening nine decades, To Save Her Soul tends to fare poorly with modern viewers. In a time when religious convictions of any kind are so openly disregarded, Arthur Johnson's melodramatic excesses on behalf of Mary Pickford's soul seem unconvincing at best - to say nothing of his motivations, which clearly are at least partly selfish. Also, the glamorous world from which he rescues her seems harmless enough; Mary seems in no immediate danger of being debased (other than being subjected to the attentions of Mack Sennett!). Worst of all, we are asked to believe that being threatened by Johnson at gunpoint somehow reawakens her love for him. Yet contemporary reviews indicate that the film was well received in 1909; however the film may appear to us today, Griffith was solidly in tune with his intended audience. Having played a sympathetic, romantically inclined minister in His Ward's Love, a prissy comic minister in Eradicating Aunty, and assorted other men of the cloth, Johnson adds to his gallery of clergymen in To Save Her Soul. (The sheer variety of these roles raises some question as to Griffith's own attitude at this time toward religion, as anything other than a source of story material.) Johnson's curate in this film is perhaps most similar to the minister he had played in A Strange Meeting: a man of action who doesn't hesitate to fight for what he believes is right. The two films feature radically different settings - a Bowery mission as contrasted with a bucolic country church - but in both films Johnson's forceful mien and body language mark him as a dynamic, pro-active character. (And Mary's character here is well matched with his; she's no shrinking violet but active, almost boisterous.) In short, there's no question that Johnson is meant to be a sympathetic character; the problems for the modern viewer are his concerns and his course of action, which now seem less than sympathetic. The film seems implicitly to support his moral outrage, but Scott Simmon (1993, p. 70) has pointed out that Johnson's agenda - preventing the show-business world from putting the singer on public display - is undercut by the real agenda of the film, and by extension most fiction films which are all about putting Mary Pickford and other players on display. In later years Pickford cast an amusing sidelight on this film's climactic scene, telling Kemp Niver (p. 124) that Johnson played the scene in an inebriated state. As he gestures wildly and brandishes the gun, she projects a fear which, she later recalled, was quite genuine. And along with all its intended seriousness the film offers a brief moment of (perhaps unintentional) comedy, when the tide announcing that Mary is "introduced to a new and dazzling circle" is followed immediately by a backstage shot of a group of stagehands shooting dice! J. B. Kaufman 151

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

222 BlOGRAPH

CHOOSING A HUSBAND Filming date: 21 November 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 30 December 1909 Release length: 531 feet Copyright date: 3 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Florence Barker {Gladys); Mack Sennett, William A. Quirk, Charles Craig, Anthony O'Sullivan (Bachelors); Dorothy West, Blanche Sweet, ? {Gladys's friends); Kate Bruce {Maid); Henry B. Walthall (Harry) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print This is one of the most momentous undertakings in the young girl's life. It elicits as much concern as the selection of a horse or any other beast of burden. Many things are to be considered - is he stable in nature, being the most important. Fickleness would be the greatest of sins. Hence, when Gladys is sought by each of the four jolly bachelors of the third floor back, she resolves to test their sincerity. To this end tells [sic] each to call on the morrow. This quartette of would-be benedicts, are ignorant of each other's intentions. The morrow has arrived, and Gladys enlists the services of her pretty little sister to test their imperviousness, while she in hiding notes the result. They arrive one by one, at the appointed hour, to be told that Gladys is out, but unfortunately they find little sister most entertaining and fall one after the other. At their rooms they learn the cause of each other's dejection and indignantly vow to visit her en masse for satisfaction. No sooner suggested than done. Off they go and arrive only to find sweet Gladys enfolded in the arms of Harry, her sweetheart, who has just arrived from abroad. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], December 30, 1909

Gladys's hand is sought by each of four bachelors. To test their fidelity she pretends to be away, and when they come to visit, each in turn is met by her pretty younger sister. One by one they fail the test by flirting with the sister. Gladys renounces them, then is reunited with her real sweetheart, who has been abroad.

The title of this little comedy is something of a misnomer; Florence Barker seems less interested in choosing a husband than in confirming her suspicions of the bachelors' infidelity. (That she is simultaneously entertaining proposals from four different men, while her real "sweetheart" is out of the country, seems not to trouble anyone.) In any case, her test seems a little unfair; it's hard to blame the bachelors for being distracted by the fetching young Blanche Sweet who has been placed in their path. Here, as in the subsequent The Rocky 152

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Road, it's disconcerting to realize that this young lady is only thirteen years old! Incidentally, her screen relationship to Florence Barker is a matter of some question. Nothing in the film makes that relationship explicit, and Graham, Higgins, Mancini and Vieira have identified Blanche only as one of the heroine's "friends". Her identification here as the sister is taken from the Biograph Bulletin synopsis. Of course this film's "plot" is only a pretext for a series of comic set-pieces as the bachelors, one by one, succumb to Blanche's charms. Not surprisingly, the last set-piece is reserved for Mack Sennett. It's been noted elsewhere that Griffith's Biograph films display a rich range of acting styles, often mixing them with abandon, and no actor tested the limits of that range more strenuously than Sennett. In some films he seems to be appearing in a film of his own, hamming broadly with little regard for what anyone else is doing. Embryonic Keystone characters and actions can often be seen in his performances - and in a relatively serious film like The Lure of the Gown, this can seem wildly out of key to latterday viewers. Here, however, Sennett has a showcase tailor-made for his talents, and he doesn't waste the opportunity. At least through hindsight, Sennett's future niche in motion pictures seems clear in a film like this; and it seems equally clear that Griffith is giving Sennett free rein. The surprise is that it will be more than a year before Sennett is allowed to direct any films of his own. J.B. Kaufman

153

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

223 BlOGRAPH

THE ROCKY ROAD Filming date: 29/30 November, 1/4 December 1909 Location: New York Studio/Hackensack, New Jersey/Edgewater, New Jersey Release date: 3 January 1910 Release length: 990 feet Copyright date: 6 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: Arthur Marvin, G.W. Bitzer Cast: Frank Powell {Ben Cook); Stephanie Longfellow {His wife); George O. Nicholls {Farmer); ? {His wife); Edith Haldeman {The daughter, as a child); Blanche Sweet {The daughter, at eighteen); Charles Craig {Farmhand); Kate Bruce {Maid); W. Chrystie Miller {Minister); Gladys Egan, Charles Craig, Dorothy West? {At church); James Kirkwood {Best man); Anthony O'Sullivan, Frank Evans, J. Waltham {In bar); Henry Lehrman {Outside bar); ? {Lumberyardforeman) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate positive; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; 35mm nitrate positive (AFI/Tayler Collection) A STORY O F FATE'S CAPRICIOUSNESS The truth of the expression. "It is a long lane that has no turning" has often verified, but in this instance the road terminates in a cloud, the darkness which is impenetrable. The story shows the relentlessness of justice and the cryptic prepollence of Providence. Coincident as the episodes may appear they are evolved with a convincing consistency rarely found in dramatic stories of this type, making it, on the whole, one of the most heart-stirring and thrilling productions ever made by the Biograph. Ben Cook, had been a man of intelligent energy, but meeting with reverses went the way of so many others, that is, became addicted to drink. Falling lower and lower, we first see him a drunken loafer. In return for his wife's tearful entreaties he gives abuse, and finally desertion; leaving his native town for parts unknown. Landing in a strange village, he seeks and obtains employment in a sawmill, where he resolves to brace up. Meanwhile, his poor wife, learning from her husband's companions of his flight, becomes unbalanced in mind, and taking up her little three-year-old child starts out in search of him. O n she wanders, cold and hungry, meeting a kind-hearted Italian on the way, who compassionately gives her an old shawl to wrap about the child. Further on she falls exhausted beside a haystack. Here the hallucination of hearing her husband's voice calling seizes her and she leaves the child to go in answer of the imagined call. The child is found later by an old farmer, who adopts it. The poor woman staggers on until she falls helpless in the road. She is found by a benevolent couple who take her in and care for her, she performing light housework in return for their kindness. Years later Cook through his close application to work, has become manager of the mill, and is enjoying the best of fortune. A search for his deserted wife had proved fruitless, hence he assumed her dead. One day while out in his auto, it becomes temporarily disabled, and he rests up at a farmhouse, where they are celebrating their daughter's eighteenth birthday. The meeting with the daughter incurs mutual love at first sight. Later they are betrothed and the wedding day set. It is now the day 154

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

of the wedding and Cook is speeding to the house to meet the wedding party when his machine passes the place where his wife has lived all these years. She recognizes him and dashes after him, but, of course, is far distanced. Continuing, she comes to the house shortly, after the party of which she knows nothing, has left. She asks for a drink, and while waiting sees her husband's picture in a frame on the table. To her queries, the maid tells her in detail about the little foundling, the adoption, the birthday party, and now of the wedding, which may at this moment be taking place. It is for her the awakening. She realizes the horror of the situation, and asking the direction to the church dashes madly out, hailing a passing wagon begs the man to drive in haste to it. The ceremony has just begun when she rushes in. Oh God! What a terrible revelation. She has just strength enough to make the truth clear when she falls into her husband's arms dead. Thus, in a flash he is made to feel the weight of the hand of Divine Justice in the horror and mortification of the situation. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 3, 1910

Ben Cook is a drunken loaf who abuses his wife. He leaves her and finds employment in a sawmill. Meanwhile, his wife becomes distraught and begins a search for him with their three-year-old child. In a moment of insanity, she hallucinates that her husband is calling out to her and deserts the child. An old farmer adopts the child and the wife is found in a road. She later takes employment performing light housework for the people who found her. Years pass and after a minor car accident, Cook goes to the house of a farmer for help where he immediately falls in love with their young daughter and they plan to marry. On the day of the wedding, Cook passes the house where his wife has been living. She sees him and follows him to the wedding party. Once she arrives she recognizes the young girl as her daughter and stops the ceremony because she is about to marry her father. The wife then falls dead into her husband's arms.

Frank Powell came to Biograph in May of 1909, quickly establishing himself as a leading member of D.W. Griffith's evolving stock company of actors. In both extra and leading roles - especially The Country Doctor and A Corner in Wheat - he demonstrated great versatility in his ability to project both compassion and ruthlessness, self-doubt and self-assurance. Reportedly, Griffith also came to rely upon Powell for his talents behind the camera, effectively making him his assistant director, a position that became increasingly important as the Biograph Company's shooting schedule became more demanding for cast and crew alike. We cannot know for certain if Griffith ever turned over any of the directorial chores on his own films to Powell, but by November of 1909 he was very close to creating an official second-unit, with Powell in charge. Before doing so, however, Griffith cast his protégé in an important starring role - that of the father in The Rocky Road. Shot in the New York studio on 29 and 30 November, and on location in New Jersey on 1 and 4 December, The Rocky Road at first appears to be little more than an old-fashioned warning against the dangers of drink. The first ten shots tell a quick and forceful tale of a man who, after spending time in the local tavern, decide to leave his wife and child behind to find a better life. However, rather than follow the more familiar plot line of dissipation and redemption, this curious film shows the abandoned wife falling into a delirium, losing her child in the process, and the husband succeeding in business. After a leap forward of many years, the little girl has grown into a young woman (Blanche Sweet, in her first featured role at Biograph). Through chance, she meets and falls in love with the father, and marriage plans are made. This is the point at which The Rocky Road 155

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

must walk a fine line. Since the audience knows the true relationship between the two, Griffith must make sure that Powell and Sweet play their parts in such a way as to not offend the audience, while at the same time exploring the dramatic potential of the situation. When Sweet affectionately kisses a framed photograph of Powell (shot #29), whom she regards as her lover, not her father, it is as close as she may come to actually doing so without crossing a forbidden sexual threshold. Certainly, the most telling scene in this regard is shot # 3 3 , in which Powell and Sweet finally declare their intentions to each other. She plays her part with girlish excitement, while he expresses a range of emotions, from regret and guilt, to hope and love. Tellingly, he does not kiss her, but rather holds her face in an almost paternal gesture - understandable, given the awkward difference in their ages - yet one which is also erotically suggestive. From this point on, the film races to its finish, with the abandoned wife encountering her husband on the way to his wedding, followed by her desperate attempt to stop the nuptials before it is too late. She does so, only to fall dead at the altar. The film ends with Powell cradling his wife in his arms, as the wedding party stands in tableaux, their backs to the camera. This ending was considered particularly unsatisfying to the reviewer in The Moving Picture World (January 8, 1910, p. 57), who wrote: Justice may be, and probably is, inexorable in real life, but to have the picture end with the mother's death just as the family is reunited is too tragic for an attractive motion picture, and this one would be improved for the average audience if the ending were changed. One doesn't like to appear to find fault with the excellent work of the Biograph Company, but in this instance the picture would be vastly improved for the average audience by the suggested change, while the dramatic force would not be injured. Perhaps its lesson, that life is indeed a rocky road for the transgressor, is impressed with sufficient strength to make it worth while.

Steven Higgins

156

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

224 BlOGRAPH

THE DANCING GIRL OF BUTTE Filming date: 2 - 4 D e c e m b e r 1909 Location: N e w York Studio/Edgewater, N e w Jersey Release date: 6 January 1910 Release length: 984 feet Copyright date: 8 January 1910 Director: D . W . Griffith Author: n o n e k n o w n Source: n o n e k n o w n Camera: G . W . Bitzer Cast: Florence Barker {Bella); O w e n M o o r e {Howard Raymond); newsroom);

M a c k S e n n e t t {In

W . Chrystie Miller, Charles Craig, William A. Q u i r k , F r a n k Evans, Francis J.

G r a n d o n {In music

hall)

Archival Sources: T h e M u s e u m of M o d e r n Art, 3 5 m m nitrate negative (incomplete); Library of Congress, 3 5 m m p a p e r print ROMANCE O F A WESTERN DANCE HALL Some of the most important triumphs in the world's history were attained through an accident, and very often the whole course of one's future is induced by a slight mishap. Such, indeed, was the experience of the hero and heroine of this Biograph subject. Bella is a dancer in a music hall at Butte. She is pretty, light-hearted, and yet possessed of a refined nature that commands a respect not looked for in such surroundings. Strolling through the city park one morning, she steps on an uneven spot in the path and turns her ankle. Her cry of pain brings to her aid Howard Raymond, who assists her to her home. Bella's demure manner and pretty face appeal to Howard, and he realizes it is a case of love at first sight. Bella, herself, is deeply impressed with the young man the accident has caused her to meet. However, she realizes her position and dissipates all serious thoughts on the matter. Howard, who is a newspaper artist and an enthusiast in all respects, tells his fellow artists of his love for the unknown girl. They being used to his impetuousness, simply smile. On this occasion he is in earnest, and hastening back to the girl's house, he surprises her in her dance hall attire. This she explains by making him believe that she is a member of a travelling dramatic company. Well it is the old story. The accident was simply a trick of Cupid to bring two hearts together, and they are betrothed. They exchange photographs, and when he shows her picture to his friends they recognize in it the dancing girl. So they go to the girl and ask her to give him up. This she is loath to do, admitting that while she has danced at the hall, the work was detestable. Finding her unwilling to repulse his suit, they tell Howard of her calling which he does not believe, and knocks one of them down for what he regards an insult. The girl, however, in honesty enters and admits the truth, taking the artist to the place where she works. What a blow to the poor fellow, and he turns from her with a crushed heart. Cut to the quick by his repulsion, she tells him that although she has been forced to earn a living in this fashion, she is through with it all, and while her soul is still pure she will leave it. The sincerity of her tone softens the young man, and turning, takes her m his arms. His friends smile derisively, and leave the hall. Two years later the artist's two friends are sitting in the park, when a young couple pass pushing a perambulator containing a baby. One of them exclaims: "Look! Raymond and the dancing girl. Well, I'll be blowed!" Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 6, 1910 157

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

Bella is a beautiful dancer in a music hall at Butte. One morning while walking through a park she twists her ankle. Howard Raymond, a newspaper artist, aids her to her home and the two immediately fall in love. However, due to her profession Bella believes that they could never be together and tells Howard that she is a member of a traveling dramatic company. Unfortunately, Howard discovers the true nature of her profession through his friends who urge him to leave her. Bella defends herself and saves her relationship by telling Howard that her heart is pure and that she will give up dancing. Later, the two marry and have a child.

A minor film shot over three days in early December of 1909, The Dancing Girl of Butte is nonetheless a fine example of just how proficient D.W. Griffith had become at directing well-made product for the busy Biograph release schedule. That he managed to stretch so slight a story into nearly 1000 feet of film, without straining either the audience's patience, or his narrative's forward momentum, is a testament to how effortless he could make his craft appear. The action is broken down into four locations: the newspaper office, the girl's home, the dance hall, and a park. Each space becomes the locus for a significant piece of action, yet there is little resonance between locations, giving the film a somewhat disjointed feel. The quick cut away from the dance hall to the young man working at his desk late at night is executed as something of an afterthought, and an opportunity to contrast effectively the personality of the young artist with that of his co-workers is lost. In typical fashion, Griffith manages to coax interesting bits of business from his actors; note especially how, when Florence Barker gestures that the newspaper goes on the table, Owen Moore places it on her lap instead. Even so, the actors race through their parts in a mostly efficient manner. The Moving Picture World of January 22, 1910 (p. 91) put it quite succinctly: A drama of considerable power which tells an interesting love story, though perhaps one may be permitted to say that it is not so strong as most of the Biograph productions. ... While it is not a great film, it is well acted and the photography is clear and the situations are satisfactorily worked out. The film ends happily, which is an important point in pleasing the public.

Within a week of completing The Dancing Girl of Butte, Griffith would turn over the direction of such films to Frank Powell, establishing a permanent second-unit company at Biograph. In so doing, he would free himself to work only on those subjects that truly engaged him. Steven Higgins

158

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

225 BlOGRAPH

HER TERRIBLE ORDEAL Filming date: 6/9 December 1909 Location: New York Studio/Fort Lee, New Jersey Release date: 10 January 1910 Release length: 952 ft. Copyright date: 13 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: George O. NichoUs (Mr. Curtis); Owen Moore (Jack); Florence Barker (Alice); Charles Craig (Jack's rival); Anthony O'Sullivan (Peddler); ? (Office hoy); Robert Harron (At station); W. Chrystie Miller (Extra) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print WHERE ABSENT-MINDNESS PROVES A BLESSING That everything happens for the best has so often been verified that it behooves us to take this moral to ourselves whenever things seemingly go wrong. We may feel disappointed and perturbed at the instant, but afterwards, when we reason it out, we find it a blessing in disguise. This is an important factor in this Biograph subject. Mr. Curtis, the real estate broker, was in the extreme very absent-minded, and his forgetfulness often caused him embarassment. H e is about to set out on a journey of business, and his son Jack visits his office, ostensibly to help him pack his luggage, but in reality to see the girl he loves, his father's pretty, stenographer, Alice, who secredy, loves him in return. Curtis is all of a flurry trying to give his typist instructions, and at the same time gathering all his effects for the trip. In taking from his pocket some papers, he drops on the floor his wallet, where it remains unseen until after his departure. The father gone, Jack declare [sic] himself to the girl, who teasingly holds him off. During this scene, they discover the pocketbook, and Jack hastens after his father to restore it. While he is away a peddler enters the office and finding the girl alone, snatches up her purse, and forces her into the large safe vault, where she is captive, the combination having turned. Jack enters and imagining Alice has just stepped out, sits to wait, when he hears a knocking on the safe door, indistinct at first, then becoming louder, as Alice has picked up a pistol from the shelf and beats it with its butt end on the heavy door. H e answers with rappings but the walls are too thick to hear the voice. H e is helpless, as he does not know the combination. H e is filled with terror, for he realizes Alice must surely be suffocating. Through the desks he rumages in hopes of finding the combination, but without success. Meanwhile, his father has arrived at the railroad station only to find that his forgetfulness has caused him to leave the most important papers behind. At this moment a friend appears and as he cannot hope to get the papers and return in time for the oncoming train, he accompanies the friend to a cafe for a drink on the way back. The train has arrived and pulled out again when Jack rushes frantically into the station. The train gone, he has a telegram sent to the conductor to find Mr. Curtis and have him return - matter of life and death. The answer comes, "No Curtis on train." Of course not, for Mr. Curtis has returned to 159

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the office, procurred the papers and is off again to catch the next train. During this time poor Alice has become exhausted and has fallen on the floor of the vault. Jack rushes back to be told by the office boy of his father having been there and just gone again. Jack and the boy rush out to overtake him which they do. The three rush back and release the poor girl none too soon. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 10, 1910

Mr. Curtis is an absent minded real estate broker. One day his son Jack comes to his office to see the beautiful stenographer, Alice, whom he loves, under the guise of to help his father prepare for a business trip. In haste to leave, Mr. Curtis drops his wallet on the floor of his office. Once he has gone, Jack declares his love for Alice, notices the wallet on the floor and runs after his father to return it to him. While he is gone a peddler enters the office, steals Alice's purse, and locks her in a large safe. Jack returns, discovers that Alice is locked in the safe and searches for the combination but to no avail. Fortunately, Mr. Curtis missed his train because he left the most important papers in the office, meets with Jack, gives him the combination of the safe, and Alice is freed.

By late 1909, D.W. Griffith had become proficient at creating films involving last-minute rescues, so much so that the question was no longer whether or not he could manipulate cinematic time and space for dramatic effect, but rather whether or not he could make the dilemma credible, and therefore suspenseful. In Her Terrible Ordeal, Griffith fails to achieve true suspense, opting instead for a kind of lighthearted treatment of a tense situation. Florence Barker, in the role of Alice, was new to Biograph, having appeared in only two films prior to this {Choosing a Husband and The Dancing Girl of Butte). Never a very versatile actress, she nevertheless was capable of conveying a sufficiently varied repertoire of emotions to move a story forward. Problems arise in a film such as Her Terrible Ordeal, however, because the sudden shifts in dramatic tension occur to little effect, a fault of the film's structure, and one not helped by Barker's merely efficient performance. Griffith seems uninterested in the basic premise of the film - an accidental entrapment in a safe - failing to adequately motivate Barker's being in harm's way in the first place and, much worse, failing to orchestrate creatively the various detours and delays on the way to her rescue. Eight months later, Griffith would once again use a safe to trap a protagonist, but in The Userer, the entombment would have moral resonance far beyond the simple uses of a plot device. Perhaps Her Terrible Ordeal is best seen in this light - as a harbinger of greater things to come. Steven Higgins

160

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

226 BlOGRAPH

THE CALL filming date: 7/8/10 December 1909 Location: Fort Lee, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 20 January 1910 Release length: 989 feet Copyright date: 22 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Florence Barker (Edith Lawson); Henry B. Walthall (Billy Harvey); James Kirkwood (Amos Holden); ? (Old woman); Mack Sennett, Gladys Egan, Kate Bruce, W. Chrystie Miller, William A. Quirk, Charles Craig, Anthony O'Sullivan, Ruth Hart, Frank Evans, Jack Pickford (At show); Frank Evans? (Amongperformers); ? (Stage manager); Charles Craig, Francis J. Grandon?, W. Chrystie Miller (Backstage); Robert Harron (Boy passing handbills) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A STORY O F LIFE UNDER THE "WHITE T O P " There is possibly no profession as alluring as that of circus performer. To reason it out, appreciating their hardships and many privations, we must conclude there is a fascination about it that is simply irresistible. Once you have cavorted and capered about in the sawdust you become inoculated with the germ of "Febris Circensis" - in other words, the circus fever, and there is no positive antidote. Strong wills become weak under the intoxicating influence of the sawdust's exhalations; the shrill-voiced steam calliope, the guttural bleating of the ballyhoo, with his irredescent [sic] collection of adjectives, and the near-Rembrandtian paintings portraying the wonders that are "alive! alive! and on the inside!" All this considered, few will wonder at the struggles of the pretty little heroine of this Biograph subject. Edith Lawson, is engaged as the star dancer of a travelling tent show. Her circus name is Fatima. Billy Harvey, one of the performers, and a part owner of the show, is, or rather pretends to be, in love with Fatima, and she loves him in return. The arduous duties have made the poor girl ill but her managers cruelly insist that she must appear, as she is a feature. During her dance, however, she faints from weakness, and the audience is dismissed. Amos Holden, a young merchant in the village, who is in audience, is deeply moved by the poor girl's predicament, and determines to help her. H e writes her a letter which she receives after her second attempt and failure to go through her dance. She is discharged and cast adrift by her managers, and as a resort seeks out Amos. H e has fallen in love with her and she never having been accorded such tender treatment feels for the first time the power of pure honest love. Shortly afterwards they were married, and Edith seems happy and has grown strong in her new life. She feels that the circus fever has left her forever, but one day during the following year she finds a handbill advertising the return engagement of "Harvey's mammoth aggregation of celebrities," and the fancied smell of the sawdust reaches her nostrils. The inclination is almost overpowering, and a surreptitious visit from Harvey decides her. Leaving a note for her 161

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

husband, she goes back to the circus, but it is not many moments before she realizes the error of her way, and how loathsome are the surroundings. Hence she rushes from the tent to her home to find her letter has not yet fallen into the hands of Amos. Edith is now thoroughly cured of the circus fever. The production is rather novel, depicting with true atmospheric strength the life of a circus performer. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 20, 1910

Edith Lawson, whose stage name is Fatima, is the star dancer for a traveling circus. She falls ill but is forced to perform, and one night during her act she faints. Amos Holden, an audience member, witnesses this and sends her a beautiful letter declaring his love for her. After another fainting spell during her performance Edith is dismissed from the circus and runs off to marry Amos. Time passes and Edith is enjoying her new life away from the circus. However, one day she sees an advertisement announcing the return of the circus with her former lover as the star performer. Edith believes that she has made a terrible mistake, leaves her husband and rejoins the circus. Once there, she suffers the same old abuse at the hands of her former lover and returns to Amos for good.

The Call is a simple telling of an age-old morality tale, one in which the innocent love of a good and pure man is all that is needed for a woman to abandon forever the immoral and degraded life of a circus performer. If such a bald summary of the film's plot seems overwrought, it nonetheless goes to the heart of the matter. Both James Kirkwood, as the husband, and Florence Barker, as the dancer/wife, portray their characters with a decided lack of subtlety, leaving one with the impression that this story could have been lifted from a hoary old stage melodrama. Henry Walthall saves his performance as the former lover by exuding an oiliness and evil that suggests the snake in the Garden of Eden, as much as it does a flesh and blood man. The real interest found in The Call may be its evocation of circus life, however fleeting those glimpses may be. The use of a professional sword swallower and snake handler was a stroke of genius on Griffith's part, lending this film the credibility it otherwise lacks in just about every other respect. By recording this anonymous performer and alternating his act with staged shots of the Biograph stock company as circus-goers, Griffith affords us a glimpse into a form of popular theater long gone in most parts of America. Beyond that, The Call is of interest as a precursor to Oil and Water ( 1913), a more sophisticated recounting of the same story, in which an unhappy wife leaves her husband and child to return to the theater world. In the later film, the return is successful and both sides agree to lead their separate lives. In The Call, no such resolution is possible, and the husband and wife are reunited as quickly as they were divided. Steven Higgins

162

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

227 BlOGRAPH

ON THE REEF Filming date: 13/14 D e c e m b e r 1909 Location: N e w York Studio Release date: 17 January 1910 Release length: 9 8 8 feet Copyright date: 19 January 1910 Director: D . W . Griffith Author: n o n e k n o w n Source: n o n e k n o w n Camera: G . W . Bitzer Cast: Verner Clarges {Rupert Howland); (Grace Wallace); (Grandparents);

Gladys E g a n (Elsie, his daughter); M a r i o n L e o n a r d

? (Her mother); H e n r y B. Walthall (Mr. Wilson); W . Chrystie Miller, ? ? (Howland's

servants); F r a n k Evans, ? (Wilson's servants); A d o l p h Lestina

(Priest); Charles Craig, R u t h H a r t (At

deathbed)

Archival Sources: T h e M u s e u m of M o d e r n Art, 3 5 m m nitrate negative (incomplete); Library of Congress, 3 5 m m p a p e r print A BlOGRAPH STORY O F A FATAL MISTAKE Love is not in our power, not is it in our choice. We only love when fate ordains we should. Such was the experience of poor Grace Wallace, who acceded to her mother's last request to marry the man she selected. Grace was the only child of a widow of decidely meager means. Mr. Rupert Howland, a widower of considerable wealth, the father of a girl child, and an old friend of the family, often surreptitiously helped them. He dearly loved the young girl, but it was only at the death-bed of Mrs. Wallace that he really showed it. The poor woman at the point of death realized the helplessness of those she was leaving behind - her own aged parents and her daughter Grace. To assure their future she begged Grace to marry their dear friend, and Grace, touched by the man's goodness and her mother's conditions, consented. Not content with the promise, she asked that the marriage take place at once by her bedside, and the wish was granted. Poor Grace struggled hard to love the dear old man, but while she admired and respected him, and was profoundly grateful for his kindness, she could not love him. It was not that she loved another, it was simply that their hearts were not affined. Her only happiness was to visit and ameliorate the burden of her grandparents, which she was able to do. Of course, Rupert's little one, Elsie, strongly appealed to her. However, resigned to her lot, she endeavored to make the best of it and hoped for a change in her nature. Her fate intervened, and one day Rupert introduces to her his friend, Mr. Wilson, a young and prosperous author. It was love at first sight, and the more they struggled the tighter they were caught in the net. Each fully appreciated their moral obligations and fought to down the tendencies of their inclination until at last an open declaration is made. At first it is delectable to Grace, but in a moment her better self asserts itself and she repulses his advances. Leaving her he goes home, writes her a note that he is going to where she will never see or hear of him again. Sending the note by a messenger, he leaves for parts unknown. This note falls into the hands of Rupert, and the shock proves to be too much for his weak heart, and he succumbs to the crushing blow. Rupert dead, Wilson gone forever, she feels she is indeed alone in the world. She sits sobbing in her room, when little Elsie, weeping bitterly over the loss of her 163

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

father, enters. Grace's heart goes out to the child and feels that this is all there is to live for. She will devote her life to it. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 17, 1910

Grace Wallace, the daughter of a poor, dying, widowed mother, agreed to marry Rupert Howland a wealthy man who often helped her family. Grace's marriage to Rupert took place along the mother's deathbed. She struggled to love him but was grateful for his kindness. One day Rupert introduces Grace to Mr. Wilson, a young and prosperous author. She immediately falls in love with him and the two have an affair. Later, Mr. Wilson sends her a letter stating that they will never be able to meet again and Rupert discovers this note. Rupert, after reading it, falls dead and Grace vows to devote her life to his young child.

The following remarks were published in The Moving Picture World: Possibly this film may seem unreal to some, yet it is unquestionably far too real, and far too true to real life to make it pleasant for many who will see it. One's thoughts almost unconsciously wander to similar cases one may have known, and the almost tragic fate of the unfortunate girl in this instance arouses sympathy. Technically almost perfect, the picture is almost irresistible in its appeal. (January 29, 1910, p. 128) What the anonymous reviewer means by "real" is hard to say. It may be that forced marriages of the type portrayed in On the Reef were prevalent enough in turn-of-the-century America to make this film more chilling to audiences of the time than it is to us nearly ninety years later. Still, one is struck today less by the content of such a film, than by the way in which Griffith attempts to draw on his audience's sympathies. The casting of Marion Leonard in the role of Grace immediately sends a signal to the audience about what it should feel towards the character. Leonard, a Biograph veteran, was a decidedly more mature presence onscreen than other actresses in the company, yet she was always able to strike a balance in her performances between worldliness and innocence. In other words, she could engage the viewer's sympathy without resorting to an unrealistic portrayal of naivete. This is a critical quality to possess if the character of Grace is to have any believability, and it proves to be the film's one real virtue. Where On the Reef fails is in its obvious need to move beyond the limits of the one-reel form. Too much narrative is attempted in too short a time. What it needs is what the industry restrictions of 1910 cannot provide - some breathing space in which to develop the relationships between the characters, to establish the kind of life Grace has with her older husband, and to explore what it is, beyond youth, that is so attractive about her suitor. All of this is conveyed, of course, with efficiently coded gestures and evocative sets, but Griffith is attempting more than he can deliver in a one-reel film, and his frustration turns into a kind of bored craftsmanship. Steven Higgins

164

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

228 BlOGRAPH

THE LAST DEAL Filming date: 15/16 December 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 21 January 1910 Release length: 991 feet Copyright date: 29 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Owen Moore (Husband); Ruth Hart (His wife); Edith Haldeman (Their child); George O. Nicholls (Employer); James Kirkwood ( Westerner); William A. Quirk, Charles H. West? (Bank tellers); Mack Sennett (In bank); ? (Maid); Frank Powell, Dell Henderson, Guy Hedlund, Anthony O'Sullivan, Charles Perley, Charles Craig, Frank Evans, Gus Pixley?, Adolph Lestina, W. Chrystie Miller, Henry Lehrman? (At card game) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A STORY TEACHING A WHOLESOME LESSON In this Biograph subject a most powerful moral is presented against all forms of gambling, and it is indeed a convincing lesson to those given to such follies for although the hero was rescued from his desperation by means of the game, still the ordeal he passed through was so terrible that he swore never to tempt fate again in the game of chance. At the solicitation of a friend, who paints his possibilities in brilliant hues, he uses his employer's money in stock gambling. His is the experience of so many others - he loses and of course takes more in the vain hope of recouping. It is the old story. H e finds his neck in the noose of desperation, particularly as he learns that his books are to be examined by the expert accountant. Discovery is inevitable so he confesses to his employer who grants him one day to make up the deficit. It seems hoping against hope, but he goes home and tells his wife of his troubles and she allows him to take her jewelry on which to raise a portion of the amount, but he decides he can borrow the balance. Pawning the jewelry, he takes the proceeds to a gambling parlor, with the virtual impression of at least doubling them. So he enters the game. Meanwhile, his wife at home is praying that he may be successful in obtaining the amount of his indebtedness, of course, not knowing the method he has adopted. While she is thus employed, her brother from the West, whom she has not seen in years, and who has never seen her husband, arrives. H e notices her uneasiness and when he learns the cause, and the short time there is to make good, pulls out his roll of ready cash, but finds it far too short of the required amount. At length an idea strikes him. H e is an expert gambler and will go to the parlor and try his luck. H e enters the game, just as his brother-in-law, whom he does not know, is enjoying a streak of good fortune. H e has hardly started before things begin to come his way, and at last the game is between him and his brother-in-law, the others having drawn out. Being an experienced gambler, never losing his nerve, he has the best of it. It is a desperate battle, ending with the Westerner in possession of all the chips. The poor husband staggers home, and driven to the wall, is about to finish it all in the conventional way, when 165

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the Westerner enters. Each now sees who his vis-a-vis was, and the young man is able to make the restitution, but he loses his position, for he has lost the reputation of trustworthiness. The Westerner, however, is prosperous and promises to assist him, at the same time impressing him with the criminal folly of gambling. The story is an interesting one and is extremely convincing in detail and action, while the photography is of exceptional high class. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 27, 1910

A man takes the money of his employer, uses it in stock gambling, and loses. His employer gives him one day to make up for the loss. He then goes home and pawns his wife's jewelry, and heads for the gambling parlor with the intention of doubling his money. Meanwhile, his distraught wife receives a visit from her brother who learns of her troubles. He, unlike her husband, is an experienced gambler, goes to the gambling parlor, and experiences good fortune. The brother has never met his wife's husband and the two men are sitting at the same game. Sadly the husband sees the man win the money and he staggers home. Later, the two men meet at the house, the brother gives the husband the money to repay his debt, but he loses his position at work because he no longer can be trusted. He then returns home to his wife and child.

What begins as a seemingly routine tale of a man about to be caught for embezzling bank funds, becomes, in The Last Deal, a wonderfully effective little drama in which D.W. Griffith manages to plumb emotional depths both within and between physical locations. The first six scenes are straightforward exposition, each shot equaling a scene, and each preceded by an intertitle explaining what is about to happen. In scene seven, a significant shift occurs when Griffith moves the camera in from a full shot of the gambling room to a medium shot of the table where the card game is underway. This affords the audience a clear view of the action taking place, as well as an enhanced sense of the husband's desperate attempt to increase his money. Between scenes seven and ten, there are no titles; instead, Griffith cuts back and forth between home and the gambling room, alternating images of the wife praying for her husband with those of him slowly losing everything at poker. In scene ten, Griffith reverses the pattern of scene seven, as the husband, having lost, rises in medium shot and crosses the frame, followed by a long shot of him exiting the room. The first shot heightens our empathy with his plight, while the second places him once again within the larger environment of the room. Once home, the husband reveals all to his wife and attempts suicide. Scenes eleven through twenty-one are a simple, linear unfolding of his attempt on his own life, briefly interrupted by the wife's brother shown collecting his winnings back at the poker table - a pointed insertion at this critical moment, for not only does it convey simple narrative information, but it also reminds the audience of the source of the husband's despair. The wife's brother arrives in scene eighteen and rescues the despondent man. Despite some halfhearted attempts to create suspense by having the husband stop to load the pistol and write a suicide note, the action really proceeds in a fast and essentially uninterrupted manner. Restitution is made to the bank, but the husband is discharged. In the final scene he finds consolation in his wife and daughter, pointedly tearing up a deck of cards as his brother-inlaw dances a little jig. A bittersweet end to a deceptively simple little film. Steven Higgins

166

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

229 BlOGRAPH

THE HONOR OF HIS FAMILY Filming date: 10/17/18 December 1909 Location: Coytesville, New Jersey/New York Studio Release date: 24 January 1910 Release length: 988 feet Copyright date: 26 January 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: Arthur Marvin, G.W. Bitzer Cast: Henry B. Walthall (George Pickett, Jr. ); Verner Clarges (Colonel Pickett); Ruth Hart, Kate Bruce, Charles Craig, Linda Arvidson, Dorothy West (At farewell); George O. Nicholls, Anthony O'Sullivan, James Kirkwood, Francis J. Grandon? (Officers); Alfred Paget, James Kirkwood (Among soldiers); W. Chrystie Miller (Among friends); Adolph Lestina? [in blackface] (Servant); ? (Servants) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A BlOGRAPH STORY O F THE CIVIL WAR As Shakespeare said, "Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant never taste death but once," so we may assume that George Pickett, Jr., felt the imaginary hand of death several times before the real hand's final clutch. George was the son of old Col. Pickett, and the last of a haughty military family. The old Colonel was proud of the records of his ancestors, and he himself had bravely barred all smirch from the family scutcheon, for to him "life was but a word, a shadow, a melting dream compared to essential and eternal honor". The war declared, the little Southern village make their offering to the cause, - a company of volunteers in command of young George. There wasn't a prouder man in all the South than Col. Pickett as he grasped his son's hand at his departure. His last behest was, "Go my boy, emulate the brave deeds of those who have gone before you. Be fearless, brave and fight, fight". Amid encouraging cheers, the fluttering of flags and handkerchiefs of the fair maidens, and to the beat of the drums the volunteers march to their post. The old Colonel is beside himself with joy, and as his faithful servants gather about him he exclaims: "Ah! my boy. He's the stuff. The name of Pickett is still alive." Meanwhile, on the field an attack is made and the conflict is furious. Young George is overcome with fear, and deserting his men runs to safety. Wildly he dashes throught the woods, each volley from the guns striking terror to his soul. The old Colonel, at home, is viewing with field-glasses from the window the smoke of the battle. H e sits down with a satisfied air and remarks, "My boy, he is leading them on to victory, and - " at this moment young George bursts into the room and crouches nearly dead with fear. At his entrance the old Colonel is stunned, confused and amazed. H e does not realize the cause of his appearance. At length the truth dawns on him, verified by the boy's confession that he ran - a coward. What a blow to the old father. His boy a coward. His boy will be hung as a coward. What a blot on the honor of his family. As he denounces his boy a thought occurs to him. "He shall not hang". Approaching his son, he bides [sic] him arise, which he does, only to fall back mortally wounded. Hiding his body until nightfall, he then 167

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

carries it out to the scene of the skirmish where he lays it, sword in hand, facing the enemy's lines, thereby making it appear that he died in the conflict. The officers call to extend their sympathy to the old Colonel for his son's disgrace. This he spurns. "My son a coward? Never. He is there either fighting or slain for the cause. Come, gentlemen, we shall see." Going to the field, they, of course, find the body, and appearances are favorable for the son. Returning home, the old man drops into the chair, crushed and disappointed, his heart breaking. The honor of his family remains unsullied, but, oh, at such a price. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 24, 1910

Proud old Colonel Pickett sends off his son to lead the town's volunteers in the Civil War's Confederate cause. Early in the first battle, however, George Pickett flees back home in panic. Colonel Pickett, horrified at his son's cowardice and at the affront to their family honor, shoots him. That night, with the help of a slave, the colonel carries his son's corpse to the rocky battlefield. When the commanding officer reports the cowardice, the colonel affects outrage. His son's body is located, sword drawn, facing the enemy, and the soldiers bow their heads in respect. Back at his mansion, the colonel grieves silently, clutching the hand of the slave.

Again, a Civil War subject drives Griffith to heights of ambition, even in a month - December 1909 - when his other films are seldom more than competent. The Honor of His Family is his third Civil War film (after The Guerrilla in 1908 and In Old Kentucky four months earlier in 1909) but his first to be set in the deep South. Indeed, this film seems to be the first that Griffith explicitly set in the South of any era, notwithstanding his identification with the region. (Even Edgar Allen Poe had dramatized an episode of the poet's fife in New York.) The closest Griffith had come to films about the South were two middle-states dramas earlier in 1909, In Old Kentucky and The Mountaineer s Honor, which together seem to have inspired The Honor of His Family, which is part Civil War spectacle, part Southern genre fashioned around questions of family honor. In later years, Griffith fancied himself enough of a Southern gentleman to claim "honor" as the active principle in the affairs of men, as in his 1926 court testimony against Al Jolson for breaking his verbal agreement to star in the film that became His Darker Self: "Well, I had the word of men of honor. In the country where I came from, that's enough." In the Biograph films, honor provides rationale for melodramatic excess. The title of The Mountaineer's Honor seems well played out when the Appalachian brother justifies his murder of a "valley man" for having toyed with the affections of his sister. However, the final twist comes later - "THE LAST BITTER PAYMENT. BETTER DEATH THAN DISHONOR" - when the murderer, set to be hung for his crime, nods permission to his mother to shoot him. The Honor of His Family combines such lethal family ethics with the casting of In Old Kentucky. Again, Henry B. Walthall is the Confederate soldier who flees from battle into his family home. This time, however, he finds no loving mother ready to hide him in her bed, but only a father - played by Verner Clarges again - ready to carry the principle of Southern honor to its most unforgiving. The Honor of His Family melds large-scale spectacle (especially by the standards of the Biographs) with psychological analysis and wild melodrama. In combining these apparently contradictory extremes, it anticipates what's best in The Birth of a Nation (1915). With more elaborate spectacle than anything in earlier Biographs, young George Pickett leaves the family mansion to take command of close to fifty uniformed volunteers from 168

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the "NEIGHBORHOOD". In a public ceremony overseen by men of his father's generation, George receives his written orders and marches off his troops, after a woman bestows a Confederate flag upon him and as Southern belles wave handkerchiefs in farewell. The battle scene is staged with impressive realism - our Confederates lined tightly past the edges of the frame in the middle distance against a parallel hilltop line of Union troops whose uncountable numbers are cleverly suggested by the twenty or so visible dark uniforms and horse-mounted figures running down through volleys of smoke. We return to this long view of the battle four shots later for the Confederate victory in the skirmish, despite the absence of their leader, though not without losses evident in gray-uniformed bodies contorted alongside the log barricade. In Griffith's previous Civil War drama, In Old Kentucky, the evocative dark landscapes (of New York State in late summer) provided a woodsy mask over the spectacle's small scale. Here the land (of New Jersey in winter) is rockier and grimmer, the flatter ground providing little hiding place beyond leafless trees for "THE COWARD". At first glance, the acting can seem merely theatrical even for the era, especially in the climactic middle, the most extended of the film's shots (#14, of 25), in which the son returns home and the father comes to shoot him. Henry Walthall represents George's panic by flailing his arms, clutching his hair, and scuttling in cringing contortions around the room, while Verner Clarges balances him by striking upright, unyielding poses, and pointing grandly back in the direction of the battlefield. But the father's presentational style makes sense within the context of a story all about the importance of public display. "Honor" here is the public demonstration of family tradition, more important during this wartime than mere personal despair - which the film nevertheless also reveals in calmer moments, when the colonel returns from arranging his son's body and in the closing tableau. It's not just Verner Clarges but his character who must "act" demonstrably in public: he meets the commanding officer's sympathetic touch in commiseration over the son's cowardice with a punch at his face. "Honor and shame from all conditions rise; /Act well your part and there the honor lies", is an 1858 rhyme by an Alabama slaveholder which catches this film's sense of honoras-performance. Right from the opening shot, the colonel's pride is set up for a fall. Colonel Pickett looks more than a little too gleeful at sending his son off to war and at displaying his son's salute at family portraits for the edification of three older men and four family slaves. The colonel's stance is reinforced by an early dialogue intertitle: "'MY SON, EMULATE THOSE GONE BEFORE YOU. BE FEARLESS AND FIGHT, FIGHT.'" The messy realism of battle, with its smoke and confusion and panic, is intercut ethically against five shots of the colonel at home with his slaves, settled comfortably into his chair, toasting his absent son with drinks, slapping his hands gleefully on his knees, chest thrown forward in preening self-satisfaction. The final sharp and subtle touch about this story, which is easy to miss, is that the soldiers don't actually fall for the colonel's elaborate ruse at all. They merely agree among themselves that it is better for all concerned to play the incident for heroism and honor rather than to reveal it as a tale of family cowardice, murder and deceit. Note especially in the second-to-last shot after the son's body is discovered in the battlefield, two Confederate soldiers (played by James Kirkwood and Anthony O'Sullivan) glance at each other and secretly nod and smile, saying nothing. In his Civil War Biographs, Griffith was beginning to find narrative metaphors able to carry the historical experience of the South. He had little filmic tradition to draw from at a time when Civil War films were almost exclusively taking the Union footsoldier as hero, provoking complaints in 1909 and 1910 from movie exhibitors in the South (as Eileen Bowser noted in The Transformation of Cinema). In Old Kentucky ended with convincingly realistic metaphors for the difficulty of national reconciliation, in the brothers with their two flags 169

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

and in the previous shot of Henry Walthall in his tattered uniform pausing despondently outside the family steps, a scene to be elaborated in The Birth of a Nation. But there is also a case to be made (one I outlined in The Films o/D.W. Griffith) that Southern history has been best represented though a framework of outrageous melodrama, as in William Faulkner's fiction, as here in The Honor of His Family, and especially as in Walthall's next cowardly escape home from the Civil War in Griffith's The House with Closed Shutters (1910). Reactions to The Honor of His Family at release were mixed. Praise came from The Moving Picture World ("It is one of those pictures of which adequate description is impossible and must be seen to be appreciated"), but the extremes of Southern melodrama were already offensive to Variety: "There is much to criticize beside the picturing of an actual murder - particularly the murder of a son by his father." Scott Simmon

170

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

230 BlOGRAPH

THE CLOISTERS TOUCH Filming date: 20/21 December 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 31 January 1910 Release length: 993 feet Copyright date: 2 February 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin Cast: Henry B. Walthall (Father); Marion Leonard (Eisa, the mother); Edith Haldeman (Their child); Arthur Johnson (The duke); Owen Moore, Dell Henderson, ? (The duke's men); Mack Sennett, Ruth Hart, Charles Craig, Francis J. Grandon, Alfred Paget, Frank Evans, Henry Lehrman, Dorothy West, Kate Toncray? (At the palace); George O. Nicholls, W. Chrystie Miller (Monks); Kate Bruce (Old woman) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print A BlOGRAPH STORY OF RELIGION'S SOLACE In the olden days when the common man was his feudal lord's slave, many were the outrages perpetrated upon them with no redress save that which came from the hand of Providence, and tardy though the reckoning seemed, it was, nevertheless inevitable. This subject shows a peasant family comprising the father, mother and little boy child. They are happy in their own sphere until one day several courtiers of a hunting party stopped at the humble home for refreshments. The men are particularly struck with the beauty of the young wife, and as their Duke is in the depths of boredom they suggest carrying her off to court. However, they think it best to first consult the Duke, who in the extreme of ennui, is most agreeable to the plans. Hence, the poor wife is torn from her husband and child and taken to court to be made a lady by the Duke. Here she has all heart could wish for, as the Duke has fallen deeply in love with her. Still the one thing she longs for is her child. The Duke finally consents that she may go and get it. Back to her old home she is taken, only to find it deserted, her husband having, meanwhile, accepted the refuge offered by the monks and become a postulant at the monastery, taking the boy with him. From the fruidess journey she returns despairing, and through grief, her reason is shattered, so the Duke has presented other children hoping that her mind may be restored, but she is not appeased, and her grief finds surcease in death. The Duke is plunged in the deepest despair at the outcome of what he now acknowledges an outrage, and would have atoned with his own life, but that the cross-handle of the dagger with which he was about to perform the dispatch suggests another course, and determining upon a life of penance, he goes and offers himself to the monks. Here in the same monastery where all are equal he also becomes a postulant and he comes face to face with the outraged husband. There is a start and a slight inclination to rush at each other, but under the shadow of the cross they breathe those words of Christian charity "Forgive us our trépasses as we forgive them who trepass against us." And as they pass into the chapel to vespers the sound of "Amen" reverberates. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], January 31, 1910 171

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

A peasant family is destroyed after a bored duke abducts the wife to his court for his amusement. The abandoned husband and young son take refuge in a monastery. Loss of her family drives the woman mad and soon to her death. The duke, overcome with guilt, retreats to the same monastery, where the husband, though tempted to vengeance, accepts the duke's penance.

It is not a good sign when a Griffith film labels a death "THE SURCEASE" in an intertitle. Here we enter "THE OLD DAYS", some ponderous European realm vaguely medieval or early renaissance. The Cloister's Touch loosely resembles the critically praised French Film d'Art imports but lacks their elaborate sets and acting conviction. After the first (220-foot) shot, which establishes family happiness without any distinctive quirks, the cutting is more rapid than in the films d'art, with twenty-one shots (and ten intertitles) spread across just three simple, overcrowded sets: the interior of the peasant cottage, a room at the duke's court, and a courtyard at the monastery. The title The Cloister's Touch remains obscure, but seems to refer to the Christian influence of remorse and forgiveness that displaces the possibility of revenge in the final monastery scenes. These passive virtues also suit the maternal melodrama that briefly enlivens the middle of the film, when Marion Leonard as the wife returns to her home and questions some uncomprehending new residents in a vain search for her son, and when she then sinks deeper into dementia in hugging one of the substitute children provided by the duke. As in Hollywood's later maternal melodramas, the husband is apparently forgotten with less trauma. Griffith's typical preference for the passive, traditionally feminine virtues comes at the price of more active drama, and the torpor here is reinforced by a duke (Arthur Johnson) who begins in, and seldom rises above, "the extreme of ennui", in the words of the Biograph Bulletin. The Bulletin also describes the duke's near-suicide, a presumably dramatic moment which does not exist in the finished film: He "would have atoned with his own life, but that the cross-handle of the dagger with which he was about to perform the dispatch suggests another course". Curiously, The Moving Picture World describes the same moment in its review, and although it is possible that the film was cut or that the paper print doesn't fully reproduce the release version, the review's phrasing ("but the cross on the dagger suggests another course") hints that the Bulletin itself, more than the film, was the reviewer's source. A more revealing Moving Picture World article by "Our Chicago Representative" in the February 12, 1910, issue reinforces the growing pressures for such dull but virtuous films as this one. The article, titled "Increase the Beauty of the Picture", recounts the "Representative's" visit to two Chicago theaters playing The Cloister's Touch. At a nickelodeon - the Casino Theater, a "5-cent house" - the audience laughed inappropriately at the film, even "at the monk's kneeling and praying", while at the larger Orpheum Theater, which charged ten-cent admission and had "recently installed sound effects" and employed a fuller orchestra, the film was said to have been appreciated. The author's explanation is that the Casino's nickelodeon presentation made the film "vulgar" and "the audience did not understand the seriousness of the picture". "Seriousness" was itself becoming a goal for the movies, whether or not audiences demonstrated approval, as similarly in the Moving Picture World review of the film: "The audience will not applaud. The picture is too serious; but they enjoy it none the less." Griffith would always have difficulty distinguishing seriousness from ponderousness; and trade reviewers, seeking status for their enterprise, were no help to him. There are certainly worse Griffith films than The Cloister's Touch, films where the emotions are even less convincing, but here the melodrama lacks even the flair to carry it, weighed down by "seriousness". Scott Simmon 172

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

231 BlOGRAPH

THE WOMAN FROM MELLON'S Filming date: 22/24 December 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 3 February 1910 Release length: ca. 988 feet Copyright date: 5 February 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: William A. Quirk {Harry Townsend); George O. Nicholls (James Petershy); Mary Pickford (Mary, his daughter); Gertrude Robinson, Lottie Pickford, ? (Young women); Anthony O'Sullivan, Francis J. Grandon (In first office); Mack Sennett, Dell Henderson, Alfred Paget, Francis J. Grandon, Henry Lehrman (Stockbrokers in second office); James Kirkwood (Minister); Frank Evans, Alfred Paget, Guy Hedlund (Butlers); Kate Bruce, Ruth Hart, Dorothy West (Maids); Linda Arvidson (Detective); Charles Craig, ? (Detectives); Charles Craig, ? (Policemen) Archival Sources: Library of Congress, 35mm paper print (see author's note); 35mm nitrate negative (AFI/Mary Pickford Collection); UCLA Film and Television Archive, 35mm nitrate positive A STORY OF LOVE'S STRATAGEM Love will always find a way, and though conditions may seem desperate and obstacles unsurmountable, still Master Cupid and Dame Fate will conspire to bring together two hearts if they, in turn, have the audacious daring to hearken to their suggestions, for their slogan is "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." The plan evolved in this Biograph story is most unique. Harry Townsend, a young stock broker, is in love with the pretty daughter of James Petersby, a Wall Street magnate, and as Harry is a very promising fellow, he gives his consent to the match. Harry, however, is hard hit by the panic, and loses practically all. This changes the color of things and the young lover is forbidden the wealthy man's house. Despairing, he goes to look for employment, and in answer to the "Ad" of a detective agency, he finds the chief an old friend of his, hence he gets the job. H e then goes to see his sweetheart to inform her of his success, but the father catches him and puts him out, suspecting they are planning to elope. Petersby then writes a letter to the Mellon Detective Agency to send to his house a reliable strong woman as guard and companion for his daughter whom he suspects is bent on eloping. This happens to be the agency with which Harry has connected and he prevails upon the chief to be allowed the assignment. H e then procures the wardrobe and shaving off his moustache appears at the Petersbury mansion the most attractive looking damsel you would meet in a day's journey. Now Mary is rebellious and the fact of being watched is extremely repugnant, so she avows that no woman shall watch over her, but she cannot help herself for she cannot stir without having the lady from Mellon's at her side. That she hasn't recognized her is due to the fact that she has never looked at her, her aversion being so intense. Finally she bursts into tears of anger and then Harry discloses his identity. They, however, carry on the little farce, and the father becomes quite smitten with the fair stranger. Besides flirting with him he gives out valuable stock tips, which Harry makes good use of and recoups his 173

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

fortune. Thus far, everything goes well, but the old gent is getting serious and suggests that they elope. "Good Heavens!" So Harry exclaims to Mary, "Hurry up! If you don't elope with me, your father will." So away they go, just as papa enters ready to fly with the fair charmer. Learning of their departure, he follows and traces them to Harry's rooms where he is prevented from entering while the marriage ceremony of his daughter and her lover is performed. There is nothing left but to make the best of it, which he does, realizing what a fool he has made of himself, and this is the only means of relieving his own embarassment. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], February 3, 1910

Mary, daughter of a New York financier, accepts a marriage proposal from Harry. Her father, however, rescinds consent when he reads that Harry's funds have been lost in a stock market panic. Harry takes a job under an old friend at the Mellon Detective Agency, to which Mary's father writes for a female guardian to prevent his daughter's elopement. Inspired, Harry dons a dress, shaves his mustache, and takes the position in female disguise, initially attracting more loving attention from the father than from Mary. The smitten father whispers to this "woman from Mellon's" stock market tips, which Harry uses to regain money. When the father proposes that "the woman" elope with him, Harry and Mary run off to marry before the father can burst down the door on the minister. All is revealed and forgiven.

Billy Quirk, who plays the title role in The Woman from Mellon's, must have been the first actor to build a career regularly playing gay, effeminate, and cross-dressing men - types whose differences on film were as muddled and confused then as now. Of course, gay characters were the rarest and generally confined to farce. Among Quirk's films during his year at Biograph (which he joined from vaudeville in mid-1909 and left in mid-1910 when offered a starring series under Alice Guy-Blaché at the Solax studios), his only indisputably gay portrayal for Griffith that I recall comes as a brief joke in Pranks ( 1909), where he is paired with Henry B. Walthall as a couple who are jolted up from their secluded spot in the woods when Arthur Johnson runs over them wearing a woman's dress, an outfit that turns their annoyance to amused interest. More often cross-dressing in such comic dramas as this one is justified as a ruse to reinforce wholesome heterosexual romance (as I discussed in connection with a similar plotline earlier in 1909, Eloping with Aunty, DWG Project, #139). The Woman from Mellon's is one of the more elaborate of the approximately seventeen films at Biograph that paired Billy Quirk in romances with Mary Pickford, a few of which clustered into loose series, as with their gentle, small-town "Harry and Bessie" films of 1909 and the pair of similar "Muggsy and Mabel" films shortly before Quirk left the studio in 1910. The Quirk-Pickford pairing had been introduced with the effeminate-man punchline to The Renunciation (1909; as discussed by Russell Merritt, DWG Project, #166), when Pickford brings in a prissily elegant Quirk over the two miners who had competed for her in increasingly violent ways. Getting Even (1909), also set in a rough Western community, had initiated Quirk's ploy of female masquerade as a roundabout way to win Pickford. If that film remains more charming than this one, it's partly because Getting Even finds a satisfying logic in Quirk's revenge against cowboys who had humiliated him with a spanking and who then fall over themselves in attraction to him as a woman. The plot of The Woman from Mellon's rests instead on a coincidence large even for comedy - the father decides to seek an employee from the very company the exiled suitor has just joined - and the father's attraction to Quirk-as-a-woman 174

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

lacks much logic beyond the convention that older men in such comedies are always attracted to the masquerading "woman", as in Charlie's Aunt in 1892 through Some Like It Hot (1959) and onward. Confined entirely to interior sets, the pleasures of The Woman from Mêlions come mainly from the acting touches also found in the other Pickford-Quirk films, especially Mary Pickford's littie mercurial shifts of mood, as when she toys with Harry in first pretending to refuse his proposal. Adding amusement here is Billy Quirk's deft way with female impersonation, casting his large eyes downward as he chucks the father's chin, the grin in his round babyface shifting between modesty and flirtatiousness, his pudgy body rolling comfortably with his dress. As Variety noticed, "The man who posed for the 'woman' role is a very good impersonator." The only man in either Getting Even or The Woman from Mêlions not attracted to Quirk's impersonation is one tall, bearded character who shuns him in a brief scene in the detective office here; and this seems to be a reversed gay joke. A print note: The Woman from Mellon's is almost incomprehensible with only the single initial intertitie - THE PROPOSAL - available in currently viewable prints. Although the viewing print is held within the Library of Congress's Paper Print Collection, it is not strictly speaking derived from a paper print (the paper-base copies deposited for copyright protection at the time of production) but rather was made as a 16mm reduction from Mary Pickford's film material around the same time that the paper prints were first rephotographed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A number of the Library's "paper prints" that star Pickford actually originate from her film copies, which generally either lack intertitles or include inauthentic ones added years later. The original intertitles probably survive within the unphotographed paper prints for Pickford's Biograph films released after mid-October 1909 (when Biograph began to include intertitles within the paper prints) and early 1911 (when the company apparently stopped depositing full paper prints). Scott Simmon

175

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

232 BlOGRAPH

THE DUKE'S PLAN Filming date: 27/28 December 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 10 February 1910 Release length: ca. 985 feet Copyright date: 12 February 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Francis J. Grandon {The Duke); Marion Leonard {Fiametta, his daughter); Owen Moore {Raoul); James Kirkwood, W. Chrystie Miller, Alfred Paget, Dell Henderson? {The Duke's men); Ruth Hart, Kate Bruce, Gertrude Robinson [as a boy] iJFiamettas attendants); ? {Second suitor); Dorothy West {At the inn) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative; Library of Congress, 35mm paper print; National Film and Television Archive, London, 35mm nitrate positive A FRUITLESS ATTEMPT T O SEPARATE KINDRED SOULS Love laughs at locksmiths, surmounts obstacles, derides opposition, braves dangers, and in fact dominates every material and spiritual force. One may as well attempt to alter the course of the moon as to effectually tear assunder two hearts that pulsate in unison. This Biograph subject shows to what extreme a sweetheart will go for the one she loves. It meant the yielding of her very life to save him, and such an act of daring should and will reap reward, for fate, although capricious, is just. Fiametta, the daughter of the Duke de Boisette, is sought by Raoul, a young nobleman. Raoul, being the scion of a noble but impoverished house, his suit met with disfavour by the Duke, who has other plans. The young people, however, deeply love each other, and cunning are the many strategems they devise to meet clandestinely. On one occasion, he meets a couple of peddlers, and bargains with them to attire himself as one of them and go to the palace in that guise. His disguise is penetrated by the Duke who has him ejected. These subtle moves induce the Duke to scheme to get rid of Raoul. But he, being of noble birth, the Duke dare not do so blatantly, hence, he summons several of his loyal guards, and concocts a most unique plan. They are to arrange a false conspiracy against the Duke, and have one of the men reveal it accidentally to Raoul. Raoul will, of course, report it, anxious to gain the Duke's favor, and he will send Raoul to secure names and facts. They will discover in him a traitor at the meeting and dispose of him summarily. The scheme works. A soldier at the inn, pretending drunkenness, drops a letter calling for action to crush the Duke. Raoul finds it and hastens to the Duke with the intelligence, who sends him to the place designated in the letter. Fiametta has overhead enough to alarm her, so she determines to warn him of his danger. Realizing that she must not be recognized at the inn, she bargains with her page for a suit of his clothes. Disguised as a boy, she enters the tap-room and tries to persuade Raoul from his mission. H e is adamant, for to shirk his duty would brand him a coward. Unable to shake his determination, she drops a sleeping potion in his drink, and taking to mask and cloak, goes to put herself in his place. She is, of course, mistaken for Raoul, and would have been despatched [sic], had he not been revived by the landlord, and assuming the truth of the situation, rushes to her rescue, at 176

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

the same time sending word to the Duke. When the Duke appreciates the extent of her love for Raoul, he hands her over to him with his paternal blessing. Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], February 10, 1910

A duke denies his daughter's choice for a husband. The rejected lover, Raoul, returns to court disguised as a peddler but is soon unmasked. The duke devises an elaborate scheme to rid himself of this persistent suitor: Raoul is allowed to discover a fake conspiracy against the duke, reports it to him, and is asked by the duke to infiltrate the group, who have been - as the daughter overhears - instructed to kill Raoul as a spy in their midst. Disguised in men's clothing, the daughter finds Raoul at an inn, drugs his drink, and takes his place at the meeting of masked conspirators. She escapes death by hanging only after the innkeeper has roused Raoul, who runs to her rescue. The duke must reward Raoul's courage with his daughter's hand. When the couple leaves, he dismisses the fake conspirators.

Griffith and the Biograph players returned from their two-day Christmas break in 1909 to put together this illogically complicated tale of what appears from the costuming a seventeenthcentury French palace intrigue. The inspiration, such as it is, seems to have arisen partly from returning to the evil duke character of The Cloister's Touch, completed on 21 December, but mainly from reversing the gimmick of The Woman from Mêlions, completed on Christmas Eve. Where the lovers of that film overcame a father's edict by the young man dressing in women's clothes, the lovers of The Duke's Plan resolve matters by the young woman donning men's ones. Reviewers admired the trick, as in the opening of Variety's notice: "The more agreeable purpose of this film is to show the leading woman of the Biograph's acting forces in the role of a 'boy', and she makes a pippin in the knickerbockers and court clothes of long ago." At the time, Variety was right to label the still underappreciated Marion Leonard "the leading woman" at Biograph, but she was nearing the end of that status. This film was her next-to-last for Griffith in the East, although she would remain the lead in his most compelling films made during the company's first trip west early in 1910. The stark desert landscape of several of those films would lend itself perfectly to the forceful, independent characters that Leonard always played best - see especially her avenging gunslinger in Over Silent Paths - even when Griffith so often cast her as the neglectful mother or the homewrecking other woman. Here in The Duke's Plan she has a few opportunities for taking charge in male disguise, but her performance is undercut by the sense that she has no good reason to put herself in harm's way by joining the conspirators after she has already warned her lover. And from her uncharacteristically jumpy litde leaps of glee in her chair as she converses with "Raoul" during the first shot, Griffith seems to have begun asking her for an acting style with which Mary Pickford was more adept. Leonard also has difficulty competing with the gesticulation from Owen Moore, whose role as Raoul is his last for Griffith after more than a hundred films. Moore's busy style, litde changed since 1908, could be brilliant in comic performances, as in the first half of Her Terrible Ordeal three weeks earlier, but may also have begun to look more and more antiquated in dramas, even if it can be read in The Duke's Plan as "dashing". In some needed on-screen instruction in restraint, we see him being taught hunched and humble gestures by the Jewish peddler he impersonates in his brief return to court. A modest race-to-the-rescue provides the end of the film with some relatively rapid cutting, but the exclusively interior shooting subverts even this excitement. Variety's final praise was backhanded: "There is nothing very vicious about the film". Scott Simmon 177

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

233 BlOGRAPH

ONE NIGHT, AND THEN— Filming date: 30 December 1909 Location: New York Studio Release date: 14 February 1910 Release length: ca. 992 feet Copyright date: 16 February 1910 Director: D.W. Griffith Author: none known Source: none known Camera: G.W. Bitzer Cast: Henry B. Walthall {Henry Revol); Kate Bruce {Mother); Gladys Egan, ? {Her children); George O. Nicholls {Doctor); William A. Quirk {Workman); James Kirkwood, Gertrude Robinson, Mack Sennett, Charles Craig, Florence Barker, Francis J. Grandon, Ruth Hart, Dell Henderson, W. Chrystie Miller, Dorothy West, Elinor Kershaw {Atparty) Archival Sources: The Museum of Modern Art, 35mm nitrate negative (no intertitles); Library of Congress, 35mm paper print (incomplete) A SOUL LIFTED FROM THE SLOUGH O F INDIFFERENCE Calumny is positively the worst offence against God and Man, for it not only affects man, but presumes upon God's justice. No mortal power can reveal the secrets of the soul. God alone knows our hidden workings even better than we do ourselves. H e reasons our faults and our virtues, giving value according to conditions. We may spend a life in absolute indifference but there will come a time when we shall have an opportunity to prove ourselves. This chance came to Henry Revol, and happily, he seized it, though it cost him in a wordly reckoning, dear. Ravol was a very wealthy bachelor, who had nothing but time and money at his disposal. We see him at his mansion in the midst of a Bohemian gathering. The party is made up of the lights of theatrical, literary and art circles. It is nothing unusual; simply one of the reckless affairs so often held at his home. These are the "false pleasures" of life, made all the more pronounced when contrasted with the "simple way" - a scene in a humble home where a mother lives in the love of her children. Ravol is simply burned up by the fires of dissipation, and at a succeeding affair falls fainting in his chair. The doctor summoned, tells him he has but a short time to live, so he decides to anticipate fate, but the thought of the jeering of his fawning friends pricks his pride, when a plumber enters his house to do some repairing. An idea strikes him. H e will exchange clothes with him and go out somewhere incog, [sic] This he does, and after leaving what money he has about him on the mantel, only taking enough to pay for a room for the night, and throwing his now useless keys in the fire-place, he leaves, and engages a room in the poor section of the town. Paying for the room, he sits with revolver in hand while he smokes the last cigarette. As he blows the last puff of blue smoke out, he places the pistol to his head, when a low, sorrowful moan reaches his ears. He listens, but all is still. Again, the pistol is raised, and again the cry, now louder and more prolonged. Going to the connecting door he plainly hears the sobbing of a woman in grief. H e knocks, and the door is opened, and there he sees the poor mother bending over her sick child, helpless, as she hasn't money for medicine or food. Here is his opportunity, but as is nearly always the case, there is an obstacle. H e has no ready money 178

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

himself. He will return to his home for it, but how will he get in as he has thrown away his keys and destroyed his identity? Under these conditions, he is forced to break into his own house to bestow his charity. This arouses the servants and he is shot down as a burglar. When they discover his identity they summon the doctor, to whom he exclaims: "Doctor, you can do nothing for me. Go and relieve the wants of the poor family." This, the doctor goes, and Revol's last moments are made bright in the thought of being at last given an opportunity to do good. The next day when the doctor visits the poor woman, sunshine bathes the modest home, and she wants to know what return she can make for all these blessings. The doctor at first intimates nothing, when he notices a lily in a vase at the head of the child's bed. This he takes and places on the bier of Revol. "And the greatest of these is charity." Biograph Bulletin, No. [?], February 14, 1910

A rich wastrel collapses amid revelry and is given only a few days to live. He conceals a pistol, exchanges clothing with a plumber, and sneaks from his home without identification or keys, intending to commit suicide "incog that his friends may not know". The lodging room he takes is next door to an impoverished mother, whose sobs over her sick daughter interrupt his act. When he is forced to break into his own home to retrieve money for the family, he is mistaken for a burglar and shot. His dying wish to his doctor is fulfilled: to leave him and tend to the poor child.

The final film completed by Griffith in 1909 was produced with unusual rapidity - a full thousand-foot reel in a single day - although what can be seen of it hints at something not entirely routine. Only approximately the first 350 feet is currently viewable, because the "balance of production" was "held in abeyance" by Biograph and apparently never deposited as a paper print for copyright protection at the Library of Congress. (The Museum of Modern Art has protected the nitrate negative - which lacks intertitles - with a safety master but has not yet struck a viewing copy at the time I write. ) Notwithstanding the hasty production, the film begins interestingly, with Henry B. Walthall in an early version of a characterization he would come to master, the man who moves through despair into a religious acceptance of the harsh world and his own limitations, notably in The Way of the World (1910) and The Wanderer (1913). In the first seven shots and three intertitles of One Night, and Then— (all that is currently viewable), the contrast between rich and poor is set up without straining for any narrative links. In the second shots of both the rich party and the poor family, illness strikes. The intertitle "THE SIMPLE WAY" that introduces the family also well characterizes the flat set design of their home, as against the depth of the party shots. Two reviews are worth quoting for their descriptions of the end of the film and also for their strongly negative tone. The Moving Picture World attempted a reasonable argument: His subsequent attempt to enter his own house while seeking relief for an unfortunate and his fatal wounding are undoubtedly correct; but one must say in reference to the close that the dramatic power of the picture would not have suffered and a pleasanter impression would have been left if the man had been permitted to live after he had learned that "the greatest of these is charity." When there is some hope of a hitherto misspent life being utilized for the benefit of others it doesn't seem quite right to see it ended. Possibly such

179

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

occurrences are common in real life, but in a drama there is surely no harm in correcting what to a large number of people seem errors of fate or some other malign influence. A pleasanter ending would, one may feel certain, be duly appreciated by the average audience. (February 26, 1910) Variety w a s less circumspect: The junior member of the Patents combine has gone amuck once again and in this film has turned out a most cadaverous and creepy thing. ... [B]efore he dies he tells the doctor, who has been called, to go to the rescue of the sick child and needy family. This the doctor does, and right there the film should end. But it doesn't. We are left to witness the death agonies of the old rounder, and if that is not gruesome enough, there is a later scene where the corpse is shown on a sofa, covered with a shroud, while the group of servants are reading a paper and laughing hilariously over the notice of the man's death. The notice says that the dead man was everything that he should not have been and then some; furthermore, that he had never done a good deed with his money in all his life. To disprove this, the doctor enters to place a flower, brought as a memento from the grateful mother of the sick child, upon the shroud which covers the corpse. For that creepy feeling be sure and see 'One Night and Then' - stay away from picture shows until the manufacturers get some sense. (February 19, 1910) Griffith closes out 1909 with his downbeat resistance to happy-endism, and that option was becoming increasingly offensive to trade reviewers, though perhaps less so to audiences. The Moving Picture World admits elsewhere in its review that "the film received applause". To judge from its opening third and from the rare way that it got under the skins of reviewers, One Night, and Then— is worthy of full preservation. Scott Simmon

180

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ARVIDSON, Linda (Mrs. D.W. Griffith). When the Movies Were Young (New York: Dutton, 1925; reprinted by Dover Publications, 1969) BITZER, G.W. Billy Bitzer: His Story, The Autobiography ofD. W. Griffith's Master Cameraman (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973) BOWSER, Eileen (éd.). Biograph Bulletins, 1908-1912 (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1973) BOWSER, Eileen. "The Reconstruction of A Corner in Wheat", Cinema Journal, vol. 15 no. 2, Spring 1976, 42-52. BOWSER, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 (New York: Scribner's, 1990 [Volume 2 of the History of American Cinema series] ) BREWSTER, Ben, and Lea JACOBS. Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) CRONON, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991) FÀRBER, Helmut. 'A Corner in Wheat by D.W Griffith, 1909, a Critique", Griffithiana, no. 59, May 1997, 6-87 (translated into English and Italian from the original German, A Corner in Wheat von D. W. Griffith 1909: Fine Kritik [Munchen-Paris: Helmut Fàrber, 1992]) FELL, John. Film Before Griffith (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983) GEDULD, Harry M. Focus on D.W. Griffith (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1971) GIDDENS, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991) GUNNING, Tom. "D.W. Griffith and the Narrator System: Narrative Structure and Industry Organization in Biograph Films 1908-1909", Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 1986. GUNNING, Tom. D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph (Champaign/Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991) HENDERSON, Robert M. D. W. Griffith: The Years at Biograph (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970) JESIONOWSKI, Joyce E. Thinking in Pictures: Dramatic Structure in D.W. Griffith's Biograph Films (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987) MEISEL, Martin. Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth Century England (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983) MERRITT, Russell. "Foreword", Griffithiana, no. 59, May 1997, 5. MERRITT, Russell. "Mr. Griffith, The Painted Lady, and the Distractive Frame", Image, vol. 19 no. 4, December 1976, 26-30. MICHAELS, Walter Benn. The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987) NIVER, Kemp. D. W. Griffith: His Biograph Films in Perspective. Edited by Bebe Bergsten (Los Angeles: John D. Roche, 1974) PETRIC, Vlada. D.W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat, a Critical Analysis (Cambridge: University Film Study Center, 1976) PRATT, George C. Spellbound in Darkness: A History of the Silent Film (Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1973) 181

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

SIMMON, Scott. The Films of D.W Griffith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) TODOROV, Tzvetan. La Notion de littérature et autres essais (Paris: Seuil, 1987) WILLIAMSON, J.W. Southern Mountaineers in Silent Film (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1994)

182

INDEX OF TITLES: JULY-DECEMBER 1909 Note: Release dates are given after each title. Numbers refer to program sequence.

"1776" or, THE HESSIAN RENEGADES (6 September 1909) 181 AWAKENING, THE (30 September 1909) 188 BETTER WAY, THE (12 August 1909) 173 BROKEN LOCKET, THE (16 September 1909) 187 CALL, THE (20 January 1910) 226 CHANGE OF HEART, A (14 October 1909) 194 CHILDREN'S FRIEND, THE (13 September 1909) 186 CHOOSING A HUSBAND (30 December 1909) 222 CLOISTER'S TOUCH, THE (31 January 1910) 230 COMATA, THE SIOUX (9 September 1909) 184 CORNER IN WHEAT, A (13 December 1909) 216 DANCING GIRL OF BUTTE, THE (6 January 1910) 224 DAY AFTER, THE (30 December 1909) 220 DEATH DISC, THE (2 December 1909) 212 DUKE'S PLAN, THE (10 February 1910) 232 EXPIATION, THE (21 October 1909) 197 FAIR EXCHANGE, A (23 September 1909) 190 FOOLS OF FATE (7 October 1909) 192 GETTING EVEN (13 September 1909) 185 GIBSON GODDESS, THE (1 November 1909) 198 HEART OF AN OUTLAW, THE (not released) 180

HER TERRIBLE ORDEAL (10 January 1910) 225 HIS LOST LOVE (18 October 1909) 196 HIS WIFE'S VISITOR (19 August 1909) 174 HONOR OF HIS FAMILY, THE (24 January 1910) 229 IN A HEMPEN BAG (16 December 1909) 215 IN LITTLE ITALY (23 December 1909) 219 IN OLD KENTUCKY (20 September 1909) 183 IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT (25 October 1909) 200 IN THE WINDOW RECESS (29 November 1909) 211 INDIAN RUNNER'S ROMANCE, THE (23 August 1909) 171 JONES' BURGLAR (9 August 1909) 169 LAST DEAL, THE (27 January 1910) 228 LEATHER STOCKING (27 September 1909) 191 LIGHT THAT CAME, THE (11 November 1909) 203 LINES OF WHITE ON A SULLEN SEA (28 October 1909) 199 LITTLE DARLING, THE (2 September 1909) 182 LITTLE TEACHER, THE (11 October 1909) 195 MENDED LUTE, THE (5 August 1909) 170 MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE, A (18 November 1909) 205 MILLS OF THE GODS, THE (30 August 1909) 176 MOUNTAINEER'S HONOR, THE (25 November 1909) 209

183

T H E G R I F F I T H P R O J E C T : VOLUME 3

NURSING A VIPER (4 November 1909) "OH, UNCLE" (26 August 1909) ON THE REEF (17 January 1910) ONE NIGHT, AND THEN— (14 February 1910) OPEN GATE, THE (22 November 1909) PIPPA PASSES or, THE SONG OF CONSCIENCE (4 October 1909) PRANKS (30 August 1909) REDMAN'S VIEW, THE (9 December 1909) RESTORATION, THE (8 November 1909) ROCKY ROAD, THE (3 January 1910) SEALED ROOM, THE (2 September 1909) SWEET REVENGE (18 November 1909)

TEST, THE (16 December 1909) THEY WOULD ELOPE (9 August 1909) THROUGH THE BREAKERS (6 December 1909) TO SAVE HER SOUL (27 December 1909) TRAP FOR SANTA CLAUS, A (20 December 1909) TRICK THAT FAILED, THE (29 November 1909) TWO WOMEN AND A MAN (15 November 1909) WANTED, A CHILD (30 September 1909) WHAT'S YOUR HURRY? (1 November 1909) WITH HER CARD (16 August 1909) WOMAN FROM MELLON'S, THE (3 February 1910)

202 177 227 233 207

189 179 214 204 223 178 208

184

217 175 213 221 218 210 206 193 201 172 231

CUMULATIVE INDEX OF TITLES: 1907-DECEMBER 1909 Note: Release dates are given after each title. Numbers refer to program sequence: 1-90: Vol. 1, 1907-1908. 91-168: Vol. 2, January-June 1909. 169-233: Vol. 3, July-December 1909

"1776" or, THE HESSIAN RENEGADES (6 September 1909) 181 ADVENTURES OF DOLLIE, THE (14 July 1908) 27 AFTER MANY YEARS (3 November 1908) 62 "AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM" (22 March 1909) 115 AT THE ALTAR (25 February 1909) 106 AT THE CROSSROADS OF LIFE (3 July 1908) 24 AT THE FRENCH BALL (30 June 1908) 23 AWAKENING, THE (30 September 1909) 188 AWFUL MOMENT, AN (18 December 1908) 75 BABYS SHOE, A (13 May 1909) 136 BALKED AT THE ALTAR (25 August 1908) 39 BANDIT'S WATERLOO, THE (4 August 1908) 31 BARBARIAN, INGOMAR, THE (13 October 1908) 52 BEHIND THE SCENES (11 September 1908) 44 BETRAYED BY A HANDPRINT (1 September 1908) 46 BETTER WAY, THE (12 August 1909) 173 BLACK VIPER, THE (21 July 1908) 28 BRAHMA DIAMOND, THE (4 February 1909) 98 BROKEN LOCKET, THE (16 September 1909) 187 BURGLAR'S MISTAKE, A (25 March 1909) 121 CALAMITOUS ELOPEMENT, A (7 August 1908) 32

CALL, THE (20 January 1910) CALL OF THE WILD, THE (27 October 1908) CARDINAL'S CONSPIRACY, THE (12 July 1909) CAUGHT BY WIRELESS (21 March 1908) CHANGE OF HEART, A (14 October 1909) CHILDREN'S FRIEND, THE (13 September 1909) CHOOSING A HUSBAND (30 December 1909) CHRISTMAS BURGLARS, THE (22 December 1908) CLASSMATES (1 February 1908) CLOISTER'S TOUCH, THE (31 January 1910) CLUBMAN AND THE TRAMP,THE (27 November 1908) COMATA, THE SIOUX (9 September 1909) CONCEALING A BURGLAR (30 October 1908) CONFIDENCE (15 April 1909) CONVICT'S SACRIFICE, A (26 July 1909) CORD OF LIFE, THE (28 January 1909) CORNER IN WHEAT, A (13 December 1909) COUNTRY DOCTOR, THE (8 July 1909) CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, THE (27 May 1909) CRIMINAL HYPNOTIST, THE (18 January 1909) CUPID'S PRANKS (Edison, 19 February 1908) 185

226 58 160 9 194 186 222 79 4 230

72 184 59 131 163 96 216 158 142 85 5

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

CURTAIN POLE, THE (15 February 1909) DANCING GIRL OF BUTTE, THE (6 January 1910) DAY AFTER, THE (30 December 1909) DEATH DISC, THE (2 December 1909) DECEIVED SLUMMING PARTY (31 July 1908) DECEPTION, THE (22 March 1909) DEVIL, THE (2 October 1908) DRIVE FOR A LIFE, THE (22 April 1909) DRUNKARD'S REFORMATION, A (1 April 1909) DUKE'S PLAN, THE (10 February 1910) EAVESDROPPER, THE (3 May 1909) EDGAR ALLEN POE (8 February 1909) ELOPING WITH AUNTY (24 May 1909) ERADICATING AUNTY (31 May 1909) EXPIATION, THE (21 October 1909) FADED LILLIES, THE (17 June 1909) FAIR EXCHANGE, A (23 September 1909) FALSELY ACCUSED! (18 January 1908) FAMOUS ESCAPE, A (7 April 1908) FASCINATING MRS. FRANCIS, THE (21 January 1909) FATAL HOUR, THE (18 August 1908) FATHER GETS IN THE GAME (10 October 1908) FEUD AND THE TURKEY, THE (8 December 1908) FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, THE (17 July 1908)

FOOL'S REVENGE, A (4 March 1909) FOOLS OF FATE (7 October 1909) FOR A WIFE'S HONOR (28 August 1908) FOR LOVE OF GOLD (21 August 1908) FRENCH DUEL, THE (10 May 1909) FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, THE (15 July 1909) GETTING EVEN (13 September 1909) GIBSON GODDESS, THE (1 November 1909) GIRL AND THE OUTLAW, THE (8 September 1908) GIRLS AND DADDY, THE (1 February 1909) GOLDEN LOUIS, THE (22 February 1909) GREASER'S GAUNTLET, THE (11 August 1908) GUERRILLA, THE (13 November 1908) HEART OF AN OUTLAW, THE (not released) HEART OF O YAMA, THE (18 September 1908) HELPING FIAND, THE (29 December 1908) HER FIRST ADVENTURE (18 March 1908) HER FIRST BISCUITS (6/17 June 1909) HER TERRIBLE ORDEAL (10 January 1910) HINDOO DAGGER, THE (18 February 1909) HIS DUTY (31 May 1909) HIS LOST LOVE (18 October 1909) HIS WARD'S LOVE (15 February 1909) HIS WIFE'S MOTHER (1 March 1909)

66 224 220 212 34 105 54 133 118 232 123 86 139 143 197 151 190 2 11 93 38 51 69 29 186

108 192 40 37 125 152 185 198 41 97 102 35 64 180 45 77 8 138 225 90 149 196 103 101

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

HIS WIFE'S VISITOR (19 August 1909) 174 HONOR OF HIS FAMILY, THE (24 January 1910) 229 HONOR OF THIEVES, THE (11 January 1909) 81 HULDA'S LOVERS (22 April 1908) 14 I DID IT, MAMMA (15 March 1909) 109 IN A HEMPEN BAG (16 December 1909) 215 IN LITTLE ITALY (23 December 1909) 219 IN OLD KENTUCKY (20 September 1909) 183 IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT (25 October 1909) 200 IN THE WINDOW RECESS (29 November 1909) 211 INDIAN RUNNER'S ROMANCE, THE (23 August 1909) 171 INGRATE, THE (20 November 1908) 68 INVISIBLE FLUID, THE (16 June 1908) 20 JEALOUSY AND THE MAN (22 July 1909) 161 JILT, THE (17 May 1909) 137 JONES' BURGLAR (9 August 1909) 169 JONES AND HIS NEW NEIGHBORS (29 March 1909) 116 JONES AND THE LADY BOOK AGENT (10 May 1909) 100 JONESES HAVE AMATEUR THEATRICALS, THE (18 February 1909) 83 KENTUCKIAN, THE (7 July 1908) 25 KING OF THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS (15 April 1908) 12 KING'S MESSENGER, THE (29 April 1908) 15 LADY HELEN'S ESCAPADE (19 April 1909) 107 LAST DEAL, THE (27 January 1910) 228

LEATHER STOCKING (27 September 1909) 191 LIGHT THAT CAME, THE (11 November 1909) 203 LINES OF WHITE ON A SULLEN SEA (28 October 1909) 199 LITTLE DARLING, THE (2 September 1909) 182 LITTLE TEACHER, THE (11 October 1909) 195 LONELY VILLA, THE (10 June 1909) 150 LOVE FINDS A WAY (11 January 1909) 91 LUCKY JIM (26 April 1909) 128 LURE OF THE GOWN, THE (15 March 1909) 112 MAN AND THE WOMAN, THE (14 August 1908) 36 MAN IN THE BOX, THE (19 June 1908) 21 MANIAC COOK, THE (4 January 1909) 78 MEDICINE BOTTLE, THE (29 March 1909) 110 MENDED LUTE, THE (5 August 1909) 170 MESSAGE, THE (5 July 1909) 157 MEXICAN SWEETHEARTS, THE (24 June 1909) 156 MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE, A (18 November 1909) 205 MILLS OF THE GODS, THE (30 August 1909) 176 MIXED BABIES (12 June 1908) 18 MONDAY MORNING IN A CONEY ISLAND POLICE COURT (4 September 1908) 42 MONEY MAD (4 December 1908) 73 MOUNTAINEER'S HONOR, THE (25 November 1909) 209 MR. JONES AT THE BALL (25 December 1908) 56 MR. JONES HAS A CARD PARTY (21 January 1909) 87 187

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

MRS. JONES ENTERTAINS (7 January 1909) 67 MRS. JONES' LOVER; or "I WANT MY HAT" (19 August 1909) 165 MUSIC MASTER, THE (6 May 1908) 13 NECKLACE, THE (1 July 1909) 155 NEW TRICK, A (10 June 1909) 148 NOTE IN THE SHOE, THE (6 May 1909) 127 NURSING A VIPER (4 November 1909) 202 "OH, UNCLE" (26 August 1909) 177 OLD ISAACS, THE PAWNBROKER (28 March 1908) 10 ON THE REEF (17 January 1910) 227 ONE BUSY HOUR (6 May 1909) 134 ONE NIGHT, AND THEN— (14 February 1910) 233 ONE TOUCH OF NATURE (1 January 1909) 74 OPEN GATE, THE (22 November 1909) 207 'OSTLER JOE (9 June 1908) 19 OUTLAW, THE (23 June 1908) 22 PEACHBASKET HAT, THE (24 June 1909) 146 PIPPA PASSES or, THE SONG OF CONSCIENCE (4 October 1909) 189 PIRATE'S GOLD, THE (6 November 1908) 63 PLANTER'S WIFE, THE (20 October 1908) 53 POLITICIAN'S LOVE STORY (22 February 1909) 99 PRANKS (30 August 1909) 179 PRINCESS IN THE VASE, THE (27 February 1908) 6 PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSY (4 January 1908) 1

PRUSSIAN SPY, THE (1 March 1909) RECKONING, THE (11 December 1908) RED GIRL, THE (15 September 1908) REDMAN AND THE CHILD, THE (28 July 1908) REDMAN'S VIEW, THE (9 December 1909) RENUNCIATION, THE (19 July 1909) RESCUED FROM AN EAGLE'S NEST (Edison, 16 January 1908) RESTORATION, THE (8 November 1909) RESURRECTION (20 May 1909) ROAD TO THE HEART, THE (5 April 1909) ROCKY ROAD, THE (3 January 1910) ROMANCE OF A JEWESS (23 October 1908) ROUE'S HART, THE (8 March 1909) RUDE HOSTESS, A (8 April 1909) RURAL ELOPEMENT, A (14 January 1909) SACRIFICE, THE (14 January 1909) SALVATION ARMY LASS, THE (11 March 1909) SCHNEIDER'S ANTI-NOISE CRUSADE (8 April 1909) SCULPTOR'S NIGHTMARE, THE (6 May 1908) SEALED ROOM, THE (2 September 1909) SEVENTH DAY, THE (26 August 1909) SLAVE, THE (29 July 1909) SMOKED HUSBAND, A (25 September 1908) SON'S RETURN, THE (14 June 1909)

188

104 70 43 30 214 166 3 204 140 122 223 57 88 120 82 84 Ill

124 16 178 159 168 48 147

THE GRIFFITH PROJECT: VOLUME 3

SONG OF THE SHIRT, THE (17 November 1908) 65 SOUND SLEEPER, A (12 April 1909) 129 STAGE RUSTLER, THE (10 July 1908) 26 STOLEN JEWELS, THE (29 September 1908) 55 STRANGE MEETING, A (2 August 1909) 164 SUICIDE CLUB, THE (3 May 1909) 132 SWEET AND TWENTY (22 July 1909) 167 SWEET REVENGE (18 November 1909) 208 TAMING OF THE SHREW (10 November 1908) 61 TAVERN-KEEPER'S DAUGHTER, THE (24 July 1908) 33 TENDER HEARTS (19 July 1909) 162 TEST, THE (16 December 1909) 217 TEST OF FRIENDSHIP, THE (15 December 1908) 76 THEY WOULD ELOPE (9 August 1909) 175 THOSE AWFUL HATS (25 January 1909) 94 THOSE BOYS! (18 January 1909) 92 THROUGH THE BREAKERS (6 December 1909) 213 'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO GOOD (29 April 1909) 135 TO SAVE HER SOUL (27 December 1909) 221 TRAGIC LOVE (11 February 1909) 95 TRAP FOR SANTA CLAUS, A (20 December 1909) 218 TRICK THAT FAILED, THE (29 November 1909) 210 TROUBLESOME SATCHEL, A (19 April 1909) 130 TRYING TO GET ARRESTED (5 April 1909) 117

TWIN BROTHERS (26 April 1909) 126 TWO MEMORIES (24 May 1909) 145 TWO WOMEN AND A MAN (15 November 1909) 206 VALET'S WIFE, THE (1 December 1908) 71 VAQUERO'S VOW, THE (16 October 1908) 50 VIOLIN MAKER OF CREMONA, THE (7 June 1909) 141 VOICE OF THE VIOLIN, THE (18 March 1909) 114 WANTED, A CHILD (30 September 1909) 193 WAS JUSTICE SERVED? (21 June 1909) 154 WAY OF MAN, THE (28 June 1909) 153 WELCOME BURGLAR, THE (25 January 1909) 89 WHAT DRINK DID (3 June 1909) 144 WHAT'S YOUR HURRY? (1 November 1909) 201 WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD (20 May 1908) 17 WHERE THE BREAKERS ROAR (22 September 1908) 47 WINNING COAT, THE (12 April 1909) 119 WITH HER CARD (16 August 1909) 172 WOMAN FROM MELLON'S, THE (3 February 1910) 231 WOMAN'S WAY, A (24 November 1908) 60 WOODEN LEG, THE (8 March 1909) 113 WREATH IN TIME, A (8 February 1909) 80 YELLOW PERIL, THE (7 March 1908) 7 ZULU'S HEART, THE (6 October 1908) 49

189