Scott Lord Silent Film: Battle of Elderbush Gulch (D.W. Griffith, 1913)

In addition to using closeups to isolate the actor from their diegetic surroundings and the particular background to the action of the scene, which, while viewing the emotion of the character as seperate in turn embeds, or immerses the character into the diegesis, locking and intertwining them into the word within the frame, D. W. Griffith would establish the relationship between character and environment as well through the use of editing and by varying spatial relationships, notably in the silent film "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch" (two reels) through the use of the longshot and the use of interiors. The two reel film stars actresses Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh and was photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company. Silent Film Silent Film Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Female of the Species (D.W. Griffith, Biogra...

Actress Mary Pickford appears with Dorothy Bernard and Charles West in "The Female of the Species", directed by D.W. Griffith and photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company in 1912.

Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Mary Pickford in What The Daisy Said (D.W. Griff...

During 1910 D.W. Griffith directed actress Mary Pickford in the short film "What The Daisy Said", photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company. Peter Cowie, in his volume Eighty Years of Cinema, gives the 1910 film "Simple Charity", directed by Griffith, as one of the earliest on screen appearances made by Mary Pickford. Silent Film Biograph

Scott Lord Silent Film: Biograph Film Company; The Lure of the Gown (D.W...

Actresses Marion Leonard and Florence Lawrence appeared with Linda Arvidson in "The Lure of the Gown", directed by D.W. Griffith and photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company in 1909. Silent Film D.W. Griffith D.W. Griffith

Scott Lord Silent Film: The New York Hat (D.W. Griffith, Biograph)

Directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company the film features the first photoplay written by Anita Loos. Subsequently, Loos was to write the scenarios and screenplays to films which starred Douglas Fairbanks. The New Movie Magazine during 1930 nostalgically related that the film had also introduced Lionel Barrymore to the screen and that Loos, who had only been sixteen years old at the time of its release, had received “the large sum of $15” for writing the film. Author Iris Barry explains that it was not only Anita Loos that was behind the scenes, “At this period, ideas for films were commonly bought from outsiders and members of the company alike. Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett and others contributed many of the plots Griffith used.” This in part can be taken into consideration when apply Autuer theory to the abrupt difference between the scriptwriting methods of D.W Griffith and Thomas Ince and when reconsidering autuer theory when comparing the directorial efforts of D.W. Griffith and Ingmar Bergman in the mileau of a theatrical acting company.
In the volume D.W. Griffith, American Filmaker, Iris Barry writes that 1912 was a year that D.W. Griffith was an innovator not only in the depiction of social themes and social problems but also in film technique and the uses of the camera as well as the legnthening of the onscreen running time of the two reeler. Barry describes the filmmaking involved in “The New York Hat” (one reel),The film uses cut-backs, close-shots and sharply edited scenes with ease and mastery: close-ups made acting a matter of expresssion and minute guestures instead of the stereotyped guestures of the popular theater.” Peter Cowie, in his volume Eighty Years of Cinema, writes, "Close ups already predominate this film."
In the short scenes of Griffith’s film, Mary Pickford is shown to the right of the screen in medium close shot, trying on a hat, her hands and elbows shown in the frame. Griffith cuts on the action of her leaving the frame to exterior shots. In a later scene, Griffith positions her to the left of the screen, and, his already having shown time having elapsed between the two scenes, then brings the action back to the right of the screen frame. As an early reversal of screen direction, or screen positioning, there is the use of screen editing in between the complimentary positions of showing her in the same interior. During the film the actress is, almost referentially, often kept in profile, facing to the right of the screen's frame. Although Griffith may have been still developing editing techniques, it has been noted that the acting style in the film can be seen as an example of a more naturalistic and less histrionic acting style than that of other contemporary films.

Silent Film D.W. Griffith Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Cardinal’s Conspiracy (D.W. Griffith, 1909)

Notably, Mary Pickford and James Kirkwood, who would later become her director, appear under the direction of D. W. Griffith in the one reeler "The Cardinal's Conspiracy", along with Mack Sennet as well as Griffith's wife Linda Ardvidson and actress Kate Bruce. The film was photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company.

The periodical Moving Picture World reviewed the film with an early description approaching genre theory. "The picture is of the costume kind. In other words, one, when looking at it, has gone to the pages of Stanely Weyman, Henry Harland or Morris Hewitt for his inspiration. We breathe the atmosphere of court life and are taken back, as it were, into a far more romantic period than the present." The periodical continued by regretting that they had viewed the film in "cold monochrome" rather than a more vibrant spectrum of pageant. Biograph Films had advertised the film in the previous issue of Moving Picture World, sharing the full page with Selig, Independent and Kalem studios. Paired with the film "Friend of the Family", Biograph proclaimed that in the film "The Cardinal's Conspiracy", "The subject is elaborately staged, comprising some of the most beautiful exterior scenes ever shown."
In her autobiography When The Movies Were Young, Griffith's wife Linda Arvidson sees the film as the first important screen characterization for actor Frank Powell, adding him to the "remarkable trio" at Biograph of actors Frank Powell, James Kirkwood and Henry B. Walthall. Tom Gunning points to the film belonging to a period when a cinema of narrative integration in fact centered on characterization and accordingly developed film technique with that in mind. To accomadate that narrative integration and its movement to a versimilar acting rather than the florid, histrionic gestures of a filmed theater, Griffith would bring the camera into the story. Gunning writes, "Pickford surpasses any other Biograph actress in the mastery of the new versimilar style...Pickford generally employs a slower pace and her guestures appear intended to reveal psychological traits through behavior."

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Scott Lord Silent Film: Blood and Sand (Niblo, 1922)

With a photoplay by June Mathis, "Blood and Sand", directed in 1922 by Fred Niblo, showcased Rudolph Valentino with Lila Lee, Nita Naldi and Rose Rosanova. The nine reel film was photographed by cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff; Fred Niblo and photographer Alvin Wyckoff were teamed again the following year for a comedy starring Barbara La Marr and Enid Bennett titled "Strangers in the Night", a film which is presumed lost with no existing surviving copies.

Author Peter Cowie, in his volume EIghty Years of Cinema, described "Blood and Sand" as "Stagebound and tearjerking".

Swedish Silent Film

Silent Film

Silent Film Rudolph Valentino

The Photoplay: Swedish Silent Movie Posters

Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Silent Film

Gustaf Molander

Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Musgrave Ritual (George Treville, 1912)

Silent Film Sherlock Holmes Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Copper Beeches (Calliard, 1912)

"THe Copper Beeches" in which actor Georges Trevilles starred as rhe detective Sherlock Holmes, was directed by Adrian Calliard during 1912.

Silent Film Silent Film Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes The Man With The Twisted Lip (Maurice Elvey, 1922)

Scott Lord Silent Film: Tale of Two Cities (Frank Lloyd, 1917)

Already a remake of a 1911 Tale of Two Cities directed by Charles Kent, the seven reel 1917 film adaptation directed by Frank Llyod for the Fox Film Corporation starred William Farnum in a dual role.

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Nedbrudt nerven/The Hill Park Mystery (A. W. Sandberg, 1923)

Thomas C. Christenson, Who was kind enough to write to me from the Danish Film Institute last year, in his articles Restoration of Danish Silent Films: In Colour and Restoring a Danish Silent Film: Nedbrute Nerver writes about the restoration of what he deems to be “a comic mystery plot set in contemporary time in an unnamed Western country.” Nordisk Film Kompagni title books were used in the restoration to augment the original nitrate print.
A.W. Sandberg, notably at a time when Denmark was looking for foreign markets to which to export Film to quell an economic crisis caused by completion from Hollywood, gained recognition as a director by adapting the works of Charles Dickens, including “Our Mutual Friend” (1921), ”Great Expectations” (1922), “David Copperfield” (1922) and “Little Dorritt” (1924).

Danish Silent Film

The Photoplay: Silent Film Lobby Card, Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Lars Hanson Silent Film

Greta Garbo photographed by Ruth Harriet Loiuse

Not incidentally, to show the amount of exposure in the printed media that Greta Garbo the recluse did recieve, during 1931 an new fan magazine entitled Movie Mirror launched its first issue, Volume One, Number One. A photocaption read, "The first picture in a new magazine--it must be Greta Garbo.

Greta Garbo


Greta Garbo



Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo