Scott Lord Silent Film: Blanche Sweet in Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith, Biograph, 1914)

Lillian Gish's autobiographical account of "Judith of Bethulia" (D.W. Griffith at Biograph, 1914) included in her volume The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me can again be placed in the historiography of film criticism by being a combination of reminiscences and digests of media accounts reflecting her perspective. "The advertisements later announced that 'Judith of Bethulia' was the most expensive film that Biograph ever produced . They went on to exaggerate the number of extras and costliness of the sets, ignoring Mr. Griffith's talent for making much out of little. It is true, however, that 'Judith' was more expensive and took longer to make than any Griffith picture up to that." Presaging the epic spectacle of D.W. Griffith, which quickly arrived within a two year period ,in fact still years before Cecil B. DeMille became proficient at the genre, the film stars one of the first all-star casts including Blanche Sweet in the titular role, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Kate Bruce and Mae Marsh. It was the longer running time that allowed D.W.Griffith to film spectacle in his three reel "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch" and four reel "Judith of Bethulia", author Tom Gunning, in his volume D.W. Griffith and the origins of American narrative film: the early years at Biograph, noting "the control of space and time offered in Griffith's spectacle films from his late Biograph period."

Eric Rhode, in his volume A History of Cinema, outlines a chromology of Griffith's crescendo at Biograph, "From 1908 on Griffith directed over 400 films for Biograph. But he left the company in 1913 when it declined to change its policy and release the four reel'Judith of Bethulia', even though the public had shown an interest in five and six reel feature films."

The cinematographer to the film was G.W. Bitzer.