Scott Lord Silent Film: Carol Dempster in America (D.W. Griffith, 1924)

Directed by D. W. Griffith the photographer of the film "America" (fifteen reels) was Hendrik Sartov. The film stars Carol Dempster and Neil Hamilton. Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Eighty Years of Cinema, deemed "America" to be "the last film of importance" from director D.W. Griffith and noted the film for its "remarkable war scene". Although the storyline of the film, set during the American Revolution and The Old North Church, is presented as needing to be driven by Sam Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere, author Edward Wagenkneckt, in The Films of D.W. Griffith, writes, "'America' has no unbroken line of personal interest, and all the characters stand in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by history. Griffith moves them about from place to place like pieces on a checkerboard as the exingencies of the war or the story seem to require." The story begins by following a minute man, one of the Sons of Liberty at the outbreak of the war at the Battlesof Lexington and Concord. Author Edward Wagerneckt concluded on "the last of Griffith's top rank films", "Photographically America was an unqualified trumph. Scene after scene of breathtaking beauty crossed the screen."

A photocaption placed in Motion Picture Magazine during 1924 read,"THe Battle of Bunker Hill is one of the most thrilling episodes of the picture...excelled only by the inspiring and breathtaking ride of Paul Revere." Photoplay Magazine durng 1924 described the film as "one of the greatest thrill pictures ever made...Mr. Hamilton is pushed into stardom and Miss Dempster does the best work of her carreer."

The periodical Picture Play Magazine during 1924 relflected upon D.W. Griffith's striving for historical accuracy in his images of the American Revolution and his visiting important locations and his searching for "every available historic spot" which may have been preserved, in the article Mr. Griffith's Next Production, "At this writing, Mr Griffith is doing interiors at his Mamoroneck studio...And a little later, when snow has fallen, he will set out to do scenes at Valley Forge".
During 1924, D.W Griffith also directed Carol Dempster and Neil Hamilton in the film “Isn’t Life Wonderful?” (nine reels).

It is not without interest that Tom Gunning, in his volume on D.W. Griffith and Biograph Film Company, chronicles that before his having entered filmmaking, Griffith had written an unproduced play entitled "War" that, staged within the context of the American Revolution, had also centered around the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
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Scott Lord Silent Film: Carol Dempster in The Girl Who Stayed Home (D.W. Griffith, 1919)

Directed by D.W.Griffith and photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Famous Players Lasky Corporation "The Girl Who Stayed at Home" (seven reels) showcased actress Carol Dempster. In their volume The films of D.W. Griffith, Edward Wagenkneckt and Anthony Slide describe the theater transpiring on screen, the theatrical element, by contrasting the loves scenes of each of the two couples; compared to the Seymour-Harron affair, the "Carol Dempster-Richard Barthelmess love affair is strangely tepid; it lacks the joyful emotion of true feeling."

D.W. Griffith and S.E.V. Taylor had adapted the photoplay from an original story Taylor had written.
D. W. Griffith

D.W. Griffith

Scott Lord Silent Film: Carol Dempster in Sally of the Sawdust (D.W. Griffith, 1925)

Edward Wagenkneckt, in his volume The Films of D.W. Griffith, points out that ten reel film "Sally of the Sawdust" (1925) ,photographed by Harry Fischback and Hal Sintzernich and starring W.C. FIelds and actress Carol Dempster , was made by D.W. Griffith at Paramount but , at Griffith's behest, released through United Artists. Wagerneckt notes that the film features several sight gags involving W.C. Fields that are worth watching.

That year D.W. Griffith directed both W.C. Fields and Carol Dempster in a second ten reel film entitled "That Royle Girl", which is presumed to be a Lost Silent Film, with no surviving copies existing. Iris Barry, in her volume D.W. Griffith, American Film Master, notes that W.C. Fields played only a minor comedy part in the film. Originally slated as "a small film" with sucenes involving a statue of Abraham Lincoln, a $ 100,000 cyclone was added to the film, putting it over budget.

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Scott Lord Silent Film: Carol Dempster in The White Rose (D.W. Griffith, 1923)

By then a producer for United Artists, after directing actresses Carol Dempster and Mae Marsh in “The White Rose” (twelve reels) in 1923, D. W. Griffith in 1924 directed the film “America” and “Isn’t Life Wonderful” during 1924.

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Scottt Lord Silent Film: Carol Dempster in Dream Street (D. W. Griffith, 1921)

"There is nothing of interest I can tell you about myself." A year later, Photoplay Magazine caught up with Carol Dempster and she purportedly used the exact same words, "There is nothing of interest I can tell you about myself.". Photoplay Magazine deigned her to be The Mystery Girl of the Movies. Photoplay journalist Dorothy Herzog quotes D.W. Griffith as having said that Dempster was cast in he film "Dream Street" (ten reels) for her dancing ability, "Anyone with the poise and grace to necome such a potentiality as a dancer undoubtedly had the ability to rise to similiar heights in an allied art if properly developed."

"Dream Street" was photographed by cameraman Henrik Sartov for D.W. Griffith, Inc and United Artists in 1921.

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D.W. Griffith

In his volume The Films of D.W. Griffith, author Edward Wagenkneckt discounts the lofty intentions of D.W. Griffith in an attempt to lower the director from his crepuscular inaccessible Pantheon, "His "higher" thoughts were often inseperable from the popular ladies' journals of the time. When he made homey philosophical observations, greta charm and loveliness often resulted; but but when he decided to tackle big subjects like like the principles of Good and Evil, he seemed sophmoric. Of course, Griffith's ideas were more sophisticated than the script for Dream Street suggests (his play The Treadmill shows that), but when he tried to reduce his already cliche themes to the audience's level, he somehow lost the poetry and naivete and kept only the didacticism."

Edward Wagerknect adresses Griffith's filmmaking technique in "Dream Street" by noting that Billy Bitzer would often light a set flatly whereas there were "pools of light and deep shadows" in "Dream Street", to which Wagerknect attributes it having been shot entirely in the studio.

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Scott Lord Silent Film: Carol Dempster in The Love Flower (D.W. Griffith, 1920)

In their volume The Films of D. W. Griffith, Edward Wagenkneckt and Anthony Slide summarize the theme of "The Love Flower" as being "the paradox of reprehensible deeds committed by "the fair hand of woman' for the sake of love". Of the cinematography, Wagenkneckt and Slide write, "The lyrical element so characteristic of Griffith is fortunately much better expressed photographically than in the purple prose of some of the captions. The many shots of tropical vegetation are richly atmospheric and the rope bridge is a novel, interesting and slightly terrifying property."
D.W. Griffith directed "The Love Flower" during 1920 from his own adaptation of a story by Ralph Stock, the cinematographers to the film having been G.W. Bitzer and PauH. Allen.
Writer Anthony Slide provides biographical entries on one hundread Silent Film stars without avoiding both ones that he met personally and more prominent choices in a section titled "Legends". About D. W. Griffith's star Carol Dempster, Slide writes "Carol Dempster's hysterical running around in 'The Love Flower' is nothing more than pure melodrama." Also starring in the film is actress Florence Short.
Director D.W. Griffith also filmed "The Idol Dancer" with actresses Clarine Seymore and Kate Bruce.

After having starred in the seven reel silent film “The Love Flower”, directed by D.W. Griffith in 1920, actress Carol Dempster went on to star in the 1921 film “Dream Street”, again directed by D. W. Griffith. Author Anthony Slide calls both films "impersonations" of Griffith's better leading ladies.

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