Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines, among them Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
During 1918, Mary Pickford starred in the five reel film "Amarilly of Clothesline Alley", directed by Marshall Neilan with a photoplay scripted by Frances Marion and Bellek Maniates. Actress Margaret Landis also appears in the film. Photoplay Magazine likened the the acting of Mary Pickford in the film to her work in Stella Maris in its being a "remarkable" character study. "All this is done in Mary Pickford's blithest vein, reminding us once more that she is the greatest of all screen actresses." The competition, Picture Play Magazine, afforded the view of a different angle. "This is Mary Pickford's latest, and it contrasts strongly with that highly dramatic subject, "Stella Maris". It is almost entirely in a humorous vein, though there are times when one catches a glimpse of pathos in the character of Amarilly. But there are more laughs than tears."
In a later photocaption, Photoplay Magazine again revealed that this was for Mary Pickford, recognizable commodity, the portrayal of a new character. (Mary Pickford is shown looking at the rushes with director Marshall Neilan, who evidently would have been joining the War to end all wars in Europe had an armistice not occurred.)
Silent FilmMary Pickford
Marshall Neilan during 1917 directed actress Mary Pickford with actresses Kathleen Griffith, Zazu Pitts, and Ann Schraeder in "The Little Princess" (five reels) with a photplay written by Frances Marion. The film was photographed by Charles Rosner and Walter Strandling.
The periodical Picture Play magazine during 1917 came in with a very straitforward announcement, "Mary Pickford, after a short rest following the completion of 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'is now hard at work in 'The Little Princess' under the direction of Marshall Neilan." Silent FilmMary Pickford
One technique used to present narrative by D.W. Griffith, although the principle thematic action was two interior scenes connected by cutting on action, was to introduce the film with an exterior panning shot as the establishing shot. The film is concluded with a similar exterior shot which pans in the opposite direction to imply the story had reached an irrevocable conclusion.
Written and directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company the film stars Gladys Egan, Mary Pickford, Florence Lawrence and Kate Bruce.
D.W.GriffithD.W. GriffithBiograph Film Company
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 FilmBiograph
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.
In addition to directing Mary Pickford in “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”, during 1917, Marshall Neilan directed Pickford in the film “The Little Princess Princess”. Both photplays were scripted by Frances Marion.
In his volume Eighty Years of CInema, author Peter Cowie describes the film "Poor Little Rich Girl" as "the fey beauty of Mary Pickford at its most beguiling." Directed by Maurice Tourneur from a photoplay written by Frances Marion, the film stars Mary Pickford with actresses Gladys Fairbanks, Madlaine Traverse and Maxine Eliot Hicks. Silent FilmSilent Film
Mary PickfordMary Pickford is listed as having co-scrpited the film "Daddy Long Legs" (seven reels) with Agnes C. Johnston. It was diected by Marshall Neilsen.
Mary Pickford
Directed by William Desmond Taylor and coscripted by Frances Marion with Rupert Hughs as an adaptation of his story "The Mobilization of Johanna", the film "Johanna Enlists" (five reels) was photographed by Charles Rosher, whose daughter Joan Marsh appears in the film. Silent Film Silent Film
"She was nice and she was sweet, say many to explain the phenomenon...The reason can only be found in by relating the star to the social and cultural background of the time...Only the American civilization, a civilization materially in advance of the rest of the world could have produced Mary Pickford. We must try to realize the impact of Mary Pickford's appaearance and acting upon the consciousness of the world's population as it existed around 1909."
It is certain that the beginnings of the star system had made Mary Pickford an attractive commodity by 1918 when we had reluctantly taken part in the continuance of an unexpected war- the quote may point to the historical context and extratextural discourse that is a dynamic of that star system. A starsystem that has been called "a culture of celebrity", the silent film era has kept some of its first impressions as long lasting, albeit some were fleeting, authors often making comparisions between fixed points in the firmament, especially when introducing the newest foreign arrival, in as much as an actress was now considered "Sweden's Mary Pickford", or when there was a common theme between Gish, Pickford and Mae Marsh. Although far from the earliest example of film criticism, the quote is from a volume titled The Film Answers Back, an historical appreciation of the cinema. Authored by E.W. + M.M. Robson, it was published in 1939. Oddly, the review of the films of the actress begins to address, not gendered spectatorship, but her femininity within the expectations drawn by a woman on the screen and how it related to being a Suffragete. Notwithstanding, it was that Mary Pickford by then was sought after and Parmount Press Books from 1917 describe her having sold Liberty Bonds as a result of a request from United States Secretary McAdoo, her wearing the insignia of an honarary colonel. The pressbooks announced, "Famous Artcraft Star Stops All Film Activities When Call Comes To Help Country and Flag by Selling Liberty Bonds".
Prior to the short 100% American, Mary Pickford released the full legnth feature film "Johanna Enlists", adapted by Frances Marion from the short story The Mobilizing of Johanna, published in 1917.
Returning to the year the film was made and to contrast the on screen images with the extratextural discourse of the off screen lives of actresses, Mary Pickford and Linda A. Griffith during 1918 were given back to back bylines in the periodical Film Fun. The article written by Mary Pickford was a look toward the future of filmmaking, and thereby necessarily lending an assessmeMnt of the time period and historical context, her praising the work of Cecil B. DeMille. In turn, Linda A Griffith followed in the same issue and neglected entirely the gendered spectatorship that would view the talented Mary Pickford. She rather discusses Mary Pickford's salary with the claim that her husband, D.W. Griffith, saw her as being underpaid. Griffith's wife subtitled part of her 1918 article with "Adequate Payment for Good Work". There is almost an objective correlative, or perhaps a suspension of disbelief, in our agreement to walk into the theater and enter fictional worlds that the director's wife acknowledges, neglecting those fictional scenarios, while bringing us a real life Mary Pickford, who in fact later returned to sell bonds for the Defence Department during 1953.
Silent FilmSilent Film
