Scott Lord Silent Film: Lillian and Dorothy Gish in Hearts of the World (D.W. Griffith 1918)

In "Hearts of the World" (twelve reels, 1918) D.W. Griffith during a scene in which soldiers are marching, used reversed direction cutting, which he had briefly used in "A Girl and Hard Trust (1912). Matching the screen direction when the camera cut had often preserved continuity in early silent cinema. The volume Motion Picture Directing, written in 1922 by Peter Milne, after having described D. W. Griffith's method of working without a script or continuity, then suprisingly adds that Griffith was not only interested with putting spectacle on the screen, but was attentive to the drama surrounding the characters, drama that might deepen or change the characters being developed, "He brought before the eye all the horrible realities of the battlefield, used them to dramatic prupose time and time again. And yet in the midst of all this spectacular action he never for once lost sight of the personal element of the story, this element represented on the battlefield by Robert Harron, who played the part of the young soldier."

Despite episodes of crosscutting, author William K. Everson suprisingly writes of there being "evidence" that a substantial amount of "Hearts of the World" was not only written but directed by Eric von Stroheim.

In her volume D.W. Griffith, American film master, Iris Barry, who seems to study Griffith's films by comparing one to another, disagrees with the idea of one Griffith masterpiece over shadowing the one that had come before, writing, "T'Hearts of the World' must be judged as a prpoaganda film and as such it is very effective; but otherwise it seems on the whole, disappointing. One looks in vain for the passionate momentum of its immediate predecessors....The film, however, was a personal triumph for Lillian Gish, as the distraught heroine, for her sister Dorothy in a comedy role and for Eric von Stroheim as a German officer."

After filming “Hearts of the World”, D.W. Griffith featured actress Lillian Gish in another drama set during World War I, “The Great Love” (1918). The film is lost with no copies surviving. Photographed by G.W. Bitzer, it was produced by Famous Players Lasky. Also starring actresses Gloria Hope and Rosemary Theby, the exact running time is listed by Edward Wagerknect as being unknown, between five and seven reels. The love interest of the film involves a soldier and a clergyman's daughter adapted from a story written by D.W. Griffith titled Women and The War.

There are also thought to be no surviving copies of the film "The Greatest Thing in Life", also directed during 1918 by Griffith, photographed by G.W. Bitzer and also starring Lillian Gish and Kate Bruce. Wagerknect and Slide credit portrait photographer Hendrik Sartov with shooting close-ups in the film. The original title of the story was "Cradle of Souls".

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Scott Lord Silent Film: The Lonedale Operator (Griffith, 1912)

In her autobiography, Lillian Gish discusses D.W. Griffith's cutting between camera distances in "The Lonedale Operator" (one reel). The photoplay was written by Mack Sennett and photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company durin 1912. Linda Arvidson, writing as Mrs. D. W. Griffith, in her autobiography entitled "When the Movies Were Young" recounts the importance of "The Lonedale Operator" to the career of actress Blanche Sweet, "Mr. Griffith, as of yet unwilling to grant that she had any soul or feeling in her work, was using her for 'girl' parts. But he changed his opinion with 'The Lonedale Operator'. That was the picture in which he first recognized ability in Miss Sweet." Arvidson later phrases it as "screen acting that could be recognized as a portrayal of human conduct". In another account contained in the volume, Arvidson chronicles D.W. Griffith having met with Blanche Sweet "on the road" with an offer to film two reelers in Calfornia neccesitated by the departure of Mary Pickford to the IMP Studios.

The account Lillian Gish gives of the "Lonedale Operator" in her autobiography The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me includes D.W. Griffith being preemptive of his film's editor, "he refined the devices for building suspense...To increase suspense and build up to the climax, Mr. Griffith again employed crosscutting, switching from the girl to the sweetheart in evershortening intervals."
Arthur Knight, in his volume The Liveliest Art, describes Griffith's use of the insert shot in "The Lonedale Operator" when Blanche Sweet uses a wrench that is thought to be a pistol. "It was the close up that let us in on the secret, when the director was ready to reveal it. Griffith discovered that one basic function of the close up was to emphasize the inanimate, to make tings a dynamic part of the world through which the actors move. But the close up does more than emphasize what is in a scene, it elimantes everything else."

Magazine advertisements paid for by the Biograph Film Company described "The Londale Operator", reading: "With this Biograph subject is presented without a doubt the most thrilling melodramatic story ever produced." Silent Film

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Scott Lord Silent Film: Lillian Gish in The Greatest Question (D.W. Griffith, 1919)

In her autobiography The Movies, Mr.Griffith and Me, actress Lillian Gish writes that D.W. Griffith had "hastily filmed" "The Greatest Question", implying that it was the first in a three film assignment from his new studio, First National. Gish notes that the films, which included "The Idol Dancer" and 'The Love Flower", were not successful. "The cost of picture making had risen so high that even without other debts he was always courting complete ruin."

With D.W. Griffith at First National was cinematographer G.W. Bitzer

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Scott Lord Silent Film: The Girl and Her Trust (Griffith, Biograph, 1912)

DUring 1912 actress Dorothy Bernard starred in for director D.W. Griffith at Biograph in the one reel "The Girl and Her Trust". The cinematographer to the film was G. W. Bitzer.

In regard to the grammar of film, shot structure prefiguring, that is to say before, considerations of narrative or mise-en-scene, Kemp R. Niver, in his volume D.W. Griffith, the Biograph films in perspective, writes, "In the space of five years, Griffith progressed from directing 'Adventures of Dollie' with 13 scenes and 12 camera positions to 'The Girl and Her Trust' with 130 scenes photographed from 35 camera positions and the suprising thing is the projection time of both films is about the same." This sentiment is reiterated by Robert M. Henderson in his volume D.W. Griffith, the years at Biograph. "This film is a remake of 'The Lonedale Operator' and a comparison quickly shows how far Griffith's editorial and camera techniques have progressed...Additional shots were made from an automobile riding parallel to the handcar and pursuing the train. These last came to be known as 'tracking' shots."

Dorothy Bernard went on to film for the Fox Film Corporation, beginning with the 1915 film "The Song of Hate" (seven reels) directed by J. Gordon Edwards.The film is presumed to be a Lost Silent Filmwith no surviving copies.

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Scott Lord Silent Film: A Romance of Happy Valley (D. W. Griffith, 1919)

During 1919, D.W. Griffith directed Lillian Gish and Kate Bruce in the six reel film "A Romance of Happy Valley", photographed by G.W. Bitzer. Actress Carol Dempster also appears in the film.

One specific use of technique Griffith uses in the film to depict narrative is a cut back and forth within the scene to an inserted close shot to reveal the character’s thoughts of another person. Lillian Gish is seen in close up during the flashback soliloquy insert.


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Scott Lord Silent Film: Sunbeam (Griffith, Biograph, 1913)

Directed by D.W.Griffith and photograped by G.W. Bitzer in 1912, "Sunbeam" featured the talents of actress Kate Bruce.

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Scott Lord Silent Film: A Strange Meeting (D.W. Griffith, Biograph, 1909)

"A Strange Meeting", directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company during 1909 starred actress Stephanie Longfellow, Kate Bruce, Mary Pickford and Lottie Pickford. The cameraman to "A Strange Meeting" was G.W. Bitzer. Silent Film D.W. Griffith Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: Mary Pickford in The Old Actor (D.W.Griffith, Biograph 1912)

"The Old Actor" (two reels) was directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company during 1912and was photographed by G.W.Bitzer with a scenario by George Hennessy. The film stars Mary Pickford with Kate Bruce. Silent Film Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Home, Sweet Home (D.W. Griffith, 1914)

Now directing for the Reliance Motion Picture and Majestic Motion Picture Corporation, D.W. Griffith had expanded his running length to six reels by 1914 with the film "Home Sweet Home", starring actresses Lillian Gish, Doroth Gish and Mae Marsh.

During 1914 Mutual Film released the seven reel film "The Escape", directed by D.W. Griffith and photographed by G.W. Bitzer. Starring in the film were Edna Foster, Mae Marsh and Blanche Sweet. The film is considered a Lost Silent Film. Silent Film D.W. Griffith

Scott Lord Silent Film: Lonely Villa (D.W. Griffith, Biograph, 1909)

In her autobiography, Lillian Gish discusses D.W. Griffith's use of shot length in "The Lonely Villa". Linda Arvidson wife of D.W. Griffith, in her autobiography "When the Movies Were Young" claims that "The Lonely Villa" was the second film in which Mary Pickford had appeared, her having made her motion picture debut in the earlier "The Violin Maker of Cerona". Mack Sennett had gleaned the plot to "The Lonely Villa" from a newspaper.

Author Stanley J. Solomon, in his volume The Film Idea sees "The Lonely Villa" as only the beginning of the development of new film techniques by D.W. Griffith, almost intimating that there would be a synthesis of Griffith as an autuer and new developments in filmmaking would combine. "Although Griffith was working now with materials that could not be effectively duplicated onstage, 'The Lonely Villa' was not really totally cinematic. Griffith's understanding of spatial relationships was still limited; to get a person from one point to another, Griffith shows him moving there in stages." The passage is particularly refreshing because through it Solomon imparts to us where the title of his volume The Film Idea comes from and how it is his point of departure. He writes,"But Griffith learned quickly that a meaningful narrative must be embedded in a total film idea. Otherwise, when the surface movement is the whole film idea, the camera functions simply as a recording device and most of its expressive possiblilities are relegated to either unimportance or mere technique."

In her volume her volume D.W. Griffith, American film master, Iris Barry sees the film technique used by D. W. Griffith developed quickly during a short period of time, "In The Lonely Villa many scenes begin quietly with the entrance of the characters into the set, significant action follows this slow-paced start only belatedly. In The Lonedale Operator there is no leisurely entrance, the characters are already in mid-action when each shot begins and there is no waste footage- no deliberation in getting on with the story when haste and excitement are what is needed." Barry adds, "At no time did he use a scenario. But there was considerable protest when, quite early in his directorial career, he insisted on retaking unsatisfactory scenes and succedded in gaining permission to do so in The Lonely Villa. Bitzer and others were aghast at his extravagence with film."

Film historian Arthur Knight explains in his volume The Liveliest Art, "the legnth of time a shot remained on the screen could create very real psychological tensions in the audience: the shorter the shot, the greater the excitement. As early as 1909, he introduced this principle to build a climax of suspense in 'The Lonely Villa'....By cutting back and forth, from one to the other, making each shot shorter than the last, Griffith heightened the excitement of the situation."
Author Tom Gunning, in his volume D.W. Griffith and the Origins of Ammerican Narrative Film points out that D.W. Griffith had brought another innovation to film while at the Biograph Film Company, "The Lonely Villa" was comprised of a total of 52 seperate shots, compared to European film d'art that may have contained under 10. "The suspenseful parallel editing of 'The Lonely Villa' yeilded fifty-two shots from the twelve camera set-ups". The film was photographed by G.W. Bitzer

Adventures of Dollie: D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company D. W. Griffith Biograph Film Company Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: True Heart Susie (D. W. Griffith, 1919)

Directed D W Griffith during 1919 for ArtcraftPictures Corporation, "True Heart Susie" (six reels) was photographed by G.W. Bitzer and paired Lillian Gish in the titular role with Robert Harron with actresses Kate Bruce and Carol Dempster. In their volume The Films of D.W. Griffith, authors Edward Wagenkneckt and Anthony Slide, divide Griffith's films into two genres, much like author Vachel Lindsay would - the epic and the lyric, the latter being "less ambitious, more intimate" the "stylistic directness" of "True Heart Susie" falling into the latter.

Author Anthony Slide perpiscaciously introduces D. W. Griffith actress Seymour by noting that both Seymour and actor Robert Harron, who had appeared together in both "The Girl Who Stayed Home" and "True Heart Susie" during 1919, had died early during 1920.

After directing “True Heart Susie” in 1919, to end the year, D.W. Griffith directed Lillian Gish in the film “The Greatest Question” (six reels), photographed by G.W. Bitzer.

The films "A Romance of Happy Valley", starring Lillian Gish, and "Scarlet Days", both directed by D.W. Griffith, were thought to be lost and donated to the Modern Museum of Art by Russia when rediscovered. Silent Film D.W. Griffith

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. Bitzerfor the Biograph Film Company in 1912.

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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 Painted Lady (Griffith, Biograph, 1912)

Directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company during 1912, "The Painted Lady" starred actresses Blanche Sweet, Madge Kirby and Kate Bruce. The cinematographer to the film was G.W. Bitzer.

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Scott Lord Silent Film: An Unseen Enemy (D.W. Griffith, Biograph 1912)

The year 1912 was to mark the first film with Lillian and Dorothy Gish, “An Unseen Enemy” (one reel), directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company. Lillian and Dorothy Gish appeared in a dozen two reel films together during 1912 and several more during 1913. In The Man Who Invented Hollywood, the autobiography of D.W. Griffith, published in 1972, Griffith outlines his arriving at the Biograph Film Company and adding actors, including Mary Pickford,to his ensemble. Griffith recalls, "One day in the early summer of 1909, I was going through the dingy, old hall of the Biograph studio when suddenly the gloom seemed to disappear. The change was caused by the prescence of two young girls sitting side by side and on a hall bench...They were Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. Of the two, Lillian shone with an extremely fragile, ethereal beauty...As for Dorothy, she was lovely too, but in another manner- pert, saucy, the old mischief popping out of her." Actress Lilian Gish, in her autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me writes,"Mr. Griffith had rehearsed 'The Unseen Enemy' with other actresses, but after meeting us, he decided we would be suitable for the leads and changed the plot just enough to fit us."

The cinematographer to "An Unseen Enemy" was G.W. Bitzer.
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Lillian and Dorothy Gish Biograph Film Company The Adventures of Dolly: D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Lesser Evil (D.W. Griffith, Biograph, 1912)

The Lesser of Evil starred actresses Blanche Sweet and Mae Marsh and was directed for Biograph by D.W. Griffithduring 1912. The film was photographed by G.W. Bitzer. Silent Film Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: Corner in Wheat (D.W. Griffith, Biograph, 1909)

"The Miller's Daughter", "The Song of the Shirt"(1908) and "A Corner of Wheat", directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company are early films that depicted the individual within a social context. Kay Sloan, in her copyrighted paper "Silent Cinema as Social Criticism, Front Page Movies", writes, "The comedies, melodramas and occaisional westerns about labor conflict, tenement poverty or political corruption reveal through fantasy an America torn with ideological conflict." Pointing out that film companies looked to the contemporay "muckrackers" for story lines, she includes the films "The Suffragete's Revenge" and "The Reform Candidate" as being timely depictions of audience involved in reception, extending that audience to the readers of Upton Sinclair, but later attributes the decline of social drama to the development of the feature film after World War I. She adds to these the film "The Govenor's Boss" which took its storyline from Tammany Hall while modernizing its theme and message, a technique often attempted by D.W. Griffith. Studio advertisements for "A Corner in Wheat" hailed "The Story of Wheat in Symbolism", writing, "This is possibly the most stirring and artistic subject ever produced by Biograph. It starts with an animated portrayal of Millet's masterpiece 'The Sowers'." "A Corner of Wheat" had been adapted by D.W. Griffith and Frank Woods from the novel "The Pit" and the short story "A Deal in Wheat", both written in 1903 by the sometimes controversial author Frank Norris.

Lillian Gish, in her autobiography The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me, writes, "He also tackled social problems. Mr. Griffith was deeply sympathetic to the sufferings of the poor, to the injustices inflicted upon them and before he marked his first anniversary as a director he had used social problems as the theme of two fine pictures, 'The Song of the Shirt' and 'A Corner in Wheat".

The steady, weekly competition from other studios during 1909 was typical for the release of the Biograph film "In a Corner of Wheat"; from Selig there was "Pine Ridge Fued", from Lubin there was "Romance of the Rocky Coast", from Essany there was "The Heart of a Cowboy", from Vitagraph there was "Two Christmas-Tides" and from Edison Films there was "Fishing Industry in Gloucester, Mass.". The following week Biograph released "A Trap for Santa Claus" while Vitagraph vied for its audience with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Selig with "A Modern Dr. Jeckyll". As the competition was weekly, the month before Kalem had released "Dora", a dramatization of the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Vitagraph had offered "Lancelot and Elaine". Silent Film D.W. Griffith Biograph Film Company

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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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 Giffith'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 The 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 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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