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DW GRIFFITH JUDITH OF BETHULIA 1913
Judith of Bethulia 1913
Cast: Blanche Sweet -Judith, Henry B. Walthall -Holofernes's Eunuch Attendant, Robert Harron -Nathan, Mae Marsh -Naomi, Lillian Gish -A Young Mother, Lionel Barrymore, Antonio Moreno, Kate Bruce -Judith's maid, Gertrude Bambrick, Alfred Paget, Gertrude Robinson, Edward Dillon, Harry Carey -A Traitor, Dorothy Gish -The crippled beggar, Charles Hill Mailes, G. Jiguel Lanoe -Holofernes's Eunuch Attendant, William Christy Cabanne, Thomas Jefferson. Frank E. Woods -Screenwriter Billy Bitzer -Cinematographer, James Smith -Editor William Christy Cabanne - First Assistant Director
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(400 DVD TITLES )
DW GRIFFITH at BIOGRAPH COMPANY by IRA H.GALLEN Conservative Biograph Studios refused to allow D. W.Griffith to make any film longer than two reels. Ignoring this edict, Griffithallowed his Biblical epic Judith of Bethulia to run four reels, which led to his exit from the studio. Judith of Bethulia tells the story, set in theancient world, of the young widow Judith (Blanche Sweet) offering herself toAssyrian leader Holofernes (Henry B. Walthall) in order to kill the man andavenge the subjugation and slaughter of her countrymen.
With that material towork with, and shooting of a 12-square-mile set that allowed him to present the battle scenes, Judith of Bethulia was as big a picture as Griffith was associated with. Griffith did feel compelled to devise a more traditional movie story, involving the rescue of Mae Marsh by Robert Harron, and one can spot such Griffith stalwarts as Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, and Harry Carey in small parts.
Notes: Griffith's power of concentration had become so great that he could watch a rehearsal, read notes given to him and converse with his staff at the same time. At times, he could look at you without really seeing you. Construction began in Los Angeles' CHATSWORTH PARK on the sets of JUDITH OF BETHULIA. Griffith designs and builds a street of Bethulia, a replica of the city walls and a tract of land was filled with pitched tents for the campsite of the HOLOFERNS.
A makeup man helped the fifty or so extras into their wigs, beards and costumes with an assist by whatever Griffith regulars weren't acting that day. Each player was advised to remember his or her costume continuity. J.C. "LITTLE" EPPING, the new company accountant, had the distasteful job of totaling everything to do with daily expenditures and explaining them to the Biograph front office. Mr. Epping is a small, bespectacled man with a perpetually worried expression. In later years, he was a financial advisor for Griffith.
After the exterior scenes were completed, the shooting of the interiors was begun back in New York, bringing to a face-to-face argument the building animosity between Griffith and the front office. Griffith's vision of a four-reeler was complicated and the production costs on JUDITH OF BETHULIA would rise to the unheard of figure of $36,000.00 Even before the rumors began, his stock company players knew of the deepseated unhappiness Griffith was feeling. None of them felt that they were a part of Biograph, more a part of the Griffith influence and loyalty.
When word was to become generally known of his impending departure, they all awaited being asked to join him. Even Henry B. Walthall, who had come back to work on JUDITH. The front office was not just angry and frantic over the cost of the film. Their fury was aggravated by the picture itself; its length and the depiction of the barbaric HOLOFERNS, not to mention the gory beheading scenes. Rumor had it that Adolph Zukor had tendered an offer to Griffith that was for $50,000.00 per year, and Griffith had turned it down.
The film industry was not yet a decade old and little had been done to make the products easily accessible to exhibitors. The few film producers who existed at that time simply could not keep up with the demand. While the creative people were still groping to fashion a technique for this crude form of communication, business was stepping in and taking ruthless control. In the race to keep their nickelodeons filled, owners now had to outbid one another for the newest films.
While David Wark Griffith is finally told that another director will be brought in to make their longer productions, Biograph informs him that from now on, he would make only films of one or two reels. The decision to leave is therefore assured....
Length: 2915
Rating: 4.90 (16 ratings)
Tags: dwgriffith judithofbethulia blanchesweet biograph biographfilms
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Kittens
Kittens.
Length: 31
Rating: 4.20 (12 ratings)
Tags: Kittens.
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pool sharp!
betty hitting billiard balls as fast as she can
Length: 46
Rating: 0.00 (0 ratings)
Tags: pool
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DW GRIFFITH MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY 1912 LILLIAN GISH
The Musketeers of Pig Alley 1912 cast: Robert Harron, Lillian Gish, Walter Miller, Alfred Paget, Jack Pickford, Elmer Booth , Lionel Barrymore, Dorothy Gish, Harry Carey ,Donald Crisp ,D.W. Griffith - Screenwriter Anita Loos - Screenwriter, Billy Bitzer - Camera
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(400 DVD TITLES)
DW GRIFFITH at BIOGRAPH by IRA H. GALLEN
Another Griffith landmark and what could reasonably be considered the first gangster film ever made. Clearly this exercise in realism is the predecessor of the crime movies of later generations, as well as one of Griffith's most profoundly moving shorts.BLANCHE SWEET was one of those in whom Griffith couldn't see "soul" at first glance. Frank Powell, who would go from the ranks of Griffith actor to the second Biograph director after McCutcheon leaves, makes extensive use of Blanche Sweet, but Griffith would use her occasionally. Upon Mary Pickford's exit, Griffith panics for a replacement leading lady and after trying Blanche, she soon develops into the stature of the latest GRIFFITH GIRL. Blanche Sweet takes over the lead and likewise begins to develop a weight problem arising from her affection for snacks.
Two young girls come to Biograph's studio looking for their friend Gladys Smith (also known as Mary Pickford!). Their names are LILLIAN GISH and her sister, DOROTHY GISH. Griffith soon started developing these two girls into members of his stock company. Their first film was THE UNSEEN ENEMY, with THE MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY and THE BATTLE OF ELDERBUSH GULCH to follow.
DW GRIFFITH by IRA H. GALLEN
It was an era that laid the foundation upon which was built the Golden Age of Cinema; an era whose development and advancement of the moving picture as an art form was inextricably tied to one man's creative and innovative genius.
The man's name is D. W. Griffith--David Wark Griffith--and his story is that of the period between 1908 and 1913 when he created a method of storytelling in purely cinematic terms that was to raise the moving picture permanently out of the category of a scientific curiosity.
This he did by the use of techniques that broke precedents and created a vocabulary of visual devices for the emergence of film as art as well as by the development of a stock company of actors and actresses with him at the American Mutuscope and Biograph Company in New York, who would later emerge as some of the greatest individual talents during the glory years of the Golden Age
David Wark Griffith's film creation, THE BIRTH OF A NATION, was to make history and achieve immortality when released in 1914. With THE BIRTH, Griffith was to bring together the words "art" and "film" as a permanent equation for the first time. Only five years after his initial explorations into the then crude world of moving picture images, his epic, THE BIRTH, was both an historical creation as well as a history making event in its own right.
The American artist, whom the world would come to recognize simply as D.W. Griffith, became as much a household name as any of his creations on film, and for him the status of "genius" was to be given; a father figure in the birth of film art. To describe "genius" in finite terms as it applies to the methods of D.W. Griffith is to seek after that which is beyond precise definition. He felt degraded by motion pictures and therefore sought to raise the level of the medium by breaking all of the conventions and existing practices of filmmaking as they then existed.
Despite the overwhelming importance of D.W. Griffith to the development of cinema art; his name, his work and the work of those who helped him create his moving pictures have become a generally unknown commodity amongst the American public.
Length: 1020
Rating: 4.60 (18 ratings)
Tags: dw griffith dwgriffith silentmovies lilliangish biographfilms biograph silentfilms
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DW GRIFFITH THE MASSACURE 1913
The Massacre 1912 Cast: Charles Hill Mailes, Robert Harron, Blanche Sweet, Charles H. West, Spottiswood Aitken Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore Billy Bitzer -Cinematographer
Summary: An exciting western adventure story and drama in one. The orphaned daughter (Blanche Sweet) of a farmer is raised by a step-father who subsequently seeks to marry her. She marries another man instead, and goes west with a wagon train with the man she really loves (Charles H. West) and their infant daughter. The wagon train is attacked by Indians and the family is separated -- after the cavalry has routed the Indians, the father searches for his wife and daughter and finds them alive, beneath the bodies of the homesteaders who were protecting them.
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(400 DVD TITLES )
DW GRIFFITH AT BIOGRAPH BY IRA H. GALLEN
What soon ends Griffith's association with the Biograph Company will be the events surrounding the production of three films: THE BATTLE OF ELDERBUSH GULCH, THE MOTHERING HEART and JUDITH OF BETHULIA. All three are being made at the same time, each one was different and highly involved in scope and production value. They're made with the same cunning he used in his other battles with the front office.
The question on the audiences lips was now reaching across all class boundaries; the D.W. Griffith method riveted them in their seats or had them sitting up on the edge of the seats, awaiting the outcome. Moving picture audiences were now coming to feel as well as see the stories on the nickelodeon or movie parlor screens in front of them. Griffith's acting company would soon be operating in such a fashion as to be completely independent of any one actress or actor. Each category of character was staffed in depth by Griffith.
He had the practice of alternating casts which kept any one player from becoming too important. This kept them from knowing their importance with the public for a period of better than three years. In this fashion, salaries were kept quite low.
Moving pictures were still produced in a highly improvised manner. Griffith would never be found using a shooting script of any sort which outlined the action. The synopsis was carried in his head. If one scenic background that was called for in the story was unavailable, he changed the background and altered the story to fit. Production problems as well as the continuity of the story that was being shot were also kept in Griffith's head.
What makes it all work was that those who stayed on to learn and work with Griffith soon became a permanent part of his stock company and assisted him in his decisions as well as in carrying out his orders. Whenever an actor or actress was not actually appearing in a story, they might be seen in the background, working on a Griffith errand or carrying a prop.
Length: 1798
Rating: 4.70 (6 ratings)
Tags: dwgriffith griffith biographfilms western
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SILENT LADIES - LOUISE BROOKS, GISH, MARY PICKFORD,
A slideshow dedication to some of my favorite ladies: the vamps, flapper, delicate, swooning heroine and silent innocents. Mary Miles Minter, Norma Talmadge, Betty Compson, Janet Gaynor, Mary Philbin, Blanche Sweet, etc.
Length: 598
Rating: 4.80 (74 ratings)
Tags: Corinne Griffith Dolores Costello Louise Brooks Lillian Gish Clara Bow Mary Pickford Gloria Swanson Colleen Moore
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DW GRIFFITH A CORNER IN WHEAT 1909
A Corner in the Wheat 1909 Cast: Owen Moore ,George Nichols ,Charles Hill Mailes ,Jeanie Macpherson, Blanche Sweet, Frank Powell Mack Sennett Billy Quirk Henry Walthall Kate Bruce William J. Butler Linda Arvidson, James Kirkwood, Arthur V. Johnson, Edward Dillon, Grace Henderson, Frank Evans, D.W. Griffith - Screenwriter, Frank E. Woods - Screenwriter, Billy Bitzer - Cinematographer
This is the first film in which Griffith attempts social commentary. The scenario parallels the problems of a poor farmer and the dealings of an ill-fated "wheat king." Based on the novel "The Pit" by FRANK NORRIS
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(400 DVD TITLES)
DW GRIFFITH AT BIOGRAPH COMPANY BY IRA H. GALLEN New York City - 1908 - While David Wark Griffith was looking for work on the theatre circuit, he meets Max Davidson, an actor friend with whom he had worked years before in the Louisville Stock Company. At Davidson's suggestion, D.W. Griffith accompanies him to a nickelodeon movie parlor in lower Manhattan, where Griffith encounters moving pictures for the first time.
Afterwards, it becomes apparent that Davidson's reasoning was simply to show Griffith where he could earn some extra money until some work on the legitimate stage could be secured. Davidson himself had already begun accepting acting jobs in moving pictures and stressed to Griffith that the standard rate of pay was five dollars a day with the added incentive of a fifteen dollar fee if you could sell them a scenario. To David Wark Griffith, with the Southern heritage and scholarly attitudes, he couldn't see himself condescending to the level of moving picture acting.
An additional consideration was that legitimate actors could be placed on a "blacklist" by appearing in moving pictures, a policy implemented by some Broadway producers, such as David Belasco, who held to the opinion that the moving pictures were a degradation of legitimate theatre. Where moving pictures once shared the bill on the vaudeville stage; upper class patrons who had once accepted the form as entertainment now were of a scornful opinion and left moving pictures for the lower classes to derive whatever enjoyment they could find from the medium.
Griffith and his wife, Linda, decide to try it out with Griffith beginning first. He used the stage name of Lawrence Griffith, preferring to leave his real name until he could associate it with some-thing more dignified, and attempts to sell a script to the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.
Length: 855
Rating: 4.60 (10 ratings)
Tags: GRIFFITH BIOGRAPHFILMS DWGRIFFITH GRIFFITHFILMS
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