From Amazon.com
The most fertile period of D.W. Griffith's early career is generously preserved in this special edition of
Biograph Shorts. A satisfied actor in early silent films, Griffith was hesitant when the American Biograph company offered him a director's job in 1908, but his first film, "The Adventures of Dollie" (reconstructed here from a Library of Congress paper print), gave Griffith the filmmaking fever, and from 1908 to 1913 he averaged two or three shorts
per week, of which these 23 represent a comprehensive sampling. Obscurities mingle with masterpieces on two DVDs; highlights include 1909's "A Corner in Wheat" (which established Griffith's mastery of social realism); "The Musketeers of Pig Alley," a pioneering gangster film shot on authentic New York locations; and "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch," a dynamic early Western.
Although many of these films appear on another compilation (D.W. Griffith: Years of Discovery), important exceptions include 1911's "Enoch Arden" (a prestigious adaptation of Tennyson's poem); "The Usurer," one of Griffith's best films from 1910; "The Last Drop of Water," a grand-scale Western made during Griffith's first trip to California (and an indication of grander films to come); and "His Trust," the first of a two-part serial featuring Griffith's then-common use of blackfaced actors as "noble Negroes." Most important (in addition to early appearances by Lillian Gish, Lionel Barrymore, and other silent stars) is the arc of progress that these films represent. In Griffith's capable hands, we witness "flickers" in their most rapid stage of development, incorporating new techniques (parallel action and cross-cutting, changing camera angles within a scene, dramatic close-ups) from a tireless innovator who would soon rise to the challenge of epic, feature-length productions. --Jeff Shannon
DVD Menu
- Side #1 -- Volume 1
- Play All Films
- Select a Film
- Those Awful Hats
- The Sealed Room
- Corner in Wheat
- The Unchanging Sea
- His Trust
- The New York Hat
- An Unseen Enemy
- The Mothering Heart
- Bonus Films
- The Adventures of Dollie
- The Usurer
- Enoch Arden
- The Miser's Heart
- Side #2 -- Volume 2
- Play All Films
- Select a Film
- The Musketeers of Pig Alley
- The Burglar's Dilemma
- The Sunbeam
- The Painted Lady
- One Is Business, the Other Crime
- Death's Marathon
- The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
- Bonus Film
- The Last Drop of Water
- Friends
- The Lesser Evil
- The Massacre
