88% (2) Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages 197 min, Passed, [Drama, History] [D.W. Griffith] [24 Feb 1918]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, Rotten Tomatoes: 97%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: F.A. Turner, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Robert Harron
Writer: D.W. Griffith (scenario), Anita Loos (titles)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: N/A Country: USA
Plot: Intolerance and its terrible effects are examined in four historical eras. In ancient Babylon, a mountain girl is caught up in the religious rivalry that leads to the city's downfall. In Judea, the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ. In 1572 Paris, unaware of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, two young Huguenots prepare for marriage. Finally, in modern America, social reformers destroy the lives of a young woman and her beloved.
Rotten Tomatoes: Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann). Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
76% (2) True Heart Susie 87 min, [Comedy, Drama, Romance] [D.W. Griffith] [01 Jun 1919]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, Rotten Tomatoes: 80%, External Reviews
Actors: Lillian Gish, Loyola O'Connor, Robert Harron, Wilbur Higby
Writer: Marian Fremont (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Susie, a plain young country girl, secretly loves a neighbor boy, William. She believes in him and sacrifices much of her own happiness to promote his own ambitions, all without his knowledge. Eventually he rises to a position of success and sophistication, and Susie realizes that she has through her own efforts raised him to a level where he is inaccessible to her.
Rotten Tomatoes: True Heart Susie is one of D.W. Griffith's "pastoral" films, wherein plot takes second place to characterization and romance. Lillian Gish plays Susie May Trueheart, who so loves local boy William Jenkins (Robert Harron) that she secretly finances his education. Returning to his home town as a minister, Jenkins never catches on that Susie is crazy for him. While Our Heroine pines away, Jenkins marries The Wrong Woman, young temptress Betty Hopkins (Clarine Seymour). Betty begins indulging in affairs with other men, but Susie loyally keeps this information from the reverend Jenkins. Even when Betty dies of pneumonia, Susie refuses to reveal all she's done on Jenkins' behalf. Finally, Susie's Aunt (Kate Bruce) can stand no more: she tells Jenkins the whole story, whereupon he takes Susie in his arms and pledges eternal devotion. In the hands of a lesser director, True Heart Susie might have been impossibly maudlin (and unbelievable; after all, can anyone be as much of a blockhead as Reverend Jenkins seems to be?) As it stands, the film's dramatic and heart-tugging value has not diminished, not even after the passage of nearly eighty years.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
67% (1) Hoodoo Ann 65 min, [Comedy, Drama, Romance] [Lloyd Ingraham] [26 Mar 1916]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Actors: Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Wilbur Higby, William H. Brown
Writer: D.W. Griffith
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A little orphan girl believes that her life is falling apart. It seems that everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong. However, certain things happen that begin to make her suspect that maybe she has been cursed by a doll, or is it really a doll?
Rotten Tomatoes: Though officially directed by Lloyd Ingraham, the delightful Hoodoo Ann was for all intents and purposes a D.W. Griffith film. Griffith not only served as producer, but also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym "Granville Warwick." Mae Marsh plays the title character, an orphan girl who is convinced she is a jinx. An old black maidservant tells Ann that she will continue to be a "hoodoo" until the girl finds herself a husband. Ann's subsequent romance with young Jimmie Vance (Robert Harron) seems to lift her self-imposed curse, though things look bleak for a while when our heroine apparently shoots and kills the grumpy old man next door! (She doesn't, of course). Beyond the charming performance by its leading lady, Hoodoo Ann was highlighted by a hilarious sequence at a small-town movie house, where hero and heroine are thrilled by the exploits of a steely-eyed cowboy star, played in mock William S. Hart fashion by Carl Stockdale.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
66% (1) Hearts of the World 117 min, TV-PG, [Drama, War] [D.W. Griffith] [01 Jun 1918]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Adolph Lestina, Dorothy Gish, Josephine Crowell, Lillian Gish, Robert Harron
Writer: D.W. Griffith (English translation), D.W. Griffith (scenario)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered. The German army invades and occupies village, bringing both destruction and torture. The young people of the village resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake the town.
Rotten Tomatoes: Much of this WWI film is devoted to Lillian Gish's family, rent asunder by the war. The early scenes are stolen by Dorothy Gish as "The Little Disturber," a mademoiselle of questionable morals who wreaks comic havoc with the allied troops. The Germans are depicted as little more than animals.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
54% (1) The Bad Boy N/A, [Crime, Drama] [Chester Withey] [18 Feb 1917]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 54%, External Reviews
Actors: Josephine Crowell, Mildred Harris, Richard Cummings, Robert Harron
Writer: Chester Withey, Frank E. Woods
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Jim is the leader of the "Slouchy Seven," a gang of small town boys. He takes the gang for a swim in the reservoir, and is reported to his father, who, as a punishment, locks him in his room. Jim, however, escapes and goes to the assistance of Clarence, a "nice" boy, who is vainly trying to secure an apple for his sweetheart, Mary. Mary is won by the prowess of Jim, but he is indifferent to girls. Clarence and Mary go for a walk and Tom, the blacksmith's boy, pushes Clarence aside and takes his place beside Mary. Jim goes to find the gang at the railroad station he meets a girl, who asks him the direction to Mr. Morton's, who, she says, is her uncle. Jim offers to take her bags and show her the house. The boys see him and have fun at his expense. He leaves the girl, whose name is Ruth, at the gate and goes to meet the gang. They have lost a member who moved away, and initiate Clarence, who proves to be a good sport. Unaware of the interest he has aroused in Mary's heart, Jim fights Tom, when he again interferes with Clarence and Mary, and is accused by Ruth of being "stuck" on Mary. This he stoutly denies. He calls on Ruth and her uncle tells her to dismiss him, that he is a bad boy. Jim then joins the gang in a prank on the schoolmaster, and as a punishment his father orders him to chop a pile of wood. Jim is rebellious and, taking his dog, leaves the house. He meets Mary and tells her he is going to the city. His dog deserts him and he falls in with a band of tramps. His mother places an ad in a local paper asking him to come home and Mary takes care of his dog. Later he comes back and is induced by the tramps to assist in robbing the bank, of which his father is vice-president. He dresses up and goes to secure the combination. Mary is impressed by his prosperous appearance, and when he hears his mother talking he almost gives up the idea of aiding the tramps, but his father's gruff remarks determine him to keep on. On going back to the tramps he sees his mother's ad in an old newspaper and refuses to help the hobos, but they take the paper with the combination away from him and bind him in a freight car. He escapes and hurries back to the town and tells the gang. They go to the bank, but are not in time to prevent the robbery, and the tramps escape with the loot. The loss ruins the bank, and although Jim is hailed as a hero his conscience troubles him. Finally he tells his father and is forgiven. The money is discovered in a woodpile, and the next day Jim carries Mary's books to school.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]