Short films like this one aren't stories nor are they paintings. They are documented living, tracing the movements of characters created by the 34 year old D.W. Griffith. Moving images are meant to be a progression from still life paintings. Hogarth could easily be regarded as the pre-cursor to black and white anecdotal short films, but his emphasis was on diversity. Griffith on the other hand is averse to diversity. When he isn't discrediting diversity, he is documenting life at the turn of the century. It is like a window to a particular community in the past that does not tell a story. It is boring, flat, monotone - a bit like day to day living.
2 Reviews
Perhaps this picture is all the more convincing because it is true to life
deickemeyer23 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A Biograph picture which opens with a love complication that threatens to make a number of people permanently unhappy. The housemaid loves the young author, the young author loves the daughter of his landlady and the chore man loves the housemaid. From this circular bunch of trouble the gods are expected to grind something that shall satisfy them all. The star part is played by the housemaid, and her love and sacrifice are much the tenderest and most convincing features of the picture. It is none the less effective that her passion is hopeless. Her secret presentation of money is well done and her plea to the editor regarding the rejected manuscript was effective. It is not the first instance that the love and sacrifice of a woman have brought success to a man. Perhaps this picture is all the more convincing because it is true to life. The acting of the young author is perhaps quite as good in a way, but it lacks the decision which characterizes the young woman's work, and for that reason is, in a degree at least, much less satisfactory. That the housemaid should finally accept the former chore boy is inevitable, and in that the mills of the gods perform their grinding with precision. The other characters are merely accessories and fill the otherwise blank spaces. The photography of this film is quite up to the standard of the Biograph studio in definition and tone values, but apparently the photographer has been sitting at the feet of Dunkoop. Some of his figures tower almost up to the ceiling in their heroic size. But they are still clear, and that saves them from descending to mere silhouettes. The picture will rank among the best the Biograph has offered. - The Moving Picture World, September 11, 1909
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