If you take a look at the version of this movie that has been posted to Youtube, you are not, I think, getting anything like the original theatrical version. Most obviously, the way the film moves -- derived from Library of Congress Paper prints -- is jerky. This is common to most of the older paper-print-derived Griffiths. Comparing versions of THE CURTAIN POLE from the 1970s with ones from the 2000s also shows a jerky movement that recent restorations lack. In addition, the long titles, including one or two that directly address Florence Lawrence's character, are nothing at all like any other Griffith movie I have ever seen. The conclusion that seems obvious to me is that this was restored by the Salvation Army for its own, didactic purposes, by people who seem to have no familiarity with the rapidly-evolving state of the art in the era in which it was made. The brass-band arrangement seems poor to me, but that is a matter of taste.
Trying to make sense of it in terms of Griffith in 1909, I noticed his increasing command of crowd scenes, both in the tavern and on the street, where Miss Lawrence first encounters the Salvation Army; everyone is doing something that makes sense, and the flow of movement helps direct the eye. In addition, a later shot, in which people approach the camera, shows a moving composition that Griffith had first tried in 1908 and which would reach its peak in THE MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY.
Other than those bits, it's impossible to say much about this movie.
Trying to make sense of it in terms of Griffith in 1909, I noticed his increasing command of crowd scenes, both in the tavern and on the street, where Miss Lawrence first encounters the Salvation Army; everyone is doing something that makes sense, and the flow of movement helps direct the eye. In addition, a later shot, in which people approach the camera, shows a moving composition that Griffith had first tried in 1908 and which would reach its peak in THE MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY.
Other than those bits, it's impossible to say much about this movie.
