The House of Darkness 1912 Cast: Charles Hill Mailes, Kate Bruce, Claire McDowell ,Alfred Paget, Lionel Barrymore ,Lillian Gish ,Dorothy Bernard, Bobby Harron, Billy Bitzer - Cinematographer
Summary: The opening title card to this story reads " How the mind of an unfortunate was brought to reason by music", as Griffith fades up on to the outdoor activity of inmates at a asylum and the world of the unfortunate. Its when the asylum nurse (Lillian Gish) is playing the piano one day that a crazed patient for a short time carms down. Its when he's left alone and not hearing music he breaks away, steals a hospital guards(Alfred Pagent) gun and runs away.
The lunatic finds his way to the doctors home (Lionel Barrymore) and sneaks into the house to surprise the wife (Claire McDowell). The danger and excitment build as the guards search the country side for the crazed man, while he's terrizing the wife, claiming to kill her when the clock strikes 12. Its when the wife starts playing the piano that the man gives himself up.
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(400 DVD TITLES)
DW GRIFFITH at BIOGRAPH by IRA H. GALLEN
DAVID WARK GRIFFITH, was already thirty-three years old when he began with the Biograph Company. He was born in Crestwood, Kentucky, on January 22, 1815, the son of Jacob Wark Griffith, a former colonel in the Army of the Confederacy.
The Civil War was a decade past when he was born; yet his family, his home and the entire social and cultural atmosphere of the Confederacy were to help shape the man who would become the father of all moving picture making. His deep chest and his articulate, compelling voice, complete with a touch of the Southern accent, completed the portrait of a logical and very rational mind. His first and last ambition, until fate would turn his attention into picture, was to be a writer, a dream that he had nurtured since he was six years old.
His Southern background, aided and abetted by his father's military career, added a martial air to Griffith's character, but with the war but a memory, he turned himself to more scholarly pursuits. He dreamed of becoming a great literary figure, a dream that was to turn more specifically to the interest of becoming a dramatist. In furtherance of this goal, he started acting to better his feel of and for the theatre. Griffith was very young when his father passed away; with the family wealth also gone, he looked for work along with the other able members of his family.
Jobs ranged from the indignity of a wire elevator operator to the somewhat more refined status as a salesman for Encyclopedia Britannica; but eventually his interests would join hands with economic need and Griffith turned to acting. But survival as an actor meant that he would dig ditches and pick hops among other odd jobs to survive the periods of unemployment that are so characteristic of theatre work.
During this time in his life, free moments were spent reading, writing and in dreaming of goals yet unachieved. Griffith was a dreamer; when it came to his future, he had an ego matching his confidence in himself and his future. His dreams and attitudes brought LINDA ARVIDSON into his life. They were traveling together in a road show company and she was taken up in the Griffith personality and dreams. She shared his dreams and wanted to develop with him.
After they had been married for two years, a time of continued traveling with theatre troupes, finds them back in New York City. Even as a youth, Griffith seemed an unlikely candidate for marriage. Within him there was that certain something that rendered him larger than the conventional concept of marriage seemed to require. Yet now he's married and new responsibilities goaded old ambitions.
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Viewing silent films is a great way to study basics of time, place, and gesture in filmmaking. Thanks for posting!
tanukibrahma 2 weeks ago
This is one of the greatest ones. I love how dark and distraught this one is; the disordered man doesn't understand this new semblance of human either that or he is confused as to why she frets when he is near her; the cross-cutting showing us and setting up the belief that you most definitely know he's not going to be there for long is a clear example of how to manipulate the audience emotionally. However, the Music to calm down patients, to me, I think it would most likely make them pent-up!
blowskiol 7 months ago
Hi Mr. Potter
mojofortherepublic 1 year ago
Interesting score. Thank you for posting these films.
rchdsmth 1 year ago
Really nice to see so many of Griffith's work on here. Much appreciated!
dangermaus091 3 years ago