An Unseen Enemy (1912)

An Unseen Enemy (1912)

An Unseen Enemy (1912) Director: D.W. Griffith Release Date: 9 September 1912 (USA) Writing credits: Edward Acker Original Music by Robert Israel Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer (Biograph Company) Filming Locations: Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA Plot: Two girls and their brother live at the little homestead left them by their late father. The brother, having disposed of a portion of the small estate, comes home with the money to show it to his sisters, telling them that they may now enjoy a few of the luxuries of life. As it would be after banking hours before he could get to the village, he places the money in the safe and returns to his office, some distance away. He has hardly departed when the maid, a slattern individual, who has seen him put the money in the safe, attempts to get it. Failing to work the combination, she calls up an erstwhile friend requesting him to come and help her. While these two work, the sisters are locked in the sitting-room, terrorized in a most unique way. The brother, however, arrives after a series of tantalizing delays and apprehends the criminals just as their scheme seems to have succeeded. Lillian Gish ... The Sister (older) Dorothy Gish ... The Sister (younger) Elmer Booth ... The Brother Robert Harron ... The Boy Harry Carey ... The Thief Grace Henderson ... The Slattern Maid This short feature has a very melodramatic story, but it builds up some good suspense and also gets hold of your emotions as you watch. Griffith was quick to develop effective techniques for first making his characters sympathetic, and then placing them in situations in which viewer concern for the characters adds to the tension. A critic of the time stated that "the Gish sisters gave charming performances in this one-reel film".













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D.W. Griffith – An American Life (By Richard Schickel – 1984)

Image
D.W. Griffith – An American Life (By Richard Schickel – 1984) D.W. Griffith – An American Life By Richard Schickel – 1984 Griffith! Before him, the movies were a nickelodeon novelty, after him, they were an international art form and a powerful, glamorous American industry He was the first to codify the rules and techniques of screen storytelling, the first to establish the conventions by which the unique capacities of the movies for both sweeping spectacle and profound intimacy could be employed in long, complex narratives, the first to assert the director’s claim to primary authorship of a film Above all, it was Griffith who imagined the future of his medium, and with his driving energy, his taste for the grandiose and his flair for publicity, propelled that medium toward that future—only to be crushed by the very forces he had unleashed. D.w. Griffith (1875-1948) Painting; D.w. Griffith (1875-1948) Art Print for sale His story is, in huge measure, the story of how the ...
Read more

Lillian Gish and Jeanne Moreau – Vanity Fair 1983

Image
Lillian Gish and Jeanne Moreau – Vanity Fair 1983 Vanity Fair – October 1983 Lillian Gish Jeanne Moreau This is a summit meeting: a queen paying homage to an empress. Of course, Lillian Gish, far right, is no truer a blueblood than any other homespun midwesterner. But wherever she goes now, she is treated like a monarch, acknowledging standing ovations in allAmerican palaces like Radio City Music Hall. Her admirers aren’t really applauding her 101 films (she has just completed the 102nd, about a sweet old lady and her sweet old dog). They may never have seen her slim but supernally intense performances in the D. W. Griffith masterpieces or in the Victor Sjostrom classics she made in the late ’20s at MGM. Lillian-Gish-Jeanne-Moreau 60s But they sense in her the grace, the purity, the wealth of symbolism that royalty sustains. Gish’s companion here, Jeanne Moreau, radiates a similar authority; what Gish was to the cinema of the ’20s, Moreau was to the cinema of the ’60s. ...
Read more

LEADING LADIES – 1976 (Electa Clark) PDF Download

Image
  LEADING LADIES – 1976 (Electa Clark) PDF Download “Humanity marches on into the new and glorious 20th century!” exults a daily paper in its first issue of 1901. “Come, oh century, child of hope!” begins a long poem on page one. Another column trills, “We are 20th century women … with the dower of privilege and responsibility which enriches women in this wonderful era!” Lillian Gish had a similar effect on millions who saw her in the movies. She was not only talented, she had a unique quality: pure, ethereal, elusive. As if she acted in whispers. As if in her hands, the definite blurred into the indefinite. It was drama critic George Jean Nathan who described her as being “behind a veil of silver chiffon.” He courted Lillian for years, but she eluded marriage. Horse drawn float declares National American Woman Suffrage Association’s support for Bristow-Mondell amendment 1920s Lillian Gish Actress ‘La Boheme’ Oversized DBW Photo by Kenneth Alexander Leading ladies an affectionate l...
Read more