The Sunbeam
R: David W. Griffith. B: George Hennessy. K: G.W. Bitzer. D: Ynez Seabury, Kate Bruce, Claire McDowell, Dell Henderson. P: American Biograph. USA 1912
“The Sunbeam is most often praised for its editing, pretty sophisticated for the time. The action of the film takes place in one apartment building with characters running back and forth between their rooms and the hallway. In spite of this, the audience is always aware of where they are. This may not seem like a big deal but the power editing was only just beginning to be recognized at this point in movie history.”
Fritzi Kramer
Movies Silently
The Mender of Nets
R: David W. Griffith. K: G.W. Bitzer. D: Mary Pickford, Charles West, Mabel Normand, Charles Hill Mailes, Marguerite Marsh. P: American Biograph. USA 1912
“The Mender of Nets is a classic D.W. Griffith, Biograph melodramatic story, which shows the Santa Monica Bay in Southern California in its undeveloped splendor and Mabel Normand before her comic genius was captured by Mack Sennett’s Keystone comedies in all her brilliances. (…)
The opening title cards reads 1910 but it was made during the 1912 season of the Biograph Company in California. WDG (sic!) had already developed a powerful command of the cinematic language, which is represented in The Mender of Nets by his impressive use of a series of cross-cuts to create and provoke the suspense.”
Marilyn Slater
Looking for Mabel Normand
>>> Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand
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THE EARLY SILENT ERA 1895-1915