D.W. Griffith at The Biograph Company

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For the men and women who were growing around the Griffith magic. Innovations that went beyond experiment.

They were all well-paced and well-cut; usage of dramatic closeups with brilliantly staged long shots were to enhance the overall effectiveness of the moving picture as a narrative form.

His films spoke of the times in America; about hunger, political corruption, man's struggle with the elements, drinking, gambling, love and hate.

His films, like the nation itself, were coming of age.

The Lonely Villa, 1913
Mary Pickford, Marion Leonard and Adele De Garde

Griffith was soon noted for his LAST MINUTE RESCUES as his chase and action films took on greater scope. We watch a baby being hung outside a window by a rope.

She is five floors above the street, and the rope is being burned away by a candle. Scant seconds remain before sudden death.

We wait as the hero runs through the street in a desperate effort to save her. Will she be saved in time?

The question on the audiences' lips was now reaching across all class boundaries; the D.W. Griffith method riveted them in their seats or had them sitting up on the edge of the seats, awaiting the outcome.

Moving picture audiences were now coming to feel as well as see the stories on the nickelodeon or movie parlor screens in front of them.

Griffith's acting company would soon be operating in such a fashion as to be completely independent of any one actress or actor. Each category of character was staffed in depth by Griffith. He had the practice of alternating casts which kept any one player from becoming too important. This kept them from knowing their importance with the public for a period of better than three years. In this fashion, salaries were kept quite low.

Moving pictures were still produced in a highly improvised manner. Griffith would never be found using a shooting script of any sort which outlined the action. The synopsis was carried in his head. If one scenic background that was called for in the story was unavailable, he changed the background and altered the story to fit. Production problems as well as the continuity of the story that was being shot were also kept in Griffith's head.

What makes it all work was that those who stayed on to learn and work with Griffith soon became a permanent part of his stock company and assisted him in his decisions as well as in carrying out his orders. Whenever an actor or actress was not actually appearing in a story, they might be seen in the background, working on a Griffith errand or carrying a prop.

In the development of his cinematic repertory company, Griffith had access not only to heroes and heroines, but also to character actors and actresses as well as children so as to facilitate whatever the cast needs for a particular story might be. Because the cast members were mostly young and eager to prove themselves, Griffith was able to encourage some healthy rivalry for his benefit.