D. W. Griffith: His Life and Work, Volume 10"It has been said that after Griffith, nothing new has been added to the motion picture. The one-time Kentucky farm boy, high school dropout and itinerant stock company actor revolutionized the movie industry, transforming a fledgling attraction into the world's most powerful entertainment medium. D.W. Griffith produced and directed The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, and Orphans of the Storm. He launched the screen careers of Mary Pickford, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, and Lionel Barrymore. From the ranks of his assistants came Erich von Stroheim, Raoul Walsh, and Mack Sennett. Yet the man who was known as "the Master" and "the Belasco of the screen" ended his career in obscurity, unemployed and ignored by the industry he had helped create. With compassion and clarity, this book traces the rise and fall of David Wark Griffith. It presents a fully faceted portrait of a theatrical personality who lived by grandiloquent gestures and practiced exaggerated Southern gentility. [Author] Henderson traces Griffith's Confederate background; describes his early years on the stage as an actor and aspiring playwright; and then details his film career, from the first directorial assignments at Biograph Films, where he made more than four hundred one- and two-reel movies in five years, to the pathetic final years on the fringes of Hollywood. Griffith's faults are observed, his genius is explored, his financial difficulties are explained, and the infant colossus that was Hollywood in the days prior to the First World War is brought vividly to life. Griffith's two masterpieces, The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, influenced a generation, or more, of filmmakers, notably the Soviet giant Eisenstein. Between 1908 and 1915, Griffith invented the basic syntax of the motion picture. He demonstrated, or devised, the dramatic use of the close-up, the fade-out, the scenic long shot, and above all, the use of film editing. His series of feature films, in widely different styles, remain anchor points in any examination of cinema art. This eloquent biography details the full story of Griffith's achievements. It is a masterful life-and-times study of the pioneer movie director who became the seminal figure in American film."--Jacket. |
Contents
From Playwright to Screen Writer | 3 |
All the Griffiths Together | 16 |
The Beginning | 31 |
Copyright | |
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14th Street actors actress Albert asked Banzhaf Barnet Bravermann began Billy Bitzer Birth Blanche Sweet Bobby Harron Broken Blossoms brother California camera cameraman Carol Dempster cast Charles Clarine Seymour Colonel Cuddebackville D. W. Griffith David Griffith Despite Directed by D. W. director Dorothy Gish Dougherty film company Film Daily fith fith's Florence Lawrence footage Frank George Girl Grif Harry Aitken Henry Walthall hired Ibid Intolerance Jacob Griffith Judith Karl Brown Kate Bruce Kennedy Kentucky Lillian Gish Lincoln Linda Arvidson Linda Griffith Louisville Love Mae Marsh Mamaroneck managed Mary Pickford mother motion picture movie Oglesby opened Orphans photographed play production reels rehearsals release Richard Barthelmess Robert Harron role Sartov scenario scene Schenck screen seemed Sennett shooting shot stage star story studio success tion told Triangle trip turned United Artists Walsh Walter Wark wife York young Zukor