Griffith and Pickford (2)

The School Teacher and the Waif
R: David W. Griffith. K: G.W. Bitzer. D: Edwin August, Mary Pickford, Charles Hill Mailes, Bert Hendler, Claire McDowell, William A. Carroll, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, Alfred Paget. P: Biograph Company. USA 1912
Print: Mary Pickford Foundation

Pickford made her career portraying young women on the verge of adulthood who were often unruly, willful, even violent. This signature had already surfaced in films such as Tess of the Storm Country (1914/1922), Fanchon the Cricket and Rags (both 1915), as well as Biographs such as Wilful Peggy (1910) and Lena and the Geese (1912). Remarkably, Pickford had even played M’liss before [i.e. before her 1918 film M’liss]. The School Teacher and the Waif (1912), a D. W. Griffith one-reeler, is based, like the 1918 feature, on Bret Harte‘s 1863 novelette ‘M’liss’.
Christel Schmidt: Mary Pickford Films on DVD

“Bret Harte (born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern U.S. to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but his Gold Rush tales have been the works most often reprinted, adapted, and admired.”

Lena and the Geese
R: David W. Griffith. B: Mary Pickford. K: G.W. Bitzer. D: Mary Pickford, J. Jiquel Lanoe, Kate Bruce, Mae Marsh, Edwin August, Claire McDowell, W. Chrystie Miller, Christy Cabanne. P: Biograph Company. USA 1912

My Baby
R: David W. Griffith. B: Anita Loos. K: G.W. Bitzer. D: Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, Eldean Steuart, W. Chrystie Miller, Alfred Paget, Madge Kirby, Lionel Barrymore, Elmer Booth, Kate Bruce, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Walter Miller. P: Biograph Company. USA 1912
Print: Mary Pickford Foundation

“Mary soaked it all in. As Griffith would later say, “I found she was thirsty for work and information. She could not be driven from the studio while work was going on.” That drive actually evolved; what was at first just a job soon became a passion and she immersed herself in learning every aspect of filmmaking. Mary’s strong sense of professionalism mandated that whatever she did, she was going to do it as well as or better than anyone else. Yet no one worked harder than Griffith. He often started days before dawn heading to a location, spent his afternoons and early evenings shooting interiors at the studio and stayed as late as midnight watching the previous day’s work. However, Mary put in long hours too. She befriended the cameraman Billy Bitzer and together they tested how various make-ups photographed on her as well as the impact of changing the position of the lights, using rudimentary reflectors such as oil cloth and white gravel. The art of filmmaking was advancing on a daily basis and the fact they were working in relative obscurity encouraged experimentation.”
Mary Pickford Foundation

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