D.W. Griffith had certainly left by the time this movie was made: the story-telling technique had reverted to the illustrated text method, the acting was overwrought and stagy and the crowd scenes looked posed. Biograph would collapse within another three years. In addition, the story of Browning's admittedly melodramatic poem is reduced to pure melodrama -- which may explain the overwrought acting without excusing it.
None of these issues were unique to Biograph in 1914, and I may be a little tough on this example, but given what they had been, this film demands excoriation. There is little to differentiate the techniques in this film from Griffith's version of PIPPA PASSES five years earlier. Take a look at this on the Eastman House website and see if you agree.
Alan Hale is credited prominently, but there's little to distinguish him on the screen.
None of these issues were unique to Biograph in 1914, and I may be a little tough on this example, but given what they had been, this film demands excoriation. There is little to differentiate the techniques in this film from Griffith's version of PIPPA PASSES five years earlier. Take a look at this on the Eastman House website and see if you agree.
Alan Hale is credited prominently, but there's little to distinguish him on the screen.
