The Musketeers of Pig Alley

Anyone interested in film history and the origins of American narrative filmmaking will be excited about a new 2-disk DVD from the Blackhawk Films Collection distributed by Image Entertainment - D. W. Griffith - Years of Discovery: 1909-1913. Covering a five-year period when D. W. Griffith worked for the Biograph Company, this collection assembles twenty-two representative films from Griffith's extraordinary output; he often made two to three films a week, directing some 450 films for Biograph. Although most of these films are relatively simplistic in terms of plot, it's fascinating to view them for Griffith's narrative skills alone; his innovative cinematography and editing choices create a sense of real drama on the screen which is aided immeasurably by the use of such gifted silent film actors as Henry Walthall, Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Among the twenty-two films on the D.W. GRIFFITH - YEARS OF DISCOVERY DVD are The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1914), an exciting depiction of an Indian attack on a pioneer settlement which was shot in California's San Fernando Valley; The Female of the Species (1912), a grim melodrama that anticipates Greed and The Wind in its account of a woman trying to survive in a barren, wind-swept landscape; An Unseen Enemy (1912), a remake of Griffith's own 1909 short The Lonely Villa in which a motorcar races to the last minute rescue of two girls (Lillian and Dorothy Gish in their screen debut) threatened by a burglar; The New York Hat (1912), the story of a fancy hat that becomes the subject of a small town rumor (It was written by a 16-year old Anita Loos and marked Lionel Barrymore's first appearance as a leading man); and The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) which, according to film historian Russell Merritt who wrote the liner notes, was "arguably Griffith's finest Biograph, certainly a landmark in the development of the gangster film. It is also Griffith's most tightly knit narrative and his most vivid depiction of New York's underworld. The exteriors were shot on West 12th Street in Manhattan, and local hoods were recruited to play some of the gangster roles. Despite the rapid pace of narrative, there is a remarkably graceful, almost ethereal quality about the film as Griffith carefully orchestrates the movements of characters through streets, alleys and bars." Like last year's glorious boxed set, Treasures of American Film Archives, though on a slightly smaller scale, D.W. GRIFFITH - YEARS OF DISCOVERY: 1909-1913 should keep film buffs entertained for hours with its numerous offerings - the running time is 5 hours and 34 minutes. Robert Israel provides the musical settings for most of the films with the exception of The Mothering Heart (music by John Muri) and The Battle at Elderbush Gulch(music by Gaylord Carter. For more information on D.W. GRIFFITH - YEARS OF DISCOVERY: 1909-1913, visit Image Entertainment.To purchase copies of D.W. GRIFFITH - YEARS OF DISCOVERY: 1909-1913, visit Movies Unlimited.