I Discuss a Short from 1909

My schedule this week has been hectic so no movies to discuss tonight. Rather, now will be a short from D.W. Griffith 12 minutes in length. A little later, THREE more Stooge shorts--but for now, The Lonely Villa:

“Cross-cutting” was the cinematic technique pioneered here. The proclamation can’t be made that this was the first instance of it. However, Villa (which I only discovered a few days ago after reading a mutual’s review) was another example of D.W. Griffith expanding the cinematic language during its nascent era, critical in morphing movies from shorts into the feature-length pictures we’ve had for over a century now. Shame then about Birth of a Nation and its plot… that deserves scorn but Griffith still played a key role in the development of modern pictures.

Villa has an uncomplicated plot which plays out during its 12 minutes: Robert Cullison is the patriarch of the house; thieves spy on him and wait until he leaves his high-priced digs before attempting to break in, while the ladies of the residence (including teen Mary Pickford in one of her first roles) are still present. Once the break-in occurs, they run and lock themselves in an interior room. They call their father but a hoodlum cuts the phone line (this was a thing even in 1909) so he rushes home. Griffith cross-cuts between the bandits attempting to break into the room, the females in the room, and the patriarch on the phone then rushing home.

By modern standards this is primitive, in general. That said, the drama from the editing was still effective 116 years later, making the overall effort pretty good. March of last year, I saw 1913’s Suspense.; that was an improvement of this movie’s main plot point. That’s not to put down Villa—that is more my praising the film from Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley. The Lonely Villa still told a story that built suspense and for 1909 audiences, it must have been wild to see the tension escalate through editing. No wonder that in more than one mutual’s review, they mentioned viewing this in film school.