The year 1912 was to mark the first film with Lillian and Dorothy Gish, “An Unseen Enemy” (one reel), directed by D.W. Griffith. Lillian and Dorothy Gish appeared in a dozen two reel films together during 1912 and several more during 1913. In The Man Who Invented Hollywood, the autobiography of D.W. Griffith, published in 1972, Griffith outlines his arriving at the Biograph Film Company and adding actors, including Mary Pickford,tohis ensemble. Griffith recalls, "One day in the early summer of 1909, I was going through the dingy, old hall of the Biograph studio when suddenly the gloom seemed to disappear. The change was caused by the prescence of two young girls sitting side by side and on a hall bench...They were Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. Of the two, Lillian shone with an extremely fragile, ethereal beauty...As for Dorothy, she was lovely too, but in another manner- pert, saucy, the old mischief popping out of her." Actress Lilian Gish, in her autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me writes,"Mr. Griffith had rehearsed 'The Unseen Enemy' with other actresses, but after meeting us, he decided we would be suitable for the leads and changed the plot just enough to fit us."
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Lillian and Dorothy Gish Biograph Film Company

Notably, Mary Pickford and James Kirkwood, who would later become her director, appear under the direction of D. W. Griffith in the one reeler "The Cardinal's Conspiracy", along with Mack Sennet as well as Griffith's wife Linda Ardvidson and actress Kate Bruce. The film was photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company.
The periodical Moving Picture World reviewed the film with an early description approaching genre theory. "The picture is of the costume kind. In other words, one, when looking at it, has gone to the pages of Stanely Weyman, Henry Harland or Morris Hewitt for his inspiration. We breathe the atmosphere of court life and are taken back, as it were, into a far more romantic period than the present." The periodical continued by regretting that they had viewed the film in "cold monochrome" rather than a more vibrant spectrum of pageant. Biograph Films had advertised the film in the previous issue of Moving Picture World, sharing the full page with Selig, Independent and Kalem studios. Paired with the film "Friend of the Family", Biograph proclaimed that in the film "The Cardinal's Conspiracy", "The subject is elaborately staged, comprising some of the most beautiful exterior scenes ever shown."In her autobiography When The Movies Were Young, Griffith's wife Linda Arvidson sees the film as the first important screen characterization for actor Frank Powell, adding him to the "remarkable trio" at Biograph of actors Frank Powell, James Kirkwood and Henry B. Walthall. Tom Gunning points to the film belonging to a period when a cinema of narrative integration in fact centered on characterization and accordingly developed film technique with that in mind. To accomadate that narrative integration and its movement to a versimilar acting rather than the florid, histrionic gestures of a filmed theater, Griffith would bring the camera into the story.
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victorseastrom shared this story from Scott Lord.

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Please note that the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere occurred the day before The Shot Heard Round the World, as was its purpose. During 1772, Paul Revere had made church bells manufactured from copper and tin for several of the churches in Boston.
This is the view of Paul Revere's grave from inside the church, on Brimstone corner, a granary used to store gunpowder during the revolution. Donna is cataloging book donations in the library- I have lunch overlooking the graveyard. Today is Palm Sunday.Scott Lord
Silent Film This New England Primer bridged the "Gap" during the shift from Ecclesiastical Puritan to Patriotic Colonial.

The periodical Motion Picture News during 1926 the filming of "Temptress" with a review entitled "Greta Garbo in the Title Role of 'The Temptress'. It read,"Greta Garbo, Swedish actress, will have the title role in Cosmopolitan's production of 'The Temptress, which will be a Metro Goldwyn Mayer release directed by Mauritz Stiller. She is now working in 'Ibanez' The Torrent'." Greta Garbo had in fact signed to do the film on the condition that Stiller was to direct.
Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Film, curtly, only briefly mentions that Mauritz Stiller was removed as director of the film after a disagreement with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Biographer William Stewart, in The True Life Story of Greta Garbo gives an account purporting that Mauritz Stiller "had not yet mastered the American method of making pictures. Handling crowds gave him trouble and his lack of English made every move difficult."
Biographer William Stweart, in his volume The True Life Story of Greta Garbo claims that Greta Garbo had begun her living as a recluse and refusing to be seen in public as early as the film "The Torrent", excerpts from the biography reprinted in the oeriodical Modern Screen during 1937 quoting the actress as having turned journalists away with "I have nothing to wear." The biography gives an account that the young Garbo soon relented to the studio and its demands for publicity.
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Motion Picture News during 1921 readily boasted that more than seven different types of "exploitations" were used to advertise the film "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" starring Rudolph Valentino. Motion Picture Directing, published in 1922, showed a director Rex Ingram using a white, square canvass reflector to exploit sunlight during the filming of exterior scenes.
Author Benjamin B Hampton, in his volume A History of Movies, discusses the rise of screenwriter June Mathis to producer with the film "The Fourhorseman of the Apocalypse" and her effort to "plan the details of camerawork before photography began. This process of planning had been shared by Tucker and a few other directors who called it 'shooting the story on paper before shooting it on film'. 'Shooting on paper'...requires highly trained technical knowledge, clear thinking, a power of visualization and a rounded conception of the picture before camerawork begins. Its advantages are low cost production."
The film was based on the novel writtenby Vincente Ibanez. Silent film Rudolph Valentino

Please note that the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere occurred the day before The Shot Heard Round the World, as was its purpose. During 1772, Paul Revere had made church bells manufactured from copper and tin for several of the churches in Boston.
This is the view of Paul Revere's grave from inside the church, on Brimstone corner, a granary used to store gunpowder during the revolution. Donna is cataloging book donations in the library- I have lunch overlooking the graveyard. Today is Palm Sunday.Scott Lord
Silent Film This New England Primer bridged the "Gap" during the shift from Ecclesiastical Puritan to Patriotic Colonial.