The Lonely Villa (1909)

The Lonely Villa (1909)


In this early short in Griffith's directing career, there are several interesting things to note. The Lonely Villa is a simple suspense/crime drama. When the man of the house is called away, three criminals break in and attempt to assault his wife and three children. What is unusual in this short is that the story is told with no title cards whatsoever. While the story is basic, most studios at this period in cinema relied on title cards to add dialogue and advance the story.

Griffith's brilliance as a cinematographer begins to show itself here as well, albeit at a rudimentary level. In many shots Griffith frames objects and the bottom and top corners of the frame to add a more dynamic visual element. He also experiments with depth-of-field in many shots, placing objects in both the foreground and background of shots. Camera movement is minimal, and rudimentary compared to what he would do later in his career, but there is still some evidence of camera movement, while other directors of the time tended to use only "locked-down" shots.

One last item to note is that Mary Pickford, later an enormous star and one of the founders of United Artists, appears here as one of the children.

Sources:

The Internet Movie Database. (1990-2010). The Lonely Villa. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000942/

Griffith, D.W. (Director). (1909) The Lonely Villa. Video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEI18n_GcuQ