Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

D.W. Griffith, Director Volume 1 (1908-1909)

Contents: The Adventures of Dollie (1908), A Calamitous Elopement (1908), Balked at the Altar (1908), Betrayed by a Handprint (1908), Father Gets in the Game (1908), The Romance of a Jewess (1908), Song of the Shirt (1908), Money Mad (1908), Those Awful Hats (1909), The Cord of Life (1909) and The Curtain Pole (1909).

The first compilation from Grapevine Video of selections from D.W. Griffith’s films for American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, made in 1908-1909, are a mix of dramas and comedies. Some of these films are not available elsewhere on home video. Among the recognizable Biograph players are Florence Lawrence and Mack Sennett.

This DVD-R collection has been mastered from 16mm reduction print materials prepared in the 1950s from the Library of Congress paper print collection, which means that the image quality is lower than would normally be expected, with some of the prints quite soft, flat and grey, and others of good contrast and soft image quality — all with some greater or lesser degree of frame movement. The older full-frame analog video master was originally prepared for VHS videotape release in the 1990s. The quality exception is Those Awful Hats (1909), which has been transferred from a very-good 16mm reduction print originally prepared from film-based source elements.

The films are accompanied by a music score compiled from old low-fidelity recordings.

For our comparative reviews of the individual films, see our The Adventures of Dollie on home video and Those Awful Hats on home video pages.

There is much room for improvement of quality here, but some of the films are available nowhere else on home video.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

Other SHORT DRAMA FILMS of the silent era available on home video.