Adventures of Dollie (1908)
Released 14th July 1908
By the late spring of 1908, D.W. Griffith was working as an actor at Biograph. He had appeared in over 30 shorts and starred in Rescued from the Eagle’s Nest, a routine drama in which he made little impression. Griffith wasn’t a talented actor or stage writer, which perhaps prompted him to try his hand at directing. He applied for a directing position with the Lubin company but was unsuccessful after attending an interview in Philadelphia. His only offer of work was summer stock at Peake’s Island, Maine.
Wallace McCutcheon Sr. was Biograph’s sole director. According to Billy Bitzer, who later worked as Griffith’s cameraman, he became ill in 1908 because of his drinking. Harry Marvin, the vice president and general manager of Biograph, asked Griffith to take his place. Griffith accepted on the understanding that Biograph would allow him to resume acting if he proved unsuitable as a director.
His first assignment was Adventures of Dollie, which studio gossips believed was a lemon. Its short plot sees gypsies steal a couple’s daughter and conceal her in a barrel that ends up floating in the river. Griffith cast his wife, Linda Arvidson, as the girl’s mother but felt that none of Biograph’s male actors was right for the role of the father. So, he strolled through an area of Broadway where actors gathered and came across Arthur V. Johnson. Like most actors, Johnson was wary of the harm working in the flickers might do to his prospects, but he accepted Griffith’s offer of work. Over the next eight years, he was one of Biograph’s major players. Griffith regarded him as one of his finest actors until his untimely death from tuberculosis in 1916.
The film is typical of Biograph’s twice-weekly output back in 1908. The plot is straightforward, easy to follow, and the acting is exaggerated. But Griffith includes touches that other directors might have overlooked. He takes care in creating a tranquil atmosphere in the opening shots. Many directors would have shown only the mother and her daughter visiting the riverbank, but Griffith includes two boys with fishing rods. A dog trots between them as they stroll along with their backs to the camera. The shot creates an idyllic impression of a lazy summer afternoon, in direct juxtaposition to the hectic drama that is about to unfold. It suggests a world going on outside the family’s bubble of happiness; it also makes the boy rescuing the little girl from the river less coincidental. Griffith also builds tension when the girl plays while the gypsy lurks in the background. Earlier, her father beat him for trying to steal her mother’s purse, and the audience knows his intentions are evil.
Griffith would soon show greater skill in building tension, perhaps by having a close-up of the gypsy as he hides in the bushes. But here, while still learning his craft, he films everything in long shot. Later movies would also show the gypsies being punished for their crime. Here, Griffith forgets them once the barrel falls from the back of their wagon.
Adventures of Dollie’s success cemented Griffith’s position as a director with Biograph. It sold twenty-five prints, ten more than the studio’s previous best-selling picture. By the time they released it, Griffith was already shooting his sixth film for them.