D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
"Remember how small the world was before I came along? I brought it all to life: I moved the whole world onto a 20-foot screen."
D. W. Griffith
Birth name:
David Wark Griffith
Born:
22nd January 1875, Crestwood, Kentucky
Died:
23rd July 1948, Los Angeles, California
Years active:
1908 - 1931
No director has influenced the development of cinema as much as David Wark Griffith. Today, almost a century after he last directed a movie, filmmakers still use the techniques Griffith refined. And yet, few filmmakers have left a legacy that is so deeply divisive.
He was born on 22nd January 1875, on the family farm in Oldham County, Kentucky. His father, Jacob Wark “Roaring Jake” Griffith, had been a Confederate Army colonel in the Civil War, during which the family lost most of its fortune. Left adrift following the end of his military career, Jake sank into alcoholism. He also gambled, which might account for the poverty in which Griffith grew up. Although he was a remote man, “Roaring Jake” frequently fired his son’s imagination with tales of his adventures in the Civil War.
Griffith’s father died when he was ten, and it was only after his death that his widow, Mary, learned of the three mortgages on the family’s farm. When Griffith was 14, she moved the family to Louisville, where she unsuccessfully managed a boarding house. Within a year, Griffith had left school to take a job as a cashier in a dry goods store. It was then that he began frequenting Louisville’s theatres, although it would be another five years before he tried acting. By 1896, however, he was working as an actor in touring companies. He also wrote plays, but with little success.
Griffith toiled for more than a decade on the stage. In 1906, he married the actress Linda Arvidson in Boston before settling in New York. The city was then the hub of the nascent moviemaking industry, and it was as a writer that Griffith first approached Biograph. The studio hired him as an actor, casting him as the lead in a short called Rescued from the Eagle’s Nest (1908).
When Biograph’s director Wallace McCutcheon Sr. fell ill, Griffith accepted the offer to direct. His first film, Adventures of Dollie, was a success, and in the next five years Griffith directed over 450 shorts for the studio. In that time, he developed many of the basic techniques of filmmaking, including close-ups, establishing shots, fade in/out and long takes. Perhaps most significantly, he also established cross-cutting as a device for heightening tension.
Raoul Walsh as John Wilkes Booth in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Biograph’s refusal to make features led to Griffith leaving the studio for the Aitken brothers’ Mutual Film Corporation in 1913. While with Mutual, he directed the spectacular Civil War blockbuster The Birth of a Nation (1915). The film was a landmark in the history of cinema, revolutionising the industry. But it was also highly controversial because of its racism and depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. As social attitudes have changed over time, so the film’s racist content has grown increasingly offensive. Today, moral repugnance overshadows appreciation of Griffith’s technical virtuosity.
In 1916, Griffith released Intolerance, another groundbreaking epic. Intolerance featured stupendous sets, particularly the towering Babylonian walls with elephant statues. The film comprised an intricate plot structure that interwove four separate stories from different eras. Griffith intended it partly as a response to the accusations of racism levelled at him for The Birth of a Nation. Once again, the critics praised it, but the massive production costs and its pacifist message, when America was engaged in a war, led to commercial failure. Griffith would never again undertake such an ambitious project.
In 1919, he founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. The new studio was an attempt to allow filmmakers to pursue their own interests without corporate interference. His first films with the studio - Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921) - were successful, but a series of failures led to him leaving United Artists in 1924.
Griffith’s influence declined in the latter half of the 1920s. After Lady of the Pavements (1929), a part-talkie, he made only two sound films: Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither were successful.
Griffith lived another seventeen years, but found only occasional work for which he didn’t receive credit. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 23rd July 1948.
D. W. Griffith filmography
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908) (short) (a, d), Adventures of Dollie (1908) (short) (d), Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908) (short) (a, d), The Fight for Freedom (1908) (short) (d), The Tavern Keeper's Daughter (1908) (short) (d), The Black Viper (1908) (short) (d), The Red Man and the Child (1908) (short) (d), Deceived Slumming Party (1908) (short) (d), The Bandit's Waterloo (1908) (short) (d), A Calamitous Elopement (1908) (short) (d), The Greaser's Gauntlet (1908) (short) (w, d), The Man and the Woman (1908) (short) (d), The Fatal Hour (1908) (short) (d), For Love of Gold (1908) (short) (d), Balked at the Altar (1908) (short) (d), For a Wife's Honor (1908) (short) (d), Betrayed by a Handprint (1908) (short) (d), Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court (1908) (short) (d), The Girl and the Outlaw (1908) (short) (d), Behind the Scenes (1908) (short) (d), The Red Girl (1908) (short) (d), The Heart of O'Yama (1908) (short) (d), Where the Breakers Roar (1908) (short) (d), A Smoked Husband (1908) (short) (d), The Stolen Jewels (1908) (short) (d), The Devil (1908) (short) (d), The Zulu's Heart (1908) (short) (d), Father Gets in the Game (1908) (short) (d), Ingomar, the Barbarian (1908) (short) (d), The Vaquero's Vow (1908) (short) (d), The Planter's Wife (1908) (short) (d), Romance of a Jewess (1908) (short) (d), The Call of the Wild (1908) (short) (d), Concealing a Burglar (1908) (short) (d), After Many Years (1908) (short) (w, d), The Pirate's Gold (1908) (short) (d), The Taming of the Shrew (1908) (short) (d), The Guerrilla (1908) (short) (d), The Song of the Shirt (1908) (short) (d), The Ingrate (1908) (short) (d), A Woman's Way (1908) (short) (d), The Clubman and the Tramp (1908) (short) (d), Money Mad (1908) (short) (d), The Valet's Wife (1908) (short) (d), The Feud and the Turkey (1908) (short) (d), The Reckoning (1908) (short) (d), The Test of Friendship (1908) (short) (d), An Awful Moment (1908) (short) (d), The Christmas Burglars (1908) (short) (d), Mr. Jones at the Ball (1908) (short) (d), The Helping Hand (1908) (short) (d), One Touch of Nature (1909) (short) (d), The Maniac Cook (1909) (short) (d), Mrs. Jones Entertains (1909) (short) (d), The Honor of Thieves (1909) (short) (d), Love Finds a Way (1909) (short) (d), The Sacrifice (1909) (short) (d), A Rural Elopement (1909) (short) (d), Those Boys! (1909) (short) (d), The Criminal Hypnotist (1909) (short) (d), The Fascinating Mrs. Francis (1909) (short) (d), Mr. Jones Has a Card Party (1909) (short) (w, d), Those Awful Hats (1909) (short) (d), The Welcome Burglar (1909) (short) (d), The Cord of Life (1909) (short) (d), The Girls and Daddy (1909) (short) (d), The Brahma Diamond (1909) (short) (d), Edgar Allen Poe (1909) (short) (d), A Wreath in Time (1909) (short) (d), Tragic Love (1909) (short) (d), The Curtain Pole (1909) (short) (w, d), His Ward's Love (1909) (short) (d), The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals (1909) (short) (d), The Hindoo Dagger (1909) (short) (d), The Politician's Love Story (1909) (short) (w, d), The Golden Louis (1909) (short) (d), At the Altar (1909) (short) (d), The Prussian Spy (1909) (short) (d), His Wife's Mother (1909) (short) (d), A Fool's Revenge (1909) (short) (d), The Wooden Leg (1909) (short) (d), The Roue's Heart (1909) (short) (d), The Salvation Army Lass (1909) (short) (d), The Lure of the Gown (1909) (short) (d), I Did It (1909) (short) (d), The Voice of the Violin (1909) (short) (d), The Deception (1909) (short) (d), And a Little Child Shall Lead Them (1909) (short) (d), A Burglar's Mistake (1909) (short) (d), The Medicine Bottle (1909) (short) (d), Jones and His New Neighbors (1909) (short) (d), A Drunkard's Reformation (1909) (short) (d), Trying to Get Arrested (1909) (short) (a, d), The Road to the Heart (1909) (short) (d), A Rude Hostess (1909) (short) (d), Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade (1909) (short) (d), The Winning Coat (1909) (short) (d), A Sound Sleeper (1909) (short) (d), Confidence (1909) (short) (d), A Troublesome Satchel (1909) (short) (d), Lady Helen's Escapade (1909) (short) (d), The Drive for a Life (1909) (short) (d), Twin Brothers (1909) (short) (d), Lucky Jim (1909) (short) (d), Tis an Ill Wind That Blows No Good (1909) (short) (d), The Suicide Club (1909) (short) (d), The Eavesdropper (1909) (short) (d), One Busy Hour (1909) (short) (d), The Note in the Shoe (1909) (short) (d), Jones and the Lady Book Agent (1909) (short) (d), The French Duel (1909) (short) (d), A Baby's Shoe (1909) (short) (d), The Jilt (1909) (short) (d), Resurrection (1909) (short) (d), Two Memories (1909) (short) (d), Eloping with Auntie (1909) (short) (d), The Cricket on the Hearth (1909) (short) (d), His Duty (1909) (short) (d), Eradicating Aunty (1909) (short) (d), What Drink Did (1909) (short) (d), The Violin Maker of Cremona (1909) (short) (d), A New Trick (1909) (short) (d), The Lonely Villa (1909) (short) (w, d), The Son's Return (1909) (short) (d), Her First Biscuits (1909) (short) (d), The Faded Lilies (1909) (short) (d), Was Justice Served? (1909) (short) (d), The Peachbasket Hat (1909) (short) (d), The Mexican Sweethearts (1909) (short) (d), The Way of Man (1909) (short) (d), The Necklace (1909) (short) (d), The Message (1909) (short) (d), The Country Doctor (1909) (short) (w, d), The Cardinal's Conspiracy (1909) (short) (d), Tender Hearts (1909) (short) (d), The Friend of the Family (1909) (short) (d), The Renunciation (1909) (short) (d), Sweet and Twenty (1909) (short) (d), Jealousy and the Man (1909) (short) (d), A Convict's Sacrifice (1909) (short) (d), The Slave (1909) (short) (d), A Strange Meeting (1909) (short) (d), The Mended Lute (1909) (short) (d), They Would Elope (1909) (short) (d), Jones' Burglar (1909) (short) (d), The Better Way (1909) (short) (d), With Her Card (1909) (short) (d), Mrs. Jones' Lover (1909) (short) (d), His Wife's Visitor (1909) (short) (d), The Indian Runner's Romance (1909) (short) (d), The Seventh Day (1909) (short) (d), Oh, Uncle! (1909) (short) (d), Pranks (1909) (short) (d), The Mills of the Gods (1909) (short) (d), The Sealed Room (1909) (short) (d), The Little Darling (1909) (short) (d), The Hessian Renegades (1909) (short) (a, w, d), Comata, the Sioux (1909) (short) (d), Getting Even (1909) (short) (d), The Children's Friend (1909) (short) (d), The Broken Locket (1909) (short) (d), In Old Kentucky (1909) (short) (d), A Fair Exchange (1909) (short) (d), Leather Stocking (1909) (short) (d), Wanted, a Child (1909) (short) (d), The Awakening (1909) (short) (d), Pippa Passes (1909) (short) (d), Fools of Fate (1909) (short) (d), The Little Teacher (1909) (short) (d), A Change of Heart (1909) (short) (d), His Lost Love (1909) (short) (d), The Expiation (1909) (short) (d), In the Watches of the Night (1909) (short) (d), Lines of White on a Sullen Sea (1909) (short) (d), What's Your Hurry? (1909) (short) (d), The Gibson Goddess (1909) (short) (d), Nursing a Viper (1909) (short) (d), The Restoration (1909) (short) (d), The Light That Came (1909) (short) (d), Two Women and a Man (1909) (short) (d), A Sweet Revenge (1909) (short) (d), A Midnight Adventure (1909) (short) (d), The Open Gate (1909) (short) (d), The Mountaineer's Honor (1909) (short) (d), The Trick That Failed (1909) (short) (d), In the Window Recess (1909) (short) (d), The Death Disc (1909) (short) (d), Through the Breakers (1909) (short) (d), The Red Man's View (1909) (short) (d), A Corner in Wheat (1909) (short) (w, d), The Test (1909) (short) (d), In a Hempen Bag (1909) (short) (d), A Trap for Santa Claus (1909) (short) (d), In Little Italy (1909) (short) (d), To Save Her Soul (1909) (short) (d), The Day After (1909) (short) (d), Choosing a Husband (1909) (short) (d), The Heart of an Outlaw (1909) (short) (d), Mamma (1909) (short) (d), Bill Sharkey's Last Game (1909) (short) (d), The Rocky Road (1910) (short) (d), The Dancing Girl of Butte (1910) (short) (d), Her Terrible Ordeal (1910) (short) (d), On the Reef (1910) (short) (d), The Call (1910) (short) (d), The Honor of His Family (1910) (short) (d), The Last Deal (1910) (short) (d), The Cloister's Touch (1910) (short) (d), The Woman from Mellon's (1910) (short) (d), The Course of True Love (1910) (short) (d), The Duke's Plan (1910) (short) (d), One Night and Then (1910) (short) (d), The Englishman and the Girl (1910) (short) (d), His Last Burglary (1910) (short) (d), Taming a Husband (1910) (short) (d), The Final Settlement (1910) (short) (d), The Newlyweds (1910) (short) (d), The Thread of Destiny (1910) (short) (d), In Old California (1910) (short) (d), The Man (1910) (short) (d), The Converts (1910) (short) (d), Faithful (1910) (short) (d), The Twisted Trail (1910) (short) (d), Gold Is Not All (1910) (short) (d), His Last Dollar (1910) (short) (d), The Two Brothers (1910) (short) (d), As It Is In Life (1910) (short) (d), A Rich Revenge (1910) (short) (d), A Romance of the Western Hills (1910) (short) (d), Thou Shalt Not (1910) (short) (d), The Way of the World (1910) (short) (d), The Gold Seekers (1910) (short) (d), The Unchanging Sea (1910) (short) (w, d), Love Among the Roses (1910) (short) (d), Over Silent Paths (1910) (short) (d), Ramona (1910) (short) (d), The Impalement (1910) (short) (d), In the Season of Buds (1910) (short) (d), The Purgation (1910) (short) (d), A Child of the Ghetto (1910) (short) (d), A Victim of Jealousy (1910) (short) (d), In the Border States (1910) (short) (w, d), The Face at the Window (1910) (short) (d), The Marked Time-Table (1910) (short) (d), A Child's Impulse (1910) (short) (d), Muggsy's First Sweetheart (1910) (short) (d), A Midnight Cupid (1910) (short) (d), What the Daisy Said (1910) (short) (d), A Child's Faith (1910) (short) (d), A Flash of Light (1910) (short) (d), Serious Sixteen (1910) (short) (d), As the Bells Rang Out! (1910) (short) (d), The Call to Arms (1910) (short) (d), Unexpected Help (1910) (short) (d), An Arcadian Maid (1910) (short) (d), Her Father's Pride (1910) (short) (d), The House with Closed Shutters (1910) (short) (d), A Salutary Lesson (1910) (short) (d), The Usurer (1910) (short) (d), The Sorrows of the Unfaithful (1910) (short) (d), Wilful Peggy (1910) (short) (d), The Modern Prodigal (1910) (short) (d), A Summer Idyll (1910) (short) (d), Little Angels of Luck (1910) (short) (d), A Mohawk's Way (1910) (short) (d), In Life's Cycle (1910) (short) (d), The Oath and the Man (1910) (short) (d), Rose O'Salem-Town (1910) (short) (d), Examination Day at School (1910) (short) (d), The Iconoclast (1910) (short) (d), That Chink at Golden Gulch (1910) (short) (d), The Broken Doll (1910) (short) (d), The Banker's Daughters (1910) (short) (d), The Message of the Violin (1910) (short) (d), Two Little Waifs (1910) (short) (d), Waiter No. 5 (1910) (short) (d), The Fugitive (1910) (short) (d), Simple Charity (1910) (short) (d), Sunshine Sue (1910) (short) (d), The Song of the Wildwood Flute (1910) (short) (d), A Plain Song (1910) (short) (d), A Child's Stratagem (1910) (short) (d), The Golden Supper (1910) (short) (d), His Sister-In-Law (1910) (short) (d), The Lesson (1910) (short) (d), Winning Back His Love (1910) (short) (d), Flaming Arrows (1911) (short) (d), The Two Paths (1911) (short) (w, d), When a Man Loves (1911) (short) (d), The Italian Barber (1911) (short) (d), His Trust (1911) (short) (w, d, p), His Trust Fulfilled (1911) (short) (w, d, p), Fate's Turning (1911) (short) (d), A Wreath of Orange Blossoms (1911) (short) (d), Three Sisters (1911) (short) (d), Heart Beats of Long Ago (1911) (short) (d), What Shall We Do with Our Old? (1911) (short) (w, d), Fisher Folks (1911) (short) (w, d), The Diamond Star (1911) (short) (d), His Daughter (1911) (short) (d), The Lily of the Tenements (1911) (short) (d), The Heart of a Savage (1911) (short) (d), A Decree of Destiny (1911) (short) (d), Conscience (1911) (short) (d), Was He a Coward? (1911) (short) (d), Teaching Dad to Like Her (1911) (short) (d), The Lonedale Operator (1911) (short) (w, d), The Spanish Gypsy (1911) (short) (d), The Broken Cross (1911) (short) (d), The Chief's Daughter (1911) (short) (d), Madame Rex (1911) (short) (d), A Knight of the Road (1911) (short) (d), His Mother's Scarf (1911) (short) (d), How She Triumphed (1911) (short) (d), The Two Sides (1911) (short) (d), In the Days of '49 (1911) (short) (d), The New Dress (1911) (short) (d), The Crooked Road (1911) (short) (d), The White Rose of the Wilds (1911) (short) (d), A Romany Tragedy (1911) (short) (d), The Smile of a Child (1911) (short) (d), Enoch Arden: Part I (1911) (short) (d), Enoch Arden: Part II (1911) (short) (d), The Primal Call (1911) (short) (d), Her Sacrifice (1911) (short) (d), Fighting Blood (1911) (short) (d), The Thief and the Girl (1911) (short) (d), The Jealous Husband (1911) (short) (d), Bobby, the Coward (1911) (short) (d), The Indian Brothers (1911) (short) (w, d), A Country Cupid (1911) (short) (d), The Last Drop of Water (1911) (short) (w, d), Out from the Shadow (1911) (short) (d), The Ruling Passion (1911) (short) (d), The Sorrowful Example (1911) (short) (d), The Blind Princess and the Poet (1911) (short) (d), The Rose of Kentucky (1911) (short) (d), Swords and Hearts (1911) (short) (d), The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of (1911) (short) (d), The Old Confectioner's Mistake (1911) (short) (d), The Squaw's Love (1911) (short) (d), Dan the Dandy (1911) (short) (d), The Revenue Man and the Girl (1911) (short) (d), Her Awakening (1911) (short) (d), The Making of a Man (1911) (short) (d), Italian Blood (1911) (short) (d), The Unveiling (1911) (short) (d), The Adventures of Billy (1911) (short) (d), The Long Road (1911) (short) (w, d), Love in the Hills (1911) (short) (w, d, p), The Battle (1911) (short) (w, d, p), The Trail of Books (1911) (short) (d), Through Darkened Vales (1911) (short) (w, d, p), The Miser's Heart (1911) (short) (w, d), Sunshine Through the Dark (1911) (short) (w, d, p), A Woman Scorned (1911) (short) (d), The Failure (1911) (short) (d), Saved from Himself (1911) (short) (d), As in a Looking Glass (1911) (short) (w, d), A Terrible Discovery (1911) (short) (d), The Voice of the Child (1911) (short) (w, d), Grannie (1912) (short) (w, d), The Baby and the Stork (1912) (short) (d), A Tale of the Wilderness (1912) (short) (d), The Eternal Mother (1912) (short) (w, d), The Old Bookkeeper (1912) (short) (w, d), For His Son (1912) (short) (w, d), A Blot on the 'Scutcheon (1912) (short) (d), The Transformation of Mike (1912) (short) (w, d), A Sister's Love (1912) (short) (d), Billy's Stratagem (1912) (short) (d), The Mender of Nets (1912) (short) (d), Under Burning Skies (1912) (short) (d), The Sunbeam (1912) (short) (d), A Siren of Impulse (1912) (short) (d), A String of Pearls (1912) (short) (d), The Girl and Her Trust (1912) (short) (w, d), Iola's Promise (1912) (short) (d), The Root of Evil (1912) (short) (d), The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch (1912) (short) (d), The Punishment (1912) (short) (d), Fate's Interception (1912) (short) (d), The Female of the Species (1912) (short) (w, d), Just Like a Woman (1912) (short) (w, d), One Is Business, the Other Crime (1912) (short) (w, d), The Lesser Evil (1912) (short) (w, d), The Old Actor (1912) (short) (w, d), A Lodging for the Night (1912) (short) (w, d), His Lesson (1912) (short) (d), When Kings Were the Law (1912) (short) (d), A Beast at Bay (1912) (short) (d), An Outcast Among Outcasts (1912) (short) (d), Home Folks (1912) (short) (w, d), A Temporary Truce (1912) (short) (d), Lena and the Geese (1912) (short) (d), The Spirit Awakened (1912) (short) (d), The School Teacher and the Waif (1912) (short) (d), Man's Lust for Gold (1912) (short) (d), An Indian Summer (1912) (short) (d), Man's Genesis (1912) (short) (w, d), Heaven Avenges (1912) (short) (d), The Sands of Dee (1912) (short) (w, d), Black Sheep (1912) (short) (d), The Narrow Road (1912) (short) (d), A Child's Remorse (1912) (short) (d), The Inner Circle (1912) (short) (w, d), A Change of Spirit (1912) (short) (d), A Pueblo Romance (1912) (short) (d), A Pueblo Legend (1912) (short) (d), In the North Woods (1912) (short) (d), An Unseen Enemy (1912) (short) (w, d), Blind Love (1912) (short) (d), Two Daughters of Eve (1912) (short) (w, d), Friends (1912) (short) (w, d), So Near, yet So Far (1912) (short) (w, d), A Feud in the Kentucky Hills (1912) (short) (w, d), The Chief's Blanket (1912) (short) (d), In the Aisles of the Wild (1912) (short) (d), The One She Loved (1912) (short) (w, d), The Painted Lady (1912) (short) (w, d), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) (short) (w, d), Heredity (1912) (short) (w, d), The Massacre (1912) (short) (w, d), Gold and Glitter (1912) (short) (d), My Baby (1912) (short) (w, d), The Informer (1912) (short) (w, d), Brutality (1912) (short) (w, d), The New York Hat (1912) (short) (w, d), My Hero (1912) (short) (w, d), The Burglar's Dilemma (1912) (short) (w, d), A Cry for Help (1912) (short) (w, d), The God Within (1912) (short) (w, d), Three Friends (1913) (short) (w, d), The Telephone Girl and the Lady (1913) (short) (d), An Adventure in the Autumn Woods (1913) (short) (d), The Tender Hearted Boy (1913) (short) (d), A Misappropriated Turkey (1913) (short) (w, d), Brothers (1913) (short) (w, d), Oil and Water (1913) (short) (w, d), Drink's Lure (1913) (short) (d), A Chance Deception (1913) (short) (w, d), Love in an Apartment Hotel (1913) (short) (w, d), Broken Ways (1913) (short) (w, d), A Girl's Stratagem (1913) (short) (w, d), The Unwelcome Guest (1913) (short) (w, d), Near to Earth (1913) (short) (w, d), Fate (1913) (short) (w, d), A Welcome Intruder (1913) (short) (w, d), The Sheriff's Baby (1913) (short) (w, d), The Hero of Little Italy (1913) (short) (w, d), The Perfidy of Mary (1913) (short) (w, d), The Little Tease (1913) (short) (d), A Misunderstood Boy (1913) (short) (d), The Left-Handed Man (1913) (short) (w, d), The Lady and the Mouse (1913) (short) (w, d), If We Only Knew (1913) (short) (d), The Wanderer (1913) (short) (w, d), The Stolen Loaf (1913) (short) (w, d), The House of Darkness (1913) (short) (w, d), The Yaqui Cur (1913) (short) (w, d), Just Gold (1913) (short) (d), His Mother's Son (1913) (short) (d), The Ranchero's Revenge (1913) (short) (w, d), A Timely Interception (1913) (short) (w, d), Death's Marathon (1913) (short) (w, d), The Mothering Heart (1913) (short) (w, d), Her Mother's Oath (1913) (short) (d), The Sorrowful Shore (1913) (short) (w, d), The Reformers (1913) (short) (w, d), The Enemy's Baby (1913) (short) (w, d), The Mistake (1913) (short) (w, d), The Coming of Angelo (1913) (short) (w, d), Two Men of the Desert (1913) (short) (w, d), The Adopted Brother (1913) (short) (w, d), Madonna of the Storm (1913) (short) (w, d), The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913) (short) (w, d), The Conscience of Hassan Bey (1913) (short) (w, d), Waifs (1914) (short) (w, d), Judith of Bethulia (1914) (w, d), The Battle of the Sexes (1914) (short) (w, d), The Great Leap (1914) (short) (w, d), Brute Force (1914) (short) (w, d), Home, Sweet Home (1914) (w, d), The Escape (1914) (short) (w, d), The Avenging Conscience (1914) (w, d, p), The Dishonored Medal (1914) (short) (w, d), The Birth of a Nation (1915) (w, d, p), A Day with Governor Whitman (1916) (short) (d), Intolerance (1916) (w, d, p), Hearts of the World (1918) (w, d, p), The Greatest Thing in Life (1918) (w, d, p), A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) (d), The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919) (w, d), Broken Blossoms (1919) (w, d, p), True Heart Susie (1919) (w, d, p), The Greatest Question (1919) (w, d, p), Scarlet Days (1919) (w, d), The Idol Dancer (1920) (d), Remodeling Her Husband (1920) (w, d), The Love Flower (1920) (d), Way Down East (1920) (w, d, p), Dream Street (1921) (w, d, p), Orphans of the Storm (1921) (w, d, p), One Exciting Night (1922) (w, d, p), The White Rose (1923) (w, d, p), America (1924) (d), Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) (w, d), Sally of the Sawdust (1925) (d, p), That Royle Girl (1925) (w, d, p), The Sorrows of Satan (1926) (d, p), Topsy and Eva (1927) (d), Drums of Love (1928) (d, p), The Battle of the Sexes (1928) (w, d, p), Lady of the Pavements (1929) (d), Abraham Lincoln (1930) (w, d, p), The Struggle (1931) (w, d, p)
(Key: a = acted, d = directed, p = produced, w = wrote)