Word: griffith
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Papa in real life was the papa of an old-time cinemama, Corinne Griffith, who wrote a book about him back in 1952. As the film describes it, life with Papa is one damn fling after another. Not that Papa is a drunk. But he is almost always in a "delicate condition,'' and when he is in a delicate condition he is apt to do any tomfool thing that happens to cross his mind. One morning, sick of looking at a neighbor's purple house, Papa grabs a ladder and-splat! the neighbor's house...
Miss Gish is most frequently remembered for her performance in Orphans of the Storm, made in 1921 in Mamaroneck, New York. This sentimental epic of the French Revolution was one of the last independent productions of David Wark Griffith, inventor of the "spectacular" and a pioneer of film direction in America. The actress recalls one scene that was particularly realistic as opposed to the stylized tradition of the time. In her role as a blind country girl, she had to grope along the wall of a cellar in which some revolutionaries had imprisoned her. Suddenly she drew back her outstretched...
...because the enormous costs have destroyed the strong community feelings that existed among the people who made old-time movies. In the '20's, actors and crewmen could always make suggestions to directors, and often these suggestions were used. "Lillian and I made our own costumes for Orphans, and Griffith or Billy Bitzer [Griffith's favorite cameraman] would always listen to our ideas." With today's high-budget films, each day of shooting costs upwards of $5000. There is not time to have such consultations, and the proliferation of techniques insures that few actors get to know the staff workers...
...Griffith, for whom she played in Hearts of the World as well as Orphans, was Miss Gish's favorite director. A strict disciplinarian, he was a bad stage actor before he took up directing. "He was marvellous because he exaggerated movements in demonstrating the action. This exaggeration showed the mental attitude he wanted from the actor in every situation...
...Griffith's greatest errors came during the shooting of a comedy in Mexico around 1920. Miss Gish and Richard Barthelmess were starred, and the part of a domestic was played by a minor actor. The domestic's part was done so well that Miss Gish approached Griffith with the suggestion that the unknown be put on a contract for future films. The director refused: "The fellow can act, but he looks too foreign, too Latin. I couldn't sell him to the American Public." The actor, on the verge of his part in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, was Rudolph...