The Girl and Her Trust

Girl and Her Trust, The (1912)

*** (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith short has a female telegraph operator being held up by a couple tramps who plan on stealing $2,000. Once again seeing a Griffith film from this period compared to what else was around just shows why they say the man invited film. Here Griffith uses the editing to build nice tension and some real excitement as the tramps kidnap the woman and head off with the good guy following. The train sequence is brilliantly done and this is 15 years before Buster Keaton's The General.

A short film with simple story, but a clearly significant film. This film is featured on the 'Landmarks of Early Film' DVD and is a must for those with an interest in the cinema.

The lead female is played by Dorothy Bernard, an attractive lady of the time and showing an independence and assertiveness that can surprise some given the time period. Vintage films can often show that females were not always portrayed as the down-trodden gender, that the current politically correct vogue would have us believe.

The train chase in the film, taking into account the age of the film is a treat, and reminiscent of 'The General' (made some 15 years later).

In summary a must view for those interested in or studying the history of cinema.

This short drama is quite a masterpiece for its time, using every available technique along with great skill in story-telling and photography, all of which take a fairly simple story and make it interesting, believable, and exciting. There is good detail that helps define and explain the characters, expert use of cross-cutting and editing to heighten the suspense, and a nice variety of indoor and outdoor settings. Dorothy Bernard also deserves credit as the young woman willing to risk danger in order to fulfill her trust.

Many of Griffith's short films show not only masterful technique, but also an impressive efficiency that wasn't always present in his later, longer features. "A Girl and Her Trust" is one of the best of all his shorter movies, and it deserves its place as one of the best-remembered and most praised movies of its era.

As I was watching this I thought, 'Wait... have I seen this before? I could've swore I saw this exact same scenario in another silent short, even directed Griffith himself. This is uncan... oh, yeah, the Lonedale Operator!' Suddenly going back through my recent roladex or whatever of silent shorts I've been watching I discovered I recently watched the 1911 short, also from Biograph, called the Lonedale Operator, and as it turns out these two shorts have practically the same plot: girl is running an office for a train station, bandits come and are going to pull a robbery. The difference is that in 'Lonedale' a sick/dying father left the job for his daughter to do, and here she's just already on the job.

It might not matter to most though, since I'm sure if you're digging in to DW Griffith short films from over a century ago continuity isn't that important, so one might see this before Lonedale. I just find it lacks a certain core-story imagination, despite the fact that Griffith is certainly up to the task of creating suspense out of how the bandits come to the station and terrorize the girl. Now, it is different actresses in both (Blanche Sweet is lacking here, but Dorothy Bernard is alright), but again, I can't help but feel like if you've seen one semi-not-quite-almost helpless woman operator terrorized by thuggish bandits with a train robbery plot short film, you've seen em all.

All this said... I think I might like this one a little more if only because of the second half of the short when things ramp up and there's a sequence involving one of those things on the tracks that two people operate to move along (with the 'girl' along with, she shows some courage for her trust you know!), and this given parallel editing to the oncoming train.

This is a pretty good silent short from D. W. Griffith, as it features bandits, a steadfast and good heroine and some nifty action. While it isn't the deepest film I have ever seen, it does make for a good film because it has a well-developed plot and is paced very well. Unlike some other films of the same period, this film has a definite beginning, middle and end and is quite watchable in the 21st century. Part of this is because the acting is somewhat restrained for 1912--being a little less over-done than you might often see at the time. Instead of hysterics, the lady in the film is cool-headed and does her best to stop two evil tramps from stealing the payroll. Pretty old fashioned, but still well made and watchable.