Adventures of Dollie

As the first movie directed by D.W. Griffith, this is certainly of historical interest, both in itself and in comparison with his later, far better efforts. Although "The Adventures of Dollie" is just fair in itself, you can see the director's potential and, even more obviously, the kind of material that he liked to work with.

The setup is one that Griffith would use many times with various modifications, contrasting a conventional American family with a person or persons of whom Griffith disapproved, and bringing them into conflict. In this case, it is a pair of gypsy vagabonds who are responsible for pulling a young girl out of her seemingly idyllic family situation and placing her in a series of perils. Much of the time, the story looks forced or contrived. Yet only a few years later, Griffith would tell very similar stories in such a way that you could hardly help being moved to whatever emotions he wanted you to feel.

Although Griffith is often given too much credit for inventing new techniques, he certainly deserves credit for taking many of the rudimentary techniques of the era and systematically figuring out how to use them to maximum effect. A few years later, he would have added a couple of very brief moments at the beginning to maximize audience sympathy for Dollie, he would have provided a more believable motivation for the vagabonds' actions, and he would have found a way to make the audience feel a stronger sense of danger during Dollie's trip down the river.

Even here, though, his story-telling skills are evident. The print in one of Kino's excellent historical collections is missing all of the inter-titles, and yet there is never a moment when the action is not perfectly clear.

Dollie's 'adventures' are actually rather frightening, when you think about them for a while. But Griffith soon learned how to save his audiences this effort, by devising a wealth of resourceful ways to make sure that viewers did not miss the points he wanted to make.

Though listed as "lost" in Iris Barry's 1940 biography of D.W. Griffith, "The Adventures of Dollie" was discovered in the Library of Congress' paper print division in the 50s and transferred back to flexible film. Having seen it on 8mm, I can attest that it is a rather ordinary one-reeler consisting of thirteen scenes shot from twelve set-ups with nothing to distinguish it from other Biograph product of the era than that it is known to have been the first film directed by D.W. Griffith. I'm rather surprised by the high rating the imdb voters have given it, as Griffith would achieve much higher standards even within 1908, and would go on in short measure to blow films like "Dollie" totally out of the water, both technically and in terms of story development. For him it was merely a start, for us it's amazing this historic treasure survives to be seen at all.

Adventures of Dollie, The (1908)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The first (of 400+) film directed D.W. Griffith is about a pair of gypsies who kidnap a three-year-old girl. When the girl's parents come looking for her the gypsies hide her in a barrel, which they accidentally drop in the river. Griffith's skill is certainly in full display here as his use of editing is right on the mark as he builds suspense of the girl going down the river. A wicked sense of humor is also on display here.

Those Awful Hats (1909)

*** (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith comedy about a movie crowd getting angry because the women's large hats are blocking the screen. This is shorter than most of the shorts from this period but it's a very funny little gem.

Having previously played a man whose son gets kidnapped in Rescue from an Eagle's Nest, for his first work behind the camera, D. W. Griffith tells a story in which a father and mother's daughter gets kidnapped by a gypsy. This was quite a straightforward narrative that doesn't seem much different from other films during this time (once again, there are no close-ups) but there's some excitement especially concerning the object the daughter gets stuck in as we follow that object's journey. And Griffith got great help from co-director G. W. Bitzer who'd eventually be his cinematographer. All in all, The Adventures of Dollie was an enjoyable beginning for Griffith's new career.

The year of 1908 was certainly an important one for a 34 year old playwright named D.W. Griffith, because that was the year he decided to try his luck in films with an adaptation of "Tosca" that he wrote specially for the new movie industry. However, success didn't came quick for the young writer, as literally nobody saw any potential in his work; the only one who saw any kind of potential in him was film pioneer Edwin S. Porter, but his eyes weren't in Griffith's writing skills, but on his acting, and send the young man with director J. Searle Dawly to make some shorts. While disappointed, Griffith kept acting to pay the bills, until later that year, he was finally hired for something other than as an actor: American Mutoscope & Biograph was looking for young directors and D.W. Griffith took the job. 1908's short film, "The Adventures of Dollie", was the humble debut of a director that would be known as a legend.

In "The Adventures of Dollie", a family of three goes out for a nice trip along the riverside during a sunny summer's day. A gypsy (Charles Inslee) walks by them, and attempts to sell his baskets to the family. The Mother (Linda Arvidson) doesn't want to buy anything from him, and attempts to move on, but this angers the gypsy, who begins to attack the mother and her daughter Dollie (Gladys Egan) until the Father (Arthur V. Johnson) appears and drives the gypsy off. Even more angered, the gypsy decides to kidnap Dollie and hide her inside of a barrel to be able to escape unnoticed. When her parents notice she's been kidnapped, they organize a rescue party, but it's too late: the gypsies have escaped and the barrel where Dollie is hidden is on their wagon. However, this is only the beginning, as the barrel falls from the wagon and falls into the river. Dollie's real adventure is just about to begin.

Written by Stanner E.V. Taylor (his first real work as a scriptwriter), "The Adventures of Dollie" is a very simple tale of action and adventure on a style that was made very popular in that year after the release of J. Searle Dawly's "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" (the movie where Griffith debuted as an actor), in fact, the plot of both films are so similar that it's clear that this movie was made to cash on Dawly's success (both films are about kidnapped childs). Still, what made this movie a bit different was that this time the focus was on the kidnapped kid instead of the rescuers, as we follow Dollie (or better said, the barrel that contains her) through the film. Some have labeled the movie as racist towards the Romani people (gypsies), but I find such comments out of place as the story simply reflects the ideas of its time, as gypsies weren't seen on a good light because of their nomadic lifestyle.

In this his modest debut as a director, there are already some early touches of Griffith's genius through the movie. While an amateur following the conventions he has learned from his work as an actor (as well as from codirector and future collaborator G.W. Bitzer), Griffith already begins to show his ideas about storytelling in film and his creative use of editing to create emotions on the audience. The effective use he gives to Arthur Marvin's cinematography helps to keep the film dynamic, away from the theatrical style that was common in those years. True, the film is pretty typical and follows an already stablished ideas about film narrative, but credit must to Griffith for making such an accomplished film with almost zero experience behind the camera.

One of Griffith's most famous traits can also be seeing in this movie, and that is his great skill to get natural performances from his actors. As written above, the movie moves away from the stagy style of film-making of the time, and Griffith takes this ideal to his cast too, as he decides to get a more realistic approach in their performances. Arthur V. Johnson and Linda Arvidson (Griffith's wife) are good in their performances, although Johnson tends to overact a bit (understandable as he had little experience on film). Gladys Egan, who plays little Dollie is also very good, although her role is considerably simpler. As the gypsies, Charles Inslee and Madeline West are OK, although like Johnson, they tend to overact a little bit, although that would be natural, since they are playing the common stereotypes of gypsy people.

"The Adventures of Dollie" is not exactly a movie that one would expect from legendary director D.W. Griffith, but then again, most debuts tend to be mere shadows of the future ahead. Later that very same year Griffith would start making some serious experimentation on this very same plot line, and would create some really innovative films in a very short time. Movies like "The Red Man and the Child", "For a Wife's Honor" and "The Lonely Villa" would introduce new and highly inventive ways of storytelling that would further develop film-making as an art. While many of the techniques he used weren't exactly new, he combined them and put them together in a way that later would be considered as the definitive narrative language of cinema. While there are many better Griffith shorts (even from the same year), this movie is a must see if only because it represents the humble start of a master's career. 6/10