Coeur d'apache

This prototypical gangster movie is justly one of the best-known of Griffith's Biograph shorts, and may be his literal best. In it we see the director at his most confident and his most precise, as well an early opportunity to see Lillian Gish in a lead role.

The first half of the Musketeers of Pig Alley shows off some of Griffith's most finely crafted shot compositions. Working with several increasingly complex crowd scenes, he manages to keep each one unique, and continually draws our eyes to the most important part of the action, in spite of the degree of complexity. He daringly puts bits of business at the very edges of the frame – a puff of smoke stylishly announces the arrival of Elmer Booth, and later the barman offers a backhander from off-screen. Griffith even works in a joke on his own sense of formal symmetry when, in one street scene Lillian meets her sister Dorothy coming the way. As the two women pass each other, they pause, throw each other a quick glance, then carry on.

In the second half, we see what is arguably the finest use of parallel editing in all of Griffith's Biograph career. As with shot composition, the action climax here is laced with symmetry. Rather than a nail-biting ride-to-the-rescue, this is a tense clash between two opposing forces. Griffith matches up shots of the two rivals gangs as they seek each other out, gradually building up the tension before releasing it in a lightning-fast gunfight. It looks incredibly simple, yet it's so effective. This is the ancestor of John Ford's Western shoot-outs, and Sergio Leone's Mexican standoffs.

The acting is top-notch throughout, and only a few sparse intertitles are used to help the plot along. Gish proves herself adept at the slow, subtle style that was by now the standard at Biograph. Elmer Booth, who had floated around Biograph for a number of years making little impression, at last hits his stride here with a role that is perfect for him. In one memorable close-up during the build up to the shoot-out, he acts brilliantly with his face, looking menacing but also conveying a hint of fear. He also gives a great comic turn in the final scene. Had he not died a few years later he could have been a kind of James Cagney of the silent era – he has that same mean-faced gangster look.

If there is one weakness in The Musketeers of Pig Alley it is that Griffith sometimes actually seems to expect too much of his audience. There is a lot to take in, and some of the plot points are conveyed extremely subtly. Still, it has a terrific impact even on a first viewing, and remains one of the most ageless of all Griffith's pictures.

If you have ever wondered where Jimmy Cagney got some of his mannerisms, watch this film.

Elmer Booth and Harry Carey, early in the movie, portray two New York gangsters so much in the same way Cagney would 20 years later that you almost don't need any other reason to watch "Musketeers."

Watch Carey, playing an un-named character, hitch up his pants. Just great!

This is available in a poor print at YouTube, but watching it there -- or trying to -- will either irritate you or, I hope, drive you to find a good copy to own.

I saw this many years ago in a Griffith retrospective in Los Angeles, and have been in awe of it ever since.

Like so much Mr. Griffith did, it just set the standard for great film-making.

The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) : Brief Review -

Griffith sows an Unbelievable idea of Goodwill in One of the First Gangster Film Ever Made in Cinema World. Largely known as The First (or one of the first) Gangster film Ever made, The Musketeers of Pig Alley is still very exciting even without long runtime and heroic/villainous dialogues. I have seen lots of Crime/Gangster dramas till date and have always wondered why there was no film made ever made which could have used goodwill for the sake gangster's character to give him a deserving chance? At last, i found my catch here. The idea i have been looking for was already sown by Genius Griffith way before audience started loving crime dramas i.e post 1930s. A young wife and her musician husband live in poverty in a New York City tenement. The husband's job requires him to go away for for a number of days. On his return, he is robbed by the neighborhood gangster. A highly predictable drama (for today's time i mean) follows the rest of the narrative and the allegorical climax of 'deserving chance' ends this film on a high note. As it states, "One good turn deserves another" and "Links in the System", you can't stop clapping for Griffith here. I couldn't stop gushing over Lillian Gish, as she looked so Cute (in every film she looked cute, damn!). Walter Miller was good at his part but the gangsters leader Elmer Booth literal took my breath away with his ferocious looks and attitude. Overall, The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a great watch to learn many sensible ethics that were never used in any Gangster film. I wish somebody had the same brain as Griffiths to make similar intellectual drama in talkies era. Don't miss this another fantastic film of Griffith.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest

I'm not going to go into the story because, in the IMDb plot summary, there is a thorough explanation of this tale provided by "American Mindscope and Biograph Co." It covers everything in this short, silent D.W. Griffth movie. I hadn't a silent film in a while, at least since watching most of Buster Keaton's and Harold Lloyd's comedies, so I had forgotten what a pretty woman Lillian Gish was in her youth. What confuses me, though, is that younger sister Dorothy is listed in the opening credits, not Lillian. What's the deal with that? Since Dorothy would have been about 14 at this time, it had to be Lillian in the lead role, as listed here by IMDb. At any rate, Lillian and the faces of the gangsters are really fun to watch. We get closeups of "The Snapper" and his really wild-looking sidekick, played by Harry Carey. Famous actor Lionel Barrymore also has a short role in year but, frankly, I didn't recognize him. By the way, I think Dorothy was one of the people in the crowd early on her brushes up against her sister, who then gives her a look. It was almost like an inside joke. Overall, this a bit confusing in parts because things happened pretty fast. I enjoyed the faces in here more than the story. A gave it a second look, trying to spot Dorothy and to understand the plot better. Afterward, however, I found this IMDb summary to be most helpful.

There had been movies about criminals before 1912, but they were solitary bad guys who worked their illegal activities alone. When D. W. Griffith''s "The Musketeer of Pig Alley" was released in November 1912, it set off a new genre in cinema: the gangster movie.

The term gangster derives from the term "gang," to which a criminal being a member of a criminal organization was a gangster. Here we have actor Elmer Booth, the Snapper Kid and the Musketeers gang leader (this is before Disney) wrecking committing illegal acts in a New York City neighborhood. His gang not only performs petty theft, like stealing the wallet of Lillian Gish's husband, but is in constant turf battles with rival gangs.

Elmer Booth's personality on screen as a cocky, bravado hoodlum served as a prime example for future actors who played gangsters to emulate, including James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Booth faced a brilliant future as an actor, but three years later he was killed in an automobile accident in a car driven by future "Dracula" director Tod Browning.

"Pig Alley" played a huge influence on director Martin Scorsese when he was creating his megahits "Goodfellas" and "The Gangs of New York."

The movie is also noted for filming the first "follow focus" shot in cinema. D. W. Griffith asked his cameraman, Billy Bitzer, to focus on Elmer Booth, leaving the background blurry as the gang members creep alongside the alley building walls. The story has it that Bitzer was confused how out of focus the frame should look like with just Booth sharply filmed. Supposedly Griffith took Bitzer to a local art museum posting artwork with fuzzy backgrounds the director was looking for (probably Impressionist paintings). The cameraman must have understood since the famous shot appears at the 13 minute mark of "Pig Alley," a sequence so influential that moviemakers duplicate the style today. Also known as rack focus for changing focal points, the technique is effective when performed properly.