The Mountaineer's Honor

Mountaineer's Honor, The (1909)

*** (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith film about a young girl (Mary Pickford) who falls in love with a rich man but once he breaks her heart, the girl's brother goes out to protect her honor. This is a pretty good film from Griffith who's clearly showing off his Southern heritage here. Pickford gives a wonderful performance as the young girl and it's certainly the best I've seen from here in these early Griffith films. The film ends on a very strange note.

This film is available through Grapevine in part of their D.W. Griffith: The Director series.

It is 2200 (eastern Australian time) and I have just been given a 35mm print of this movie, a 16mm duplicate negative and a 16mm print. The 35mm print matches the criteria for being a old print. The story line is very thin and extremely easy to follow but to a 1909 audience it may have been quite substantial. For me it is like watching an amateur stage play but I find the body language interesting. For a movie this old the technical quality is very good, the 16mm print shows steady frame lines, no side weaving and a good tonal range with sharp definition. I also find the lack of camera movement fascinating and I think some modern filmmakers should study this technique

The 34 year old D.W. Griffith may have been a good director in terms of narrative, but he was dreadful when it came to working with actors. His vast tome of short films is testimony to the fact that he did not allow Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett and Lilian Gish to construct a biography and history for their characters in each short film, and therefore what you eventually see is a one-dimensional story lack any emotional involvement. This is the reason why Sennett and Pickford moved on to make their own films. With all the strengths that Griffith may have as a director, his shortcomings far outweigh anything that he has contributed. He went for quantity rather than quality, and compromised winning favour with successive audiences.