A Beast at Bay

Beast at Bay, A (1912)

*** (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith film about a woman (Mary Pickford) who dumps the man who loves her because she feels he is a coward. Later, an escaped madman takes her hostage and it's up to the man to try and save her. Once again Griffith shows he knows how to build suspense with a little story. The ending is very well done as Griffith throws every trick (he created) in the book at the screen. Pickford is charming as usual.

You can view this at various online sites like YouTube. The quality isn't the greatest but it'll do until someone official puts it out.

It´s fun to see how the duel storytelling of Griffith comes to life here. A signature of his no doubt. This is a fine little movie. Nothing crazy, nothing bad. It has it´s ups and downs and while being a simple story it´s told well. The technical aspects are where it´s lacking here in terms of clear framing and cutting. But I think this is an ambitious movie no doubt with the costumes, guns and number of vehicles used.

After a convict escapes the police he is on the run and finds a woman who is upset at her boyfriend for not engaging in a brawl. He kidnaps her and the boyfriend has a chance to make amends.

This is no doubt a big scale idea. Many cars, different kinds, the tracking shots, the use of a train, no doubt this must have been ambitious to do. It´s fun to see a movie from this time cut lose and just do it.

Sadly, some of the action isn't shown well here. The police officers using a train really doesn't show well and creates a flat scene. Some of the cuts, especially towards the beginning are very ugly.

This is a cute and fun story. The duel nature of the narrative coming together makes sense and works well. The idea of a man that needs to redeem himself by fighting a even worse thread than the original is fun. I think that the woman overreacts a bit with the first encounter, but it is to push forward the movie.

I love the language that Griffith use. It´s so dramatic and sounds so good. The convict speaking to the girl towards the end sounds so cool. I don't like that the black screens overexplain what´s about to happen or what just happened. We can see that.

This was a decent watch. Some cool ideas and a fun concept. But overall a bit lacking in the technical and story department.

Mary Pickford is quite taken with Edwin August; in fact, he is her "ideal". But, Mr. August's refusal to get mixed up in a street brawl makes him look like a coward to Ms. Pickford. Meanwhile, convict Alfred Paget has escaped from prison; and, he is "A Beast at Bay". While Pickford and August go for a ride in her nifty 1900s automobile, criminal Paget ambushes one of his guards, taking the man's clothing and gun. Next, Pickford drops off August, still arguing he is a coward, and drives off. Alone, Pickford gets out of her car to retrieve a fallen garment; then, on-the-lam Paget moves in to carjack her. From a distance, August witnesses Pickford being taken at gunpoint - can he save his girl, and prove he's not a coward?

Another D.W. Griffith film with a criminal invading an otherwise unrelated situation; this time, the interest is heightened as August's cowardice does play well against the danger offered by convict Paget. August seems, possibly, a little more reasonable than cowardly, given the circumstance depicted; however, the characterizations are interesting and believable. The "parallel" stories have a structural reason to juxtapose.

The engine pursuit is genuinely thrilling - Griffith and his crew continue to offer great, innovative movie excitement. Mae Marsh is the best of the always fine Biograph supporting troupe; she's Pickford's best girlfriend. Pickford is fine as the demanding damsel; she plays the heroine with a relatively high level of resourcefulness - and, it's nice to see Mary Pickford in the "driver's seat"! Paget steals some acting honors, with his portrayal of the desperate convict. Look for a great scene between Paget and Pickford - at about 11:00 minutes in - Paget will touch Mary Pickford's curls, finger her lapel, and reach down to open her coat, suggesting sexual violation; it's creepily well-played.

******* A Beast at Bay (5/27/12) D.W. Griffith ~ Mary Pickford, Alfred Paget, Edwin August

The plot is nothing special and the outcome expected. Everything needs to be tightly contained to fit the reels in these very early films so we cant expect the same characteristics of a feature film.

What is interesting about this film is that Mary Pickford mentions it in her writings and interviews and was well pleased with herself because Griffith gave her some praise for her dare-devil driving. In other words he said 'good girl' which Mary said made her feel quite good. (Obviously Griffith was short on compliments).

This was one of the first and is claimed to be the first 'real' car chase and train race. Mary said she got up to 54 miles per hour in the chase and went around the corner quite fast (Griffith wasn't happy until she did it fast - almost too fast) her driving coach was hidden on the floor of the car out of site in this scene. Mary said that her mother Charlotte actually stayed at home prayed for her while she was doing this chase scene. So this was something special in the history of film making. There is also excitement in the car behind Mary also in the chase - they went over a small raise in the dirt road fast and the back seat passengers (open top) were thrown up into the air about a foot. A little faster and you feel they would have been thrown out.

This shows that Griffith was pushing for something than the mundane and, achieved it.

Early in the film you should note that Mary is very comfortable driving the car, a real natural and you get the feeling she had lots of practice. She loved owing and driving cars.

The race with the train is brilliant and you get a real sense of speed and tension and close competition.

This little piece deserves a high rating simply for the car and train race.

I've been watching a lot of early Mary Pickford, Biograph movies from 1908-1910. They feature some great naturalistic acting.

There's a definite advance in camera work and editing in this 1912 film. There's much more depth of field also. It is breathtaking to see a racing car and a racing train in the same shot hundreds of feet apart.

The version I watched was an Official Mary Pickford release on YouTube with music by Dan Light. The music was excellent and really added to the excitement of the movie.

This seems to be a 13 minute, 11 second version, but it is identical to a 17 minute, 53 second completely silent version running on the Daily Motion Site. I thought that the 13 minute version might have cut something, but everything is the same and the 13 minute version just seems to run the frames at a faster rate.