The Lonedale Operator

The Lonedale Operator, which is about a young daughter of a rail operator (not on the train, at the nearby station) and how she has to fill in for her sick father (this after an opening where she, uh, flirts with some guy or something, I'm not sure), a couple of thieves plot to steal from the train and so she has to defend herself, albeit fainting for part of the time while the train has to deal with no operator.

It gets good in the second half, when the story actually fully kicks in and Blanche Sweet's fill-in train operator has to fend off a couple of thieves trying to break in (once again with Griffith, like the Lonely Villa and some other shorts he did with this theme of invasion). Sweet's wonderful, but the pacing felt off for me. Not one of the best nor worst, The Lonedale Operator, which features some fine color-tinting for some shots, is OKAY.

A movie like this could only get away with a 7-out-of-10 rating today, considering its popularity at the time and its historical significance as a D.W.Griffith experience.

This short details a young girl who is operating a train stop when some bandits, or miscreants, or something, begin to threaten her. As she tries to hold them at bay, a train operator comes to the rescue.

Even by today's standards, the cutting of the film makes it relatively intense. Griffith claimed he invented a lot of techniques that he didn't, but perhaps the one thing it cannot be argued he invented is a director's style (auteurship). Early films didn't even have credits attached, and yet audiences recognized a Griffith film anyways.

The same holds today. This is a Griffith film, by and large. Whether it's worth the search to find and watch depends on your interest of the era, Griffith, or maybe silent films as a whole. Otherwise this film is nothing more than a research tool for film classes and cinephiles.

--PolarisDiB

Wow. It's hard to believe that Miss Blanche Sweet was fifteen when she was directed by the great D.W. Griffith in this Biograph production from 1911. Blanche, at such an early age, was not only extremely mature in terms her physique and baring, she was a remarkably accomplished actress. Her naturalistic acting translates well with modern audiences (at leased with all my friends to whom I've shown this movie). This film is a good one, suspenceful and atmospheric, but it's definatly not the best of Griffith's Biographs. It ranks pretty highly with the other work of his that I've seen. It is certainly aided by Sweet's performance, and also helpful the exemplary early use of "montage" which Griffith had been putting to use in his films as early as 1909. For a peak at what a great man like Griffith was doing before he made The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916) and Way Down East (1920), this is certainly one to take a good look or two at, just to get a peak at what the future had in store for cinema history.

This little movie follows the same structure and tropes of most of D. W. Griffith shorts of this era. These shorts often feel dated and very melodramatic from today's point of view, which is understandable. However, there is something about this particular movie that makes it standout from the rest.

In my opinion, Blanche Sweet does a great job in this role. Given the acting style of the early 1910s, Sweet's performance feels more modern than most. Her performance adds to the pace of the movie, which is nicely achieved.

In my opinion, I would take out the "romance" tag for this movie and add the "action" one. To sum up, a nice 17 minutes watch readily available in YouTube, some uploads incorporate music score which makes the experience much better.

This is a very good drama with a fine performance by Blanche Sweet who, almost unbelievably, was only 15 at the time. If D.W. Griffith had not remade it the following year (as the fine feature "The Girl and Her Trust), then Sweet and "The Lonedale Operator" might be better remembered.

The story is very similar to that in the better-known remake, with Sweet playing the daughter of a telegraph operator, who takes over when her father becomes ill, only to find herself thrust into a highly dangerous situation. The scenario was written by Mack Sennett, which makes it very interesting to imagine Sennett and the somber Griffith working together. It's surprisingly tight, and only a funny bit at the end (which works well) breaks the tension.

If you've seen and enjoyed the remake, this one is also well worth watching. It's less complex, but it's quite good in its own right. Sweet gives the heroine a different nature than does Dorothy Bernard in the remake, and both of them are quite good in the role, with no need at all to choose one or the other as the 'best' of the two performances.