William Freeman Movies
- 1918
In this quaint, simple story, Mirandy Judkins (Vivian Martin) helps her mother make ends meet by working as a scrub girl at the local opera house. She meets Teddy Lawrence (Douglas MacLean), the church organist, and a romance develops between the two. Although Mirandy is uneducated, she manages to help everyone solve their small town problems with her cheerful, industrious nature. Eventually, Mrs. Judkins (Maym Kelso) comes into some money and plans to take Mirandy to the country. Mirandy protests because she loves Teddy, but Teddy tells her that it would be best for her to go away and get an education. Then he hints that when she returns, he will marry her. There's nothing particularly exciting about this feature, which was directed by William C. DeMille. DeMille's younger brother, Cecil, preferred directing far more spectacular fare. It was adapted from a novel, The Littlest Scrub Lady by Belle K. Maniates. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivian Martin, Douglas MacLean, (more)
The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing. Showings of Birth of a Nation were picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, (more)
