Robert Harron Movies
Teenaged New Yorker Robert Harron escaped the bleak poverty of his Irish-immigrant neighborhood by taking a messenger job at the American Biograph film studios in the Bronx. When director D. W. Griffith arrived at Biograph in 1908, he took a liking to Harron and decided to take advantage of the boy's photogenic qualities. Before he was 20 years old, Harron was one of the busiest and most popular players at Biograph, acting opposite such "youngsters" as the Gish Sisters and Mary Pickford and playing an exhausting variety of characters, from country bumpkins to hollow-eyed drug addicts. He played one large role and several smaller ones in Griffith's groundbreaking Birth of a Nation (1915), and was prominently featured as the young man unjustly sentenced to hang in the director's follow-up epic Intolerance (1916). He remained with Griffith in 1920, then broke off to form his own production company. Unfortunately, Harron never realized his goal. In September of 1920, Harron died when he was fatally wounded by a gunshot to the left lung in what was officially ruled an accident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1912
This exciting drama from D.W. Griffith was a remake of his earlier The Lonedale Operator. Grace (Dorothy Bernard) is a telegraph operator for the train line. She is attracted to her co-worker Jack. When a bank sends $2000 on the train that is to be picked up at the telegraph office, a couple of tramps who were riding on the train break into the telegraph office and attempt to get into the strong-box. Grace puts a bullet in the key-hole of the door and hits it with a hammer and scissors to try to scare the tramps off, but they pull the strongbox out the door. She telegraphs for help and then runs outside to try to stop the robbery. The tramps kidnap her and make their escape on a railroad hand-car. However, her friend Jack races to the rescue with a train. Griffith features Bernard as a strong career-woman who works hard at her job. This film shows that after four years cranking out one or two films a week, Griffith had become a talented director. The "traveling shots" of the train speeding to the rescue, as well as quick editing, made this a suspenseful film for its day. ~ Bruce Calvert, All Movie Guide
- 1912
The last film Mary Pickford did for director D.W. Griffith was made from the first scenario Anita Loos ever submitted to a movie studio. The young writer's story showed her to be clever beyond her years and experience. In a small Vermont town, a dying mother hands over her small savings to a minister (Lionel Barrymore). She implores him to watch over her daughter (Mary Pickford) and to buy her something nice now and again -- the girl's miserly father does not believe in luxuries. The minister promises to do so. One item he buys the girl is a fancy New York hat. The village buzzes with gossip when they see Mary wearing the hat that the minister bought, and rumors of an affair between the minister and the young girl spread. Finally the minister reveals the letter in which Mary's mother made the agreement with him, and all is well. Even with her first script, it is typical of Loos to lampoon self-righteous small-town values. After shooting The New York Hat, Pickford went on to star in a Broadway play, A Good Little Devil, for David Belasco; after that she went to work for Adolph Zukor at Famous Players. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1912
A prospector's (Charles Gorman) wife (Blanche Sweet) is kidnapped by a Mexican bandit (Charles Hill Mailes), but the two men call a temporary truce in order to defeat the common enemy -- the Indians. This typical Biograph Western melodrama was filmed on location in Southern California during the studio's 1911-1912 winter sojourn. It is preserved in the paper print collection of the Library of Congress. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1912
A wagon train is attacked by marauding Indians in this typically grisly Biograph one-reel western melodrama preserved in the print collection of the Library of Congress. After the massacre of the title, a soldier searches for his wife and child. He finds them -- under a pile of dead soldiers. Griffith and his faithful players "took" this picture in California during the company's winter and spring sojourn of 1912. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
