Alfred Paget Movies
English-born leading man and character actor Alfred Paget got his start in early silent films. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Belshazzar in the Babylonian segment of Griffith's Intolerance (1916). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1912
Cherubic character actor Otis Harlan stars as Goodrich Mudd, the "black sheep" of the film's title. The bane of his prominent family's existence, Goodrich brings even more embarrassment upon his loved ones when he gets mixed up with a seedy burlesque troupe. Before the inevitable "redemption" scene, there are several slapstick highlights, all of them played to the hilt by the star. The film takes particular advantage of Harlan's stage specialty, his "kidney feet," in one crucial scene, wherein Goodrich cavorts drunkenly onstage with a line of chorus girls (this sort of routine would later be de rigueur in the 2-reel comedies of Leon Errol. The Black Sheep was based on a stage farce by Charles Hoyt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1912
Nine-year-old Nedda (Madge Evans) is a direct descendant of the Trevors, a family that can trace its roots back to the reign of King Charles I. Alas, the Trevors suffer severe financial reverses, and Nedda is yanked from the luxury of her ancestral home in Britain to be raised on New York's Lower East Side. Ten years later, the grown-up Nedda (Barbara Castleton) stands accused of the murder of her mother. How this came about, and who really "done it," is revealed through a prismatic series of flashbacks. A hint: Nedda's veddy proper father Ralph is not all that he seems. ~ 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
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
Filmed during the Biograph Company's yearly winter excursion to sunny California, this one-reel Western melodrama features Mary Pickford in the title role, as an Indian maiden rescued from her cruel captors by prospector Alfred Paget. The Indians retaliate by capturing the young man's sweetheart, Dorothy Bernard, who is saved in the nick of time from being burned at the stake. Iola, alas, dies in the ensuing battle, but not before she can point the gallant prospector toward a hidden gold mine. This typical Indian melodrama, preserved in the paper print collection of the Library of Congress, was filmed in and around L.A. in January of 1912. ~ 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
- 1911
D.W. Griffith's The Two Paths is frequently written off as a "potboiler," but, in 1911 at least, any one of Griffith's potboilers was worth three of anyone else's films. This cautionary drama charts the lives of two sisters, one frivolous, the other sensible. The frivolous one heads off to the Big City, where she becomes the mistress of a callous millionaire; the sensible one marries for love, settling down happily as the wife of a hard-working carpenter. Guess which one of these romances ends in tragedy? In his book on Griffith's Biograph films, Robert Henderson has noted that The Two Paths contains many of the director's trademarks-to-me, including one scene illuminated solely by the light of a fireplace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
