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
- 1910
The Biograph melodrama Two Little Waifs was partially filmed on location in Greenwich, Connecticut. Placed in an orphanage, the two title characters pine away for their recently deceased mother. Meanwhile, a wealthy woman mourns over the loss of her only daughter. It is only a matter of time before the woman and the two waifs will meet, become enchanted with each other, and live together happily ever after. The film was a blatant and shameless tug at the audience's heartstrings, and few directors could have pulled it off with as much taste and finesse as D. W. Griffith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1910
The outskirts of Paterson, New Jersey proved an interesting substitute for 18th-century Paris in Biograph's French Revolution melodrama The Oath and the Man. A band of Revolutionaries is led by a man with strong religious convictions. Though he does so at great personal risk, the hero resists all temptations to be dissuaded from his solid Christian values. Thus, when the crowd cries out for the blood of the captured aristocrats, their leader refuses to acknowledge their demands, preferring mercy over revenge. Films like Oath and the Man can now be regarded as warm-ups for D.W.Griffith's 1921 French Revolution epic Orphans of the Storm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1910
D.W. Griffith dashed off the one-reel Little Angels of Luck entirely within the confines of the Bronx Biograph studios. Since the film apparently no longer exists, it is difficult to synopsize the storyline. The studio described it as "a contemporary child melodrama," which wasn't much help. Evidently, this was the story of two little girls who brought a ray of hope to a luckless adult couple. It isn't known who played the "little angels," but Mary Pickford, who at age 17 had already moved onto adult roles, wasn't one of them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1910
When an Indian is found cruelly murdered, the tribe begins to plan for a revenge attack against the nearby white settlement in this typical one-reel Biograph melodrama directed by D. W. Griffith in the wilds of Coytesville, New Jersey. A little Indian girl Gladys Egan who had earlier been given a doll by her white playmate, warns the settlement of the impending Indian attack. No longer taken by surprise, the settlement is able to beat off their attackers, but the little Indian girl is among the lost. The Broken Doll is preserved in the paper print collection of the Library of Congress. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1910
Always fascinated with Native American mythology and folklore, director D.W. Griffith turned out no fewer than six "Indian" pictures in 1910. A bigoted white medicine man refuses to come to the assistance of an ailing Indian child. But the man's wife is a bit more humanitarian; unbeknownst to her husband, she sneaks into the Mohawk camp and administers the necessary medicines and poultices. The child lives, and as a result the grateful Mohawk chieftain abandons his plans to massacre the white settlement. One of these was the one-reel The Mohawk's Way, filmed "way out West" in Water Gap, New Jersey. Among the "Griffith players" in the film was future comedy producer Mack Sennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1910
This D.W.Griffith-directed Biograph melodrama is set during the Russian Revolution. No, not the successful 1917 coup, but one of the many failed 19th-century uprisings. After conducting a raid on a Rebel camp, a Czarist officer discovers that his wife has joined the revolutionaries. Out of loyalty to his wife, the officer resigns his commission and escapes with her to America. Several years later, the ex-officer is gainfully employed as a waiter in a Russian restaurant. For the sake of his grown son, who is engaged to marry a wealthy socialite, our hero pretends to be a man of great wealth and prestige. The truth is revealed in the final scene, but "Waiter Number 5" is saved from disgrace by the timely arrival of his former superior officer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1908
In this four hanky early silent melodrama, Ruth tries to survive amidst tragedy and toil on New York's Lower East Side. It all begins as Ruth's mother dies. Just before she expires, she hands her daughter a beautiful locket to help her remember that hope exists. Afterward, Ruth returns to working beside her father in his pawnshop. The two have a terrible falling out when she chooses to marry an impoverished bookseller. Her enraged father casts her out and tells her never to return. Ruth and her husband are happy and she bears a daughter. Later, her husband dies in an accident and she is left destitute. Soon poverty takes its toll and Ruth is deathly ill. Desperate for money, she gives her beloved locket to her daughter and instructs her to pawn it. The daughter ends up wandering into the store of her grandfather, whom she's never met. He sees the locket, has a change of heart and runs to help his daughter. Unfortunately, Ruth has gone, leaving the grandfather to raise the girl himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
