Billy Bitzer Movies

In this drama, set within an urban hotel, a nightclub dancer witnesses a gangland killing and must flee for her life. She escapes to the Hotel Variety, a home for aspiring performers, and there meets a young dancer and his young son. Naturally the two fall in love. Unfortunately, the hitman has located her and has begun to search the hotel halls. Just as it looks like it's curtains for the woman, the clumsy killer falls from a hotel fire escape and dies. Later a friendly investor hires them all to be in his newest film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

D.W. Griffith's last silent film, The Lady of the Pavements was based on La Paiva, a story by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller. Set in 19th-century Paris, the story concerns the romantic travails of Prussian aristocrat Count Karl von Arnim (played by future "Hopalong Cassidy" star William Boyd). Feeling betrayed by his flirtatious fiancee, Countess Diane des Granges (Jetta Goudal), Karl misanthropically declares that he'd sooner marry a "lady of the pavements" (Hollywoodese for "prostitute"). Hoping to demonstrate to Karl that appearances are deceiving, Diane engages the services of low-born Spanish cabaret entertainer Nanon del Rayon (Lupe Velez), dressing the girl in gorgeous gowns and passing her off as a noblewoman. Karl is smitten by Nanon and proposes marriage, but during their wedding reception Diane spitefully reveals Nanon's true identity as "proof" that Karl wouldn't know a Girl of the Streets if he actually met one. By this time, however, Karl has genuinely fallen in love with Nanon, whereupon Diane's nasty scheme blows up in her face. For a director who was considered a relic and a has-been, D.W. Griffith invests Lady of the Pavements with all sorts of cinematic nuances, including a remarkable multiple-exposure sequence in which William Boyd appears on screen in 13 different guises at once! Completed as a silent, the film was slightly reshot to qualify as a part-talkie, including two musical numbers and a dialogue sequence in which Griffith experimented with "sound modulation" -- another important (and frequently unheralded) innovation from the Father of American Film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of a 1914 D.W. Griffith potboiler, The Battle of the Sexes is a highly entertaining, if cautionary, tale of a middle-aged family man, J.C. Judson (Jean Hersholt), who despite his devotion to wife and offspring falls for what is obviously a gold digger, Marie Skinner (Phyllis Haver). When Mrs. Judson (Belle Bennett) and her grown children, Ruth (Sally O'Neil) and Billy (William Bakewell), confront him with the awful truth, Judson refuses to give up his inamorata and instead moves out of the home. A desperate Ruth, gun in hand, seeks a showdown with Marie, but their confrontation is interrupted by the latter's handsome but feckless boyfriend, Babe Winsor (Don Alvarado), who in drunkenness begins to court the pretty Ruth. Judson walks in on this tender scene and immediately employs a double standard, condemning his daughter for bringing shame upon his house. A violent argument between a jealous Marie and Babe forces him to face the truth, however, and a chagrined Judson returns to home and hearth, begging for forgiveness. Beautifully restored and released on DVD in 2000, The Battle of the Sexes benefits from a wonderful new score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This epic tale about the American Revolution broke the bank for filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Robert W. Chambers loosely adapted his novel, The Reckoning, which focuses on the battles in New York state. Griffith however, found it necessary to add a romance, so Chambers obligingly added one for him. Captain Walter Butler (Lionel Barrymore), a supporter of the king, goads the Iroquois Indians into attacking settlers who are loyal to the Revolution. Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton) is a dispatch rider for the Boston Committee on Public Safety, and a patriot. While on a mission in Virginia he meets Nancy (Carol Dempster), the daughter of Justice Montague, a Tory (Erville Alderson). The Montagues are on hand in Lexington for the ride of Paul Revere (Harry O'Neill)--one of the highlights of the film. Nancy's brother, Charles (Charles Mack) sides with the rebels and dies during the fighting at Bunker Hill. Nancy and her father go to visit relatives in the Mohawk Valley; Holden meanwhile is with Washington (Arthur Dewey) at Valley Forge. He is sent North with Morgan's raiders to quell the Indian uprising and discovers that Montague has naively betrothed Nancy to the evil Captain Butler. When Montague finds out that Butler is responsible for the massacres it is too late. Holden overhears Butler's plan for another attack and he goes to sound the alarm, even though he must leave Nancy in the lustful clutches of Butler. But the Indians insist on attacking immediately, saving Nancy from Butler's grasp. Morgan's raiders come to the rescue, killing Butler and halting the massacre. Montague finally realizes Holden's worth and approves of a match between him and Nancy. This picture cost nearly a million dollars, got mixed reviews, and did not make its money back. Griffith made one more picture--Isn't Life Wonderful--as an independent. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Having turned the creaky old stage melodrama Way Down East into a money-spinning film, director D.W. Griffith set about to perform the same magic with the barnstorming theatrical piece The Two Orphans. Adolphe Philippe Dennery's play told the story of two orphaned girls, one blind, who are separated early on and undergo innumerable deprivations before their tearful reunion. Though the play took place in France, it had nothing whatsoever to do with the French Revolution; this didn't stop Griffith from plunking the storyline smack dab in the middle of that late-18th-century maelstrom, allowing him full scope for the spectacular scenes which had brought him worldwide fame. Lillian Gish plays Henriette, the sighted sister, while Dorothy Gish is cast as the visually impaired Louise. Henriette brings Louise to Paris, in search of a surgeon who might be able to restore her sister's sight. Henriette is kidnapped by a lascivious nobleman, leaving Louise to wander helplessly about until she too is "stolen" by a family of beggars. Rescued by kindhearted aristocrat Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut), Henriette begins the arduous search for her lost sister. Just before the film's intermission, Henriette hears Louise begging on the streets. Before they can be reunited, Henriette is arrested by minions of the evil nobleman who'd earlier tried to seduce her. Released from the Bastille by the revolutionaries, Henriette resumes her search, only to be arrested again--this time because she has consorted with the aristocracy, and is therefore a candidate for the guillotine. The stage is thus set for a thrilling "race to the rescue" climax, and of course the reuniting of the two orphans. Orphans of the Storm was filmed at Griffith's east coast studio in Mamaroneck, New York, which explains why the exteriors are always so overcast. In an effort to be topical, Griffith took every opportunity possible to equate the French revolution with the recent Bolshevik rebellion in Russia, and to warn his audience of the dangers of mob rule (this from a man who glorified the Ku Klux Klan in Birth of a Nation!) The film opened to excellent reviews and great business; Griffith, who always placed art above commerce, poured virtually every penny of profit into his "smaller" project, Isn't Life Wonderful, which died at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"I'm not a bad businessman", filmmaker D.W. Griffith once protested, "Honestly I'm not!" Yet industryites were certain that Griffith had taken leave of his financial senses when he paid $175,000 for the screen rights to the old Lottie Blair Parker stage play Way Down East. Considered out of date even in 1920, the play told the story of Anna (Lillian Gish), the efficient yet secretive serving girl for a large farm family. Anna falls in love with David Bartlett (Richard Barthelmess), the family's son, but feels unworthy of him due to her checkered past. It seems that, years earlier, Anna had been duped into a sham marriage by city slicker Lenox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). When she became pregnant, Sandson walked out on her. Shortly afterwards, her newborn child died, and Anna was shunned by her home community. These facts come to surface when Sanderson returns to Anna's life as the local squire. David's prudish father orders Anna out of the house and into a blinding snowstorm, but David, after settling accounts with the duplicitious Sanderson, goes after Anna and claims her as his bride. In adapting Way Down East for the screen, Griffith fleshes out the characters of Anna and Sanderson by adding a prologue, which included one of those poignant scenes ever filmed: Anna's tearful insistence that her dying baby be baptized. He also injected the weary old property with a jolt of sheer showmanship, added a "last minute rescue" sequences wherein Anna, lying exhausted on an ice floe, is rescued by David seconds before plunging over a precipitous waterfall. Even today's audiences, armed with the foreknowledge that Lillian Gish enjoyed 73 hale and hearty years after the completion of Way Down East, invariably gasp in fright and urge Richard Barthelmess to "hurry! hurry!"during the climactic scene. Far from becoming Griffith's Folly as predicted, Way Down East was a huge moneymaker. There is no better of Griffith's artistry than the fact that the 1930 talkie remake of Way Down East, though directed by the formidable Henry King, failed to match the pathos and power of the 1920 version. Our own quibble: why did Griffith retain so much of the original play's wheezy comedy relief, and why did he put that relief in the hands of the relentlessly unfunny Creighton Hale? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A more exotic story than 1920s audiences had come to expect from D.W. Griffith, The Love Flower nonetheless adheres to Griffith's usual Dickensian approach to storytelling. There's an early outrage (the murder of a man), a child with a clouded past (the murderer's daughter), a decades-long vendetta (a detective devotes his life to tracking down the murderer) and a last minute struggle to the death (this one expertly filmed underwater). The film's locale is a remote tropical island, permitting leading lady Carole Dempster to go through her gamine paces with less clothing than she'd be required to wear in an urban or rural setting. Richard Barthelmess plays the "outsider" who falls in love with island girl Dempster. Her father George MacQuarrie, wanted by the law for killing his wife's lover, is himself presumably deep-sixed at fadeout time. But since MacQuarrie is essentially a sympathetic character, detective Anders Randolph looks the other way when evidence of MacQuarrie's survival presents itself. Based on a story by Ralph Stock, The Love Flower and Griffith's earlier The Idol Dancer were both conceived during the director's 1919 business-and-pleasure visit to Nassau (where the exteriors for both films were shot). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Out of all of Griffith's films about the Great War, this one impressed the least. Perhaps Carol Dempster should share part of the blame for this -- it was her first starring vehicle and her hyperactive performance was soundly upstaged by her charismatic co-star Clarine Seymour. In brief, the plot concerns two brothers, Ralph (Richard Barthelmess) and James Grey (Robert Harron), and the girls who love them (Dempster and Seymour, respectively). Ralph is the good boy who hurries to enlist and winds up in France, where he meets up with Dempster. James, meanwhile, is a lazy reprobate who stays at home and is reformed by cabaret girl Seymour. Griffith's directing style, at this point in his career, was already starting to fall behind the times. Nevertheless, Harron's performance, along with Seymour's, shines. Tragically, both young actors would die in 1920. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

True Heart Susie is one of D.W. Griffith's "pastoral" films, wherein plot takes second place to characterization and romance. Lillian Gish plays Susie May Trueheart, who so loves local boy William Jenkins (Robert Harron) that she secretly finances his education. Returning to his home town as a minister, Jenkins never catches on that Susie is crazy for him. While Our Heroine pines away, Jenkins marries The Wrong Woman, young temptress Betty Hopkins (Clarine Seymour). Betty begins indulging in affairs with other men, but Susie loyally keeps this information from the reverend Jenkins. Even when Betty dies of pneumonia, Susie refuses to reveal all she's done on Jenkins' behalf. Finally, Susie's Aunt (Kate Bruce) can stand no more: she tells Jenkins the whole story, whereupon he takes Susie in his arms and pledges eternal devotion. In the hands of a lesser director, True Heart Susie might have been impossibly maudlin (and unbelievable; after all, can anyone be as much of a blockhead as Reverend Jenkins seems to be?) As it stands, the film's dramatic and heart-tugging value has not diminished, not even after the passage of nearly eighty years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on "The Chink and the Child", a story by Thomas Burke, Broken Blossoms is one of D.W. Griffith's most poetic films. Richard Barthelmess plays a young Chinese aristocrat who hopes to spread the gospel of his Eastern religion to the grimy corners of London's Limehouse district. Rapidly disillusioned, Barthelmess opens a curio shop and takes to smoking opium. One evening, Lillian Gish, the waif-like daughter of drunken prizefighter Donald Crisp, collapses on Barthelmess' doorstep after enduring one more of her father's brutal beatings. Barthelmess shelters the girl, providing her with the love and kindness that she has never known. Crisp, offended that his daughter is living with a "heathen," forces the girl to return home with him. In a terrible drunken rage, Crisp beats Lillian to death. Barthelmess arrives on the scene, kills Crisp, then kneels beside Lillian's body and takes his own life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This war-time D.W. Griffith film was literally filler -- some of the footage was left over from around the time he shot Hearts of the World. According to reports of the day (the film apparently no longer exists), its modest story and simple approach was a comedown from the director's other, far more impressive work. When World War I breaks out, Jim Young (Robert Harron), of Youngstown goes to Canada to enlist. While training in Britain, he becomes fired up by observing the Dowager Queen and Lady Diana Manners contributing to the war effort (these were actual members of the British royalty and nobility, and were filmed in 1917). He also meets Susie Broadplains (Lillian Gish), a reverend's daughter, but their romance is interrupted by intrigue. Sir Roger Brighton (Henry B. Walthall), who has deserted a girl (Gloria Hope) and come to town, is being courted by a group of German spies. Sir Roger gets interested in Susie when she inherits some money, and this angers Jim, who leaves for the front. Susie naively marries Sir Roger, but when she finds out about his former sweetheart, she spurns him. The spies are to light the way for some planes to bomb an arsenal, but when the driver is captured, Mademoiselle Cointee (Rosemary Theby) is pressed into service. She can't drive, so she convinces Sir Roger to help her. Jim, who has returned, chases after them and smashes their searchlight. Then he uses his own and leads the German fleet to bomb an empty field. In disgrace, Sir Roger takes his own life, leaving Jim and Susie to reunite in the war cause. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).

Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Armstrong's venerable stage melodrama The Escape was first brought to the screen by D.W. Griffith in 1914. In true "blood will tell" fashion, the unfortunate children of a criminal family are doomed to live outside the law themselves. Petty crook Jim Joyce (Fred A. Turner) is the father of three: Mae (Blanche Sweet), Jenny (Mae Marsh), and Larry (Robert Harron). While Mae falls in love with a handsome and upright medical intern named Von Elden (Owen Moore), Jenny enters into a less-savory relationship with gangster Bull McGee (Donald Crisp). Meanwhile, brother Larry, seething with resentment over his father's brutality, skulks around like an accident waiting to happen. Things come to a dramatic head when Bull McGee, in a drunken delirium, sells Jenny into white slavery and crushes his own baby to death. Bull inevitably meets his comeuppance at the hands of Larry, while Mae and Von Elden are able to escape all the sordidness and enjoy a wholly unexpected happy ending. The Escape was remade as a "prohibition" drama in 1928. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide