The Griffith Project: Films Produced in January-June 1909 (Griffith Project)

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Summary: Comprehensive look at six months of Griffith's early career
Review: While this book was really written for college reference libraries, the serious silent film buff will certainly find it fascinating. This book covers all of the short films that D.W. Griffith directed between January 1909 and June 1909. At this point in his career, he was producing at least two films a week! Of course some of them were made just to get a reel out the door, and others were small works of art that he really put his heart into. As a general rule, these films are not as interesting as the Biograph films he made in 1912 and 1913, but there are still a few gems from this period, like THE LONELY VILLA and THE COUNTRY DOCTOR.

Each film entry includes credit information, a description from the "Biograph Bulletin", a story outline, and a critical commentary written by a film historian. The commentaries point out how Griffith was growing as a film-maker, as well as his struggles to learn the "language" of film editing. The books in this series are required reading for anyone who really wants to know about Griffith's early career.