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The Lonely Villa

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The Lonely Villa
Play film; runtime 00:11:41
Directed byD. W. Griffith
Written byMack Sennett
Based onAu Telephone
by André de Lorde
StarringDavid Miles
CinematographyG. W. Bitzer
Arthur Marvin
Distributed byBiograph Company
Release date
  • June 10, 1909 (1909-06-10)
Running time
12 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The Lonely Villa is a 1909 American short silent crime drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. The film stars David Miles, Marion Leonard and Mary Pickford in one of her first film roles. It is based on the 1901 French play Au Téléphone (At the Telephone) by André de Lorde.[1] A print of The Lonely Villa survives and is currently in the public domain.[2] The Lonely Villa was produced by the Biograph Company and shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey.[3][4] It was released on June 10, 1909, along with another D.W. Griffith split-reel film, A New Trick.[2]

Plot

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A group of criminals wait until a wealthy man leaves to break into his house and threaten his wife and daughters. The wife and daughters take refuge inside one of the rooms, but the thieves break in. The father finds out what is happening and runs back home to try to save his family.

Cast

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Production

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The Lonely Villa is notable for one of the earliest applications of “cross-cutting in a peril-and-rescue sequence”, a cinematic method used to create suspense.

The film, 12-minutes in duration, includes a series of alternating shots depicting the mother desperately defending her children from intruders, with shots of the frantic father driving at high speed to reach his imperiled family. Griffith, by incrementally shortening the length of each cross-cut “heightened the excitement” of the event.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Choi, Jinhee; Wada-Marciano, Mitsuyo, eds. (2001). Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. Hong Kong University Press. p. 111. ISBN 962-209-973-4.
  2. ^ a b "Progressive Silent Film List: The Lonely Villa". Silent Era. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  3. ^ Koszarski, Richard (2004). Fort Lee: The Film Town. John Libbey Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 0-86196-653-8.
  4. ^ "Studios and Films". Fort Lee Film Commission. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  5. ^ Gow, 1968 p. 14: Gow quotes from film historian Arthur Knight on Griffith’s early use of cross-cutting to creat suspense. “Excitement” quote is from Knight. Gow, Gordon. 1968. Suspense in the Cinema. Castle Books, New York. The Tanvity Press and A. S. Barnes & Co. Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 68-15196.
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