Florence Lawrence loves Owen Moore, but her father prefers James Kirkwood, so Florence escapes from James' tepee -- did I mention these are Indians? -- and flees with Owen in a canoe, pursued by the rest of the tribe.
The major problems with this one-reel story is that only Miss Lawrence seems to have caught onto the more restrained acting style that D.W. Griffith was developing; and the fact that I have seen this plot a dozen times or more from Mack Sennett, offered as a comedy. Griffith used the chase as a dramatic measure, but it was already well established as a comedy centerpiece. It would take extensive cross-cutting -- which Griffith would begin to tackle this year with works like THE SEALED ROOM -- and a subdued style of acting to make the chase a dramatic thriller.
In the meantime, Griffith works on his compositions, both the group shots -- notice the early shots in which everyone is doing something reasonable and individual -- and his background shots. A lot of this is shot by and on the water and those compositions are quite lovely.
It still doesn't quite work for me because of the many times I have seen the story as travesty and the chase as comic. However, Griffith was still finding his feet.
The major problems with this one-reel story is that only Miss Lawrence seems to have caught onto the more restrained acting style that D.W. Griffith was developing; and the fact that I have seen this plot a dozen times or more from Mack Sennett, offered as a comedy. Griffith used the chase as a dramatic measure, but it was already well established as a comedy centerpiece. It would take extensive cross-cutting -- which Griffith would begin to tackle this year with works like THE SEALED ROOM -- and a subdued style of acting to make the chase a dramatic thriller.
In the meantime, Griffith works on his compositions, both the group shots -- notice the early shots in which everyone is doing something reasonable and individual -- and his background shots. A lot of this is shot by and on the water and those compositions are quite lovely.
It still doesn't quite work for me because of the many times I have seen the story as travesty and the chase as comic. However, Griffith was still finding his feet.