User Reviews

This film was shot in January, 1912 and it represents a major step forward for Griffith. The camera-work by Billy Bitzer is excellent. Griffith is beginning to get his fluid style. Unlike the earlier Griffith films I've seen, the camera actually inter-cuts from a long-medium to a medium shot in the same scene.

We get a nice sense of a fishing village just from shots of Mary Pickford with waves in the background. Charles West is the handsome hero here. He is in love with Mary and proposes to her. Unfortunately, he apparently has been having a relationship with Mabel Norman. He drops Norman who doesn't take it very well and fights with Pickford (whom she later called "that prissy bitch")Mabel's brother is even more upset. He grabs a gun and comes after Charles West.

The acting is borderline melodramatic, but it is effective, You do get caught up in this love story. This is artistic filmmaking on the edge of being art. Griffith's direction is taking on a deeper quality here and he's starting to get some good performances from his actors. This is 1912, the year that Griffith really becomes Griffith.

Although it has a rather routine story of a young couple whose happiness is threatened by an old flame, "The Mender of Nets" is still watchable, in part because of Mary Pickford and in part because of some good touches that give it some life. Pickford doesn't have a chance to show all that she could do in this one, but she's always worth watching. The sea-side setting is emphasized in most of the scenes, providing some atmosphere to set off the story. While the action (and acting) is often quite melodramatic, there are also some good shots that emphasize the characters' relationships in more subtle ways. Nothing special, but certainly watchable.

Mary Pickford and Mabel Normand, two of silent cinema's biggest female stars, combine for this otherwise ordinary tale of romantic entanglements amongst simple fishing folk from D. W. Griffith. The story is rudimentarky, and the acting sometimes borders on the melodramatic, but there is one effective sequence in which the brother of a jilted woman tries to get a clear shot at the man who dumped her. The seaside locations are also picturesque.

Pretty fisherman's daughter Mary Pickford works by the seashore, mending the local seafarers' fishing nets. Tall, dark, and handsome Charles West is taken with her dreamy beauty, and proposes to Mary. She happily accepts his ring. The young couple celebrate their betrothal with a tender kiss. But, all is not well...

Old girlfriend Mabel Normand has given Charles her virginity, and thought she would be taking him to the alter. After learning she has been cast aside, Mabel interrupts Charles' dalliance with Mary, and asks him why she is "not good enough." Meanwhile, Mabel's brother overhears the drama, and decides he must defend her honor…

This short drama is strengthened by the directorial storytelling strength of D.W. Griffith, working with erstwhile cameraman G.W. Bitzer. They use the rocky shoreline of Santa Monica, California very effectively. As usual, the movement of water and wind add to the excitement on screen. "The Mender of Nets" is one of several lyrical seafaring shorts produced by Mr. Griffith at "Biograph". With two future superstars handling the feminine leads, the cast is certainly notable. The subject matter was a staple.

***** The Mender of Nets (2/15/12) D.W. Griffith ~ Mary Pickford, Charles West, Mabel Normand, Charles Hill Mailes

When you look at this film you can see why Mary Pickford, in her newspaper column, called Mabel Normand the greatest tragedienne, and further stated that Miss Normand had become the greatest comedienne. Since those early days, Mary has become an acting legend, although she said in her biography that she was merely 'atmosphere' alongside her gifted siblings, Lottie and Jack. The 'atmosphere' was supplied by Mary's hair and elfin face. What is strange, in the light of what happened soon after this movie was made, is that Mary does all the smiling, while Mabel does nearly all the dramatics, the sobbing, and the crying.

Mary plays a mender of fishermen's nets in this film made in California (I thought fishermen mended their own nets). Mabel is the betrothed of a certain fisherman, who decides he prefers the mender of nets (gentlemen prefer blonds). After much Biograph-style dramatics, little understood today, from Mabel, her brother decides to shoot the dishonourable fisherman. More dramatics follow from Mabel, who gives a grand display of how a department store girl can become a great actress in just one year. Ex- theatre star Mary, realizing the brother means to harm her fisherman, follows the brother to her lover's shack. Here she intervenes when the shooting starts, and Mabel's brother departs. Mabel now arrives and rushes into the shack in dramatic form, catching Mary and fisherman in an embrace. Mabel gives Mary a mouthful, and one of those intense, murderous Irish looks, which 'Blondielocks' said scared the hell out of her ('murderer's eyes, glaring daggers into your heart'). Mary leaves distressed and down- hearted, but returns to console our sobbing colleen. The ending is typical for a single-reeler, with Mary returning to net-mending and Mabel to her old flame. The corny dialogue board attributes Mary with the dramatic words 'I'll mend the nets', and indeed this is what she seems to say on the screen, while producing some sickly smiles reminiscent of those used in 'The New York Hat'.

Things to note: Unusually, Mabel does not die in this picture. Griffith usually killed the 'disrespectful' Mabel off before the end. Mary's acting is as wooden and unfeeling as ever, and it could be that it was during the making of this film that Griffith grabbed Mary and shook her violently, before throwing her across the set. 'No feeling', he stormed. Mack Sennet said of Miss Pickford, 'I don't see why everyone's so crazy about her, she's effected!' (Mary was later transformed by a severe face-slapping from her mother 'to cure her swelled head'). Griffith seems to have told both actresses to hunch their shoulders when upset and distressed. This Mabel carries out naturally and believably, while Mary struggles, and produces a statuesque version of the tragic maiden. Noticeably, Mary always walks as though she's wearing diver's boots, while Mabel simply glides along. Miss Pickford was called by Mabel 'Hettie Green' (the millionairess) due to her acute business acumen – she matched Chaplin and Lloyd in the earnings stakes. Mabel could weep at the drop of a hat, and later revealed that she always won the Biograph instant tears competition by reading the newspaper death notices beforehand.

Mender of the Nets, The (1910)

*** (out of 4)

Highly entertaining film from D.W. Griffith about a woman (Mary Pickford) who's lover leaves her for another woman so her brother goes out to kill him. The real highlight here, besides Pickford's performance, is Griffith's editing, which nicely builds up suspense in the terrific ending.

Willful Peggy (1912)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith short about a young woman (Mary Pickford) who's promised off to a man she doesn't care for but at the wedding the man's nephew starts to make a pass. It was nice seeing Pickford and nice seeing Griffith doing a comedy but the overall film wasn't too good. There are a few nice touches but nothing non die hards should seek out.