US 1908. Prod: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.
Dir: D. W. Griffith. Story: ?. Photog: Arthur Marvin, Billy Bitzer. Cast: Florence Auer, Anthony O’Sullivan, Edward Dillon, George Gebhardt.
Filmed: 23-24.6.1908 (Shadyside, New Jersey; NY Studio). Rel: 17.7.1908.
Copy: DCP (4K), 12'58" (from paper print, 729 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG.
Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.
Digital scan, 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society.
43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
Grand piano: Donald Sosin.
Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 5 Oct 2024.
Tracey Goessel (GCM, The Biograph Project 2024): "Scholars everywhere write about The Adventures of Dollie, but Griffith’s sophomore effort gets nary a word. Determining what, exactly, was his second film requires some digging. Page 104 of Bitzer’s production log (now at the Museum of Modern Art) conveniently begins with Adventures of Dolly [sic] and documents that production dates after Dollie were devoted to The Fight for Freedom, corresponding to the release order. It is a typical 1908 product: stagey, static, and difficult to understand without explanatory intertitles. Perhaps the most interesting aspect about this (admittedly primitive) effort are the scenes in Pedro’s house. Arthur Marvin, never a careful craftsman even at his best, managed to line up the shot so that the lens of the Biograph camera is clearly visible in the mirror on the set. How one wishes for a broader view of what was going on behind the camera! At this stage of Griffith’s evolution, it would have been far more interesting than what was in front."
The Moving Picture World, July 18, 1908: "It almost makes us question the justice of fate that the innocent should suffer for the crimes of the guilty. Such, you must admit, is often the case, as will be seen in this Biograph film story. In a barroom on the Mexican border, Pedro is engaged in a game of poker with several cow-punchers. One of the party seems to be attended with remarkable luck. Pedro becomes suspicious and at last detects him cheating. A quarrel ensues, which results in Pedro laying out the crook, cold and stiff. The sheriff now takes a hand in the squabble and Pedro dives through the window, taking glass and sash with him, followed by a fusillade of 44s, several of which take effect in his body. Staggering into his home, where he is met by his wife, Juanita, and his mother, weak from the loss of blood, he recounts as best he can what has occurred. They hide him in the loft above, and none too soon, for the sheriff enters and searches the place. He is just about to leave when he is attracted by the dropping of blood on the bed. Convinced that the fugitive is above, he makes a start for the loft, but is shot by Pedro, who anticipates him. At this moment in rushes the vigilance committee, who, seeing the sheriff stretched out, accuse Juanita of the crime and carry her off to jail. The mother visits her and devises a scheme. Attiring Pedro in her clothes, she sends him to the prison with a basket of provisions. While the guard is examining the contents of the basket, Pedro, still disguised, slips a pistol to Juanita. The guard, satisfied things are all right, opens the jail door. Juanita and Pedro at once pounce upon him, bind, gag and lock him in the cell. Off they go, but have not proceeded far when their flight is discovered and they are pursued by mounted police. They go down over a rugged rocky hill, which they figure impassable for the pursuers. Hiding behind the rocks, they await an opportunity, and taking the guards unawares, cover them with their guns until they have appropriated the horses, and make good their escape. The guards, however, by a short cut through the woods, come out on the road ahead of the fleeing Pedro and Juanita and as they approach a bullet from the guards in ambush lays poor Juanita prostrate across her horse, dead, while Pedro is seized, bound and carried back to prison to meet his inevitable fate." The Moving Picture World, July 18, 1908
AA: A violent bordertown Western story. Pedro the Mexican is cheated by cowboys in a poker game. A fight starts, and Pedro kills the crook. When the sheriff catches Pedro at his home, Pedro kills him as well and hides in the attic. His wife Juanita is arrested for the murder of the sheriff. Pedro rescues Juanita from the jail in drag, dressed as his own mother. Memorable images: drops of blood give Pedro away; dexterity in the jailbreak as a pistol is quickly slipped to Juanita by Pedro. I am not sure if The Fight for Freedom can be listed among Griffith's racist stories. Our sympathy is on the side of Pedro and his family. The desperation in their situation is acute in this movie that at 13 minutes is jam-packed with plot and little breathing space for character. Visually, The Fight for Freedom is humble as Griffith's sense of open air is missing. Griffith's director credit seems to have been contested.
I saw The Fight for Freedom in The Griffith Project (DWG 29) screening in Pordenone on 15 October 1997, a 35 mm print from a Library of Congress paper print, 13 min at 15 fps with intertitles missing, with Antonio Coppola at the grand piano. It was difficult to understand this plot-heavy film without intertitles. Having enjoyed the open air ambience of The Adventures of Dollie I felt let down by the cardboard sets.
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