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| D. W. Griffith: The Girl and the Outlaw (US 1908) with Florence Lawrence and Harry Solter. |
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| Florence Lawrence (1899-1938), the "Biograph Girl". Internet Movie Database registers 299 films in her filmography, from 1906 through 1937. The Girl and the Outlaw was her first starring role. |
US © 1908 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.
Dir: D. W. Griffith. Story: ?. Photog: Arthur Marvin. Cast: Florence Lawrence, Harry Solter, George Gebhardt, Arthur Johnson, Mack Sennett, Charles Inslee.
Filmed: 31.7, 2.8, 4.8.1908 (Fort Lee, New Jersey). Rel: 8.9.1908.
Copy: DCP (4K), 14'51" (from paper print, 835 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG. Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.
Film Preservation Society (FPS) / Tracey Goessel / 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: Early Cinema - The Biograph Project.
Grand piano: José Maria Serralde Ruiz.
Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 9 Oct 2024
There is no credit information in the film itself, just the title card with the year of copyright and the name and the address of the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, like in The Adventures of Dollie.
Tracey Goessel (GCM/FPS The Biograph Project 2024): "The Girl and the Outlaw is most notable as the first Biograph with Florence Lawrence."
"As with many of the 1908 Biographs, the plot is hard to understand without an opening explanatory intertitle. The first shot gives us a distressed Lawrence, at the base of a cliff, an Indian lookout by her side. Is she a hostage? Only to love, it seems, as the Biograph Bulletin informs us that she was a woman in love with “a heartless road-agent, too despicable for the association of white men.”"
"Seen through a modern (and in this instance, feminine) lens, it becomes a tale of women’s friendship, and – if not an exploration of the fact that some women return to their abusers, at least the documentation of it. In all fairness, such a complex phenomenon could hardly be explained in 14 minutes in the summer of 1908. But, watching Florence Lawrence’s loose tresses sway hither and yon as she endures her beating, her clear star power requires no explanation." Tracey Goessel
AA: I had "seen" this film before, but only now realized the full power and fascination of the tragedy. The visual quality is acceptable in contrast to the dismal print screened in 1997. The Girl and the Outlaw is a direct, concise, ballet-like account of sado-masochistic love affair between a brutal bandit and a frontier woman. In the course of 15 minutes it is also a tale of a heartfelt friendship between women, and the compassion of an Indian who races to the rescue too late. There are stunning moments of atavistic violence, and a memorable mise-en-scène in the finale. Florence Lawrence excels instantly in her first role as Griffith's leading lady, and she would from now on be known as the "Biograph Girl". Tom Gunning registers distinctions of The Girl and the Outlaw as an early Western: the emphasis on female solidarity and the positive role of the Indian. Gunning also praises the dynamic and purely cinematic use of space in the chase sequences.
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I saw The Girl and the Outlaw in GCM's Griffith Project (DWG 41), mattina 13 October 1997 at Ridotto del Verdi on 16 mm at 835 ft /15 fps/ 14 min, a rotten print without intertitles and Neil Brand at the piano.
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Moving Picture World synopsis from Biograph Bulletin, no. 168, 8 September 1908: "SAD OUTCOME OF A PRETTY GIRL'S LOVE FOR A BRUTE. The persistant, unalterable love of a woman is at times amazing, and although the story of this Biograph film may seem a bit overdrawn, yet we know that such cases have existed, even to a greater degree."
"Bill Preston, a heartless road-agent about too despicable to associate with white men, had gathered about him a little band of low-down redskins whom he ruled by extreme despotism. At any rate, they all feared him, as he, with them, terrorized the whole country 'round by acts of pillage, arson, and worse."
"Despite his black nature, Bill was a handsome fellow who, under different conditions, might be called attractive. There is reason why Nellie Carson, a girl of the frontier, should fall violently in love with him and cast her lot with his. She soon finds out his true nature, but even then she seems to be held by an irresistible power."
"He tries to cast her off, leaving her lying wounded and insensible in the road after a stormy scene between them. She is discovered by a girl of the mountains who offers to help her to her mountain home. Though moved by the girl's kindness, she rejects her offer, choosing to go her own way on the road of life she has chosen."
"The mountain girl drives off and is waylaid by Bill, who seizes her and drags her to his camp. Nellie, coming along later, discovers evidence of what has taken place, and with a feeling of pity for the girl, and jealousy of Bill, resolves to save her. She arrives at camp at nightfall and manages to release the girl and get away, but unfortunately her revolver drops to the ground, and exploding, awakens the gang."
"The girl's plight looks bad, and would have been disastrous had not one of the Indians, who had always shown a weakness for Nellie, handicapped Bill. This enabled the girls, who mounted the one horse, to get a lead. However, Bill and his red devils are fast gaining on them, and several of his bullets have taken effect in poor Nellie's body, who has sacrificially placed herself between the mountain girl and Bill."
"The girl's apprehension seems inevitable, when the Indian rides up, and Bill, with a dagger wound in the breast, falls from his horse, thereby closing his contemptible career. This in a measure demoralizes the gang, and the girls reach the mountaineer's cabin, but Nellie is mortally wounded and expires as she is taken from the horse, the good Indian driving up just in time to claim her body that he might bury it. This subject is an exceptionally thrilling one, with photography of the highest order, and many of the scenes tinted." —Moving Picture World synopsis from Biograph Bulletin, no. 168, 8 September 1908
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