A Temporary Truce

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A Temporary Truce
Directed by D. W. Griffith
Written byGeorge Hennessy
Starring Blanche Sweet
Charles Hill Mailes
Cinematography G. W. Bitzer
Release date
  • June 10, 1912 (1912-06-10)
Running time
17 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages Silent
English intertitles

A Temporary Truce is a 1912 American short silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Blanche Sweet. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the Library of Congress. [1]

Contents

Plot

Mexican Jim, the villain, kidnaps Alice, wife of Jack the prospector. Jack declares a temporary truce with Jim so they can both battle the Indians as a common enemy. [2]

Cast

Themes

D. W. Griffith did not always portray Mexican characters in a negative light; however, in this film they are portrayed as a threat to white families and women. [3] The film is more complex in this regard that previous Griffith work. [4]

Production

The cast was considered to be quite large for a short film under two reels. [5] This is one of three D. W. Griffith films that Bert Hendler appeared in. [6] The cast also included Mae Marsh, who worked with Griffith on many films, including The Birth of a Nation. She was one of his favorites and in a 1923 interview, Griffith noted that "Mae Marsh was born a film star." [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. "Silent Era: A Temporary Truce". silentera. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  2. Division, Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound; Niver, Kemp R. (1985). Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress. p. 321. ISBN   978-0-8444-0463-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Bernardi, Daniel; Green, Michael (July 7, 2017). Race in American Film: Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 386. ISBN   978-0-313-39840-7.
  4. Usai, Paolo Cherchi (July 25, 2019). The Griffith Project, Volume 5: Films Produced in 1911. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-83902-011-7.
  5. Film & Video Finder: Title section (A-K). National Information Center for Educational Media, a Division of Access Innovations, Incorporated. 1997. p. 3110. ISBN   978-0-937548-29-5.
  6. Slide, Anthony (March 12, 2012). The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 238. ISBN   978-1-61703-250-9.
  7. Lowe, Denise (January 27, 2014). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-71896-3.