Edgar Allen Poe (film)

Edgar Allen Poe
(official title)
Edgar Allen Poe; (official title)
	Film still of actor Herbert Yost (left) as Poe with Anita Hendrie and David Miles
Directed by	D. W. Griffith
Written by	D. W. Griffith; Frank E. Woods
Produced by	Biograph Company; New York, N.Y.
Starring	Herbert Yost ; Linda Arvidson
Cinematography	G. W. Bitzer
Release date	February 8, 1909;
Running time	6–7 minutes (release length 450 feet); distributed on a "split reel" with another film, A Wreath in Time
Country	United States
Languages	Silent; English intertitles

Last updated December 01, 2024

Edgar Allen Poe[ sic ] is a 1909 American silent drama film produced by the Biograph Company of New York and directed and co-written by D. W. Griffith.^[2] Herbert Yost stars in this short as the 19th-century American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, while Linda Arvidson portrays Poe's wife Virginia.^[3] When it was released in February 1909 and throughout its theatrical run, the film was consistently identified and advertised with Poe's middle name misspelled in its official title, using an "e" instead of the correct second "a". The short was also originally shipped to theaters on a "split reel", which was a single reel that accommodated more than one film. This 450-foot drama shared its reel with another Biograph short, the 558-foot comedy A Wreath in Time .^[1] Prints of both films survive.^[4]

Plot

The film focuses on Edgar Allan Poe and his wife Virginia Clemm, who is bedridden and seriously ill. While Poe comforts her, a raven suddenly appears on a bust of Pallas displayed on a high shelf in her room. Inspired by the sight, Poe writes "The Raven", his greatest poetic work. He then leaves, hoping to sell the poem to a local newspaper or book publisher so he can buy much-needed food and medicines for Virginia. At a newspaper office, the first potential buyer rejects the creation. Desperate for money, Poe rushes to another publisher's office, where a man and a woman are busy editing. Initially, one editor dismisses Poe's poem, but the other one reads the work, likes it, and pays him for it. Poe then uses the money to buy a basket of food and other items for his wife. Virginia is still lying in bed when he returns home, where he proudly unfolds a new blanket he also purchased, but as he places the blanket on her, he realizes that she had died while he was gone. Poe is devastated by her loss, and the film ends with him crying over her body.

Cast

Herbert Yost as Edgar Allan Poe ^[3]^[a]
Linda Arvidson as Virginia Poe
Arthur V. Johnson as publisher at first office
Charles Perley as "Resident poet" at first office^[3]
David Miles as publisher at second office
Anita Hendrie as editor at second office

Production

Biograph's Manhattan studio, where Edgar Allen Poe was staged and filmed in two days Biograph-Studios-NYC-1908.jpg — Biograph's Manhattan studio, where *Edgar Allen Poe* was staged and filmed in two days

The screenplay for this short was co-written by director Griffith and Frank E. Woods. The drama was shot using three interior corner sets at Biograph's headquarters and main studio, which in 1908 and 1909 were located inside a renovated brownstone mansion at 11 East 14th Street in New York City. Filming by company cinematographer G. W. Bitzer was completed in just two days, although records differ as to those exact dates. Profiles on the film at the Library of Congress cite January 21 and 23, 1909, while Biograph production records, which are noted in the 1985 reference D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company, give earlier dates: December 21 and 23, 1908.^[3]^[5]

Lighting

The lighting of sets was invariably a collaborative efforts between director Griffith and his cinematographers, most notably in his work with "Billy" Bitzer. Film historian and university professor Joyce E. Jesionowski in her 1987 book Thinking in Pictures: Dramatic Structure in D. W. Griffith's Biograph Films regards Edgar Allen Poe as a notable one in Griffith's early filmography, a production that illustrates his growing awareness of the power of set lighting in establishing mood and enhancing storylines that, unlike stage plays, relied totally on orchestrating visual elements within a silent medium:

Griffith's most theatrical use of a lighting effect, his most conscious use of light as atmosphere, occurs in a group of films that are less admirable for their construction than for the tone set by their lighting. Edgar Allen Poe [sic] (1909) is such a film, impressive in its pre-expressionist harshness of the contrast between light and shadow in the shots.^[6]^[b]

With further regard to the moody "harshness" of the lighting employed by Griffith and Bitzer in this production, in an introduction to a copy of the short preserved in its film museum, the EYE Institute in the Netherlands states, "Although there is little to distinguish [Edgar Allen Poe] now from its contemporaries, it had new and advanced lighting, notably the so-called 'Rembrandt lighting' or profile portrait-effect."^[7] Now a standard lighting technique in cinematography and studio photography, the use of such "Rembrandt lighting" in 1909 predates by six years its credited use in motion pictures, most notably by Cecil B. DeMille in his 1915 production The Warrens of Virginia .^[8]

PLAY film; runtime 00:06:42.

The short's "anonymous" actors

In 1909, Biograph, as a matter of company policy, did not publicly credit its performers or identify them in film-industry publications or in newspapers advertisements. Such recognition would not begin for another four years. In its April 5, 1913 issue, the Chicago-based trade journal Motography in a news item titled "Biograph Identities Revealed" announces that "at last" Biograph "is ready to make known its players."^[9] That news item also informs filmgoers that for the price of ten cents they can purchase a poster from Biograph on which the names and respective portraits of 26 of the company’s principal actors and actresses were featured.^[9]

The lead actor Herbert Yost in his 19th-century costume, wig, mustache, and makeup bears a striking resemblance to the real writer's general appearance. An experienced stage performer, Yost had adopted the name Barry O'Moore during his early years working in the "infant" film industry, reportedly an identity change made to distinguish his career in the legitimate theatre from the "inferior" medium of screen acting, where pantomime, not the spoken word, defined performances.^[10] Despite Yost's use of his alternative name, a name of any type was essentially irrelevant while he worked for Biograph in 1908 and 1909, years in which the company did not credit its performers. In available production records from that period, the actor is not cited as Barry O'Moore, only as Herbert Yost.^[11]

Linda Arvidson, who portrays Poe's wife Virginia in this production, was actually the wife of D. W. Griffith at the time. If fact, the couple had been secretly married three years earlier, in 1906.^[12] Biograph's policy of not identifying cast or crew extended as well to both Arvidson and Griffith, neither of whom received a screen credit, any specific recognition in advertisements for the film, nor in any other publicity for Edgar Allen Poe.

Release and promotion

Just days before the short's release on February 8, 1909, Biograph marketed it as "a work of art" that the company produced to commemorate "this season of [Poe's] birthday centennial."^[1]^[c] Less than two weeks later, the Dixie Theatre in Fairmont, West Virginia characterized the "picture play" in its newspaper advertisement as a "'class' production"; and since Biograph, as company policy, did not credit its cast of players on screen or identify them in any promotions for its releases, the theatre's management simply described the presentation of America's "Poetical genius" as being "portrayed by clever Biograph actors."^[13] Months later in Georgia, The Brunswick Daily News in its October 27 issue announces that evening's "grand program" at the local Grand Theatre, noting that the "feature picture" would be "one of biograph's [ sic ] most famous subjects entitled 'Edgar Allen Poe.'"^[14] The Brunswick newspaper then adds, "This is one of the most pathetic love stories ever seen in motion pictures."^[14] The use of the term "pathetic" within the context of the program announcement was not intended to impart in any way a lack of quality in the drama's portrayal of the Poes' relationship. Instead, the term was employed to underscore the emotional power of the couple's depiction on screen and to indicate the unnamed actors' success in performing the film's sad scenario.

Preservation status

An original 1909 paper roll of contact prints made frame-by-frame from the short's now-lost 35mm master nitrate negative is preserved in the film archive of the Library of Congress (LOC). That paper roll, reduced in size, measures only 161 feet in length instead of the film's full-size release length of 450 feet.^[5] Submitted by Biograph in 1909 to the United States government shortly before the film's release, the roll of paper prints is part of the original documentation required by federal authorities when motion-picture companies applied for copyright protection for their productions.^[15] While the library's paper print record is not projectable, a negative copy has been transferred onto modern polyester-based safety film stock as well as a positive copy for screening. That work was part of an extensive decade-long preservation project done at the LOC during the 1950s and early 1960s. The project, performed by Kemp R. Niver and other library staff, restored more than 3,000 such paper rolls in the library's collection and transferred most of them, including Edgar Allen Poe, to safety stock.^[5] Additional copies of this short are preserved in various film archives in the United States and Europe, including a copy, as previously noted, at the EYE Filmmuseum in the Netherlands.^[7]

Notes

↑ In all early Biograph production records, film actor "Barry O'Moore" is consistently listed by his birth name and preferred stage name Herbert Yost, including in the cited reference D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company. During his acting career, which spanned nearly 50 years, Yost used the screen name of Barry O'Moore for a relatively short time. In his obituaries in 1945, the actor was invariably identified as Herbert Yost.
↑ In addition to serving as a professor in the Film Department at Binghamton University (SUNY), Joyce E. Jesionowski has also taught film history and production at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and Hofstra University.
↑ Although the film was produced in part to mark the centennial of Poe's birth, the short's release date–February 8, 1909–was 20 days after the writer's actual birthday of January 19, 1809.

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References

1 2 3 "Edgar Allen Poe" and "A Wreath in Time, Biograph advertisement, The Moving Picture World (New York City), 6 February 1909, p. 135. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California (hereinafter cited "I.A."). Retrieved 28 March 2021.
↑ "Edgar Allen Poe (1909)". American Film Institute.
1 2 3 4 Graham, Cooper C.; Higgins, Steve; Mancini, Elaine; Viera, João Luiz. Entry for "Edgar Allen Poe", D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1985, p. 37. I.A. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
↑ "Edgar Allan Poe". Silent Era. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
1 2 3 Niver, Kemp R. Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress, "Edgar Allen [i.e. Allan] Poe". Washington, D.C.: Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, 1985, p. 86. HathiTrust Digital Library. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
↑ Jesionowski, Joyce E. Chapter I, "A Basic Shot", Thinking in Pictures: Dramatic Structure in D. W. Griffith's Biograph Films. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989, p. 31. I.A. Retrieved 31 August 2021. ISBN 0-520-05776-7
1 2 Play online copy of "Edgar Allan Poe (U.S.A. 1908)"; copy of short with modern additions of an introduction and some crew and cast credits is preserved in the Filmmuseum of the EYE Institute (Netherlands); access through the European Film Gateway, a centralized on-line reference to film archives throughout the European Union. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
↑ DeMille, Cecil B. (1959). The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. p. 115.
1 2 "Biograph Identities Revealed", Motography (Chicago), 5 April 1913, p. 222. I.A.; refer to Kelly R. Brown's Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl: America's First Movie Star (1999) about Biograph's policy of using anonymous or "unnamed" actors.
↑ "Herbert A. Yost Dies; Character Actor was 65", obituary, New York Herald Tribune , 25 October 1945, p. 20. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.
↑ Graham and others. D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company, pp. 48-60, 62, 67.
↑ Griffith, Linda Arvidson. When the Movies Were Young. New York: Dover Publications, 1969 (reprint of 1925 original edition), p. 19. ISBN 0-486-22300-0.
↑ "Dixie/Edgar Allen Poe", The Fairmont West Virginian (Fairmont, West Virginia), 20 February 1909, p. 1. Chronicling America, LC. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
1 2 "AMUSEMENTS/Grand Tonight", The Brunswick Daily News (Brunswick, Georgia), 27 October 1909, p. 7. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, D.C. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
↑ Niver, "Preface", pp. ix-x.

External links

Edgar Allan Poe at IMDb
Edgar Allan Poe on YouTube

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[5] In all early Biograph production records, film actor "Barry O'Moore" is consistently listed by his birth name and preferred stage name Herbert Yost, including in the cited reference D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company. During his acting career, which spanned nearly 50 years, Yost used the screen name of Barry O'Moore for a relatively short time. In his obituaries in 1945, the actor was invariably identified as Herbert Yost.

[8] In addition to serving as a professor in the Film Department at Binghamton University (SUNY), Joyce E. Jesionowski has also taught film history and production at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and Hofstra University.

[15] Although the film was produced in part to mark the centennial of Poe's birth, the short's release date–February 8, 1909–was 20 days after the writer's actual birthday of January 19, 1809.

[TMPW09-1] 1 2 3 "Edgar Allen Poe" and "A Wreath in Time, Biograph advertisement, The Moving Picture World (New York City), 6 February 1909, p. 135. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California (hereinafter cited "I.A."). Retrieved 28 March 2021.

[2] "Edgar Allen Poe (1909)". American Film Institute.

[DWG1985-3] 1 2 3 4 Graham, Cooper C.; Higgins, Steve; Mancini, Elaine; Viera, João Luiz. Entry for "Edgar Allen Poe", D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1985, p. 37. I.A. Retrieved 11 April 2021.

[silentera-4] "Edgar Allan Poe". Silent Era. Retrieved January 3, 2014.

[LC85-6] 1 2 3 Niver, Kemp R. Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress, "Edgar Allen [i.e. Allan] Poe". Washington, D.C.: Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, 1985, p. 86. HathiTrust Digital Library. Retrieved 11 April 2021.

[7] Jesionowski, Joyce E. Chapter I, "A Basic Shot", Thinking in Pictures: Dramatic Structure in D. W. Griffith's Biograph Films. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989, p. 31. I.A. Retrieved 31 August 2021. ISBN 0-520-05776-7

[EYE-9] 1 2 Play online copy of "Edgar Allan Poe (U.S.A. 1908)"; copy of short with modern additions of an introduction and some crew and cast credits is preserved in the Filmmuseum of the EYE Institute (Netherlands); access through the European Film Gateway, a centralized on-line reference to film archives throughout the European Union. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

[10] DeMille, Cecil B. (1959). The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. p. 115.

[Motog13-11] 1 2 "Biograph Identities Revealed", Motography (Chicago), 5 April 1913, p. 222. I.A.; refer to Kelly R. Brown's Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl: America's First Movie Star (1999) about Biograph's policy of using anonymous or "unnamed" actors.

[12] "Herbert A. Yost Dies; Character Actor was 65", obituary, New York Herald Tribune , 25 October 1945, p. 20. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

[13] Graham and others. D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company, pp. 48-60, 62, 67.

[14] Griffith, Linda Arvidson. When the Movies Were Young. New York: Dover Publications, 1969 (reprint of 1925 original edition), p. 19. ISBN 0-486-22300-0.

[TFWV-16] "Dixie/Edgar Allen Poe", The Fairmont West Virginian (Fairmont, West Virginia), 20 February 1909, p. 1. Chronicling America, LC. Retrieved 15 April 2021.

[TBDN09-17] 1 2 "AMUSEMENTS/Grand Tonight", The Brunswick Daily News (Brunswick, Georgia), 27 October 1909, p. 7. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, D.C. Retrieved 15 April 2021.

[18] Niver, "Preface", pp. ix-x.

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v t e Edgar Allan Poe
Bibliography
Poems	"Tamerlane" (1827) "Al Aaraaf" (1829) "Sonnet to Science" (1829) "To Helen" (1831) "The City in the Sea" (1831) "The Haunted Palace" (1839) "The Conqueror Worm" (1843) "Lenore" (1843) "Eulalie" (1843) "The Raven" (1845) "Ulalume" (1847) "A Dream Within a Dream" (1849) "Eldorado" (1849) "The Bells" (1849) "Annabel Lee" (1849)
Tales	"Metzengerstein" (1832) "The Duc de L'Omelette" (1832) "Bon-Bon" (1832) "MS. Found in a Bottle" (1833) "Berenice" (1835) "Morella" (1835) "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) "Ligeia" (1838) "A Predicament" (1838) "The Devil in the Belfry" (1839) "The Man That Was Used Up" (1839) "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) "William Wilson" (1839) "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion" (1839) "The Business Man" (1840) "The Man of the Crowd" (1840) "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) "A Descent into the Maelström" (1841) "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" (1841) "Eleonora" (1841) "The Oval Portrait" (1842) "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842) "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842) "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842) "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) "The Gold-Bug" (1843) "The Black Cat" (1843) "The Spectacles" (1844) "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" (1844) "The Premature Burial" (1844) "The Oblong Box" (1844) "The Angel of the Odd" (1844) "Thou Art the Man" (1844) "The Purloined Letter" (1844) "Some Words with a Mummy" (1845) "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" (1845) "The Imp of the Perverse" (1845) "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845) "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (1845) "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) "Loss of Breath" (1846) "Hop-Frog" (1849)
Essays	"Maelzel's Chess Player" (1836) "The Philosophy of Furniture" (1840) "Morning on the Wissahiccon" (1844) "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) "The Poetic Principle" (1846) Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848)
Novels	The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1837) The Journal of Julius Rodman (1840)
Collections	Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840)
Play	Politian (1835)
Other	The Conchologist's First Book (1839) The Balloon-Hoax (1844) The Light-House (1849)
Related	Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (wife) Eliza Poe (mother) David Poe Jr. (father) William Henry Poe (brother) Rosalie Mackenzie Poe (sister) Poe Museum Poe Cottage Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum National Historic Site The Stylus magazine Death Edgar Awards In popular culture film and television music Poe Toaster Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Portrayals	Edgar Allen Poe (1909 film) The Raven (1915 film) The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942 film) The Man with a Cloak (1951 film) Edgar Allan Poe: Once Upon a Midnight (2004 play) The Raven (2012 film) The Pale Blue Eye (2022 film)

v t e Films directed by D. W. Griffith
1908	The Adventures of Dollie The Fight for Freedom The Tavern Keeper's Daughter The Black Viper The Red Man and the Child Deceived Slumming Party The Bandit's Waterloo A Calamitous Elopement The Greaser's Gauntlet The Man and the Woman The Fatal Hour For Love of Gold Balked at the Altar For a Wife's Honor Betrayed by a Handprint Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court The Girl and the Outlaw Behind the Scenes The Red Girl The Heart of O'Yama Where the Breakers Roar A Smoked Husband The Stolen Jewels The Devil The Zulu's Heart Father Gets in the Game Ingomar, the Barbarian The Vaquero's Vow The Planter's Wife Romance of a Jewess The Call of the Wild Concealing a Burglar After Many Years The Pirate's Gold The Taming of the Shrew The Guerrilla The Song of the Shirt The Ingrate A Woman's Way The Clubman and the Tramp Money Mad The Valet's Wife The Feud and the Turkey The Reckoning The Test of Friendship An Awful Moment The Christmas Burglars Mr. Jones at the Ball The Helping Hand
1909	One Touch of Nature The Maniac Cook Mrs. Jones Entertains The Honor of Thieves Love Finds a Way The Sacrifice A Rural Elopement Those Boys! The Criminal Hypnotist The Fascinating Mrs. Francis Mr. Jones Has a Card Party Those Awful Hats The Welcome Burglar The Cord of Life The Girls and Daddy The Brahma Diamond Edgar Allen Poe A Wreath in Time Tragic Love The Curtain Pole His Ward's Love The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals The Hindoo Dagger The Politician's Love Story The Golden Louis At the Altar The Prussian Spy His Wife's Mother A Fool's Revenge The Wooden Leg The Roue's Heart The Salvation Army Lass The Lure of the Gown I Did It The Voice of the Violin The Deception And a Little Child Shall Lead Them A Burglar's Mistake (lost) The Medicine Bottle Jones and His New Neighbors A Drunkard's Reformation Trying to Get Arrested The Road to the Heart A Rude Hostess Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade A Sound Sleeper Lady Helen's Escapade Lucky Jim Jones and the Lady Book Agent Resurrection Two Memories Eloping with Auntie The Cricket on the Hearth The Violin Maker of Cremona A New Trick The Lonely Villa The Son's Return Her First Biscuits The Country Doctor The Cardinal's Conspiracy Tender Hearts The Friend of the Family The Renunciation The Mended Lute The Sealed Room The Little Darling The Hessian Renegades Comata, the Sioux Getting Even In Old Kentucky Leather Stocking Pippa Passes or The Song of Conscience Fools of Fate His Lost Love The Gibson Goddess Nursing a Viper The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period Through the Breakers The Red Man's View A Corner in Wheat A Trap for Santa Claus In Little Italy To Save Her Soul The Day After Choosing a Husband Bill Sharkey's Last Game
1910	The Rocky Road The Woman from Mellon's The Englishman and the Girl In Old California Faithful The Two Brothers As It Is In Life A Romance of the Western Hills The Unchanging Sea Ramona In the Season of Buds A Child of the Ghetto In the Border States What the Daisy Said A Flash of Light An Arcadian Maid The House with Closed Shutters Wilful Peggy The Modern Prodigal A Mohawk's Way The Oath and the Man Rose O'Salem-Town The Fugitive Winning Back His Love
1911	The Two Paths The Italian Barber His Trust His Trust Fulfilled Fate's Turning Heart Beats of Long Ago What Shall We Do with Our Old? Fisher Folks His Daughter The Lily of the Tenements A Decree of Destiny Was He a Coward? The Lonedale Operator The Spanish Gypsy The Broken Cross How She Triumphed The New Dress The Crooked Road The White Rose of the Wilds The Smile of a Child Enoch Arden: Part I Enoch Arden: Part II The Primal Call Fighting Blood The Indian Brothers A Country Cupid The Last Drop of Water Out from the Shadow The Blind Princess and the Poet Swords and Hearts The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of Her Awakening The Making of a Man The Adventures of Billy The Long Road Love in the Hills The Battle Through Darkened Vales The Miser's Heart A Woman Scorned The Voice of the Child
1912	The Eternal Mother The Old Bookkeeper For His Son The Transformation of Mike A Sister's Love Under Burning Skies The Sunbeam A String of Pearls The Girl and Her Trust The Root of Evil The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch The Punishment The Female of the Species Just Like a Woman One Is Business, the Other Crime The Lesser Evil A Beast at Bay An Outcast Among Outcasts Home Folks A Temporary Truce The Spirit Awakened Man's Lust for Gold Man's Genesis The Sands of Dee The Narrow Road The Inner Circle A Change of Spirit An Unseen Enemy Blind Love The Massacre Two Daughters of Eve Friends So Near, yet So Far A Feud in the Kentucky Hills The Chief's Blanket In the Aisles of the Wild The One She Loved The Painted Lady The Musketeers of Pig Alley Heredity Gold and Glitter My Baby The Informer Brutality The New York Hat My Hero The Burglar's Dilemma A Cry for Help The God Within
1913	Three Friends The Telephone Girl and the Lady An Adventure in the Autumn Woods The Tender Hearted Boy A Misappropriated Turkey Brothers Oil and Water A Chance Deception Love in an Apartment Hotel Broken Ways A Girl's Stratagem The Unwelcome Guest Near to Earth Fate A Welcome Intruder The Sheriff's Baby The Hero of Little Italy The Perfidy of Mary The Little Tease A Misunderstood Boy The Left-Handed Man The Lady and the Mouse If We Only Knew The Wanderer The Stolen Loaf The House of Darkness The Yaqui Cur Just Gold The Ranchero's Revenge A Timely Interception Death's Marathon The Mothering Heart The Sorrowful Shore The Enemy's Baby The Mistake Two Men of the Desert (lost) Madonna of the Storm The Battle at Elderbush Gulch The Conscience of Hassan Bey
1914–1931	Judith of Bethulia (1914) Battle of the Sexes (1914, lost) Brute Force (1914) Home, Sweet Home (1914) The Escape (1914, lost) The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (1914) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916) Hearts of the World (1918) The Great Love (1918, lost) Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal (1918, lost) The Greatest Thing in Life (1918, lost) A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919) Broken Blossoms (1919) True Heart Susie (1919) Scarlet Days (1919) The Greatest Question (1919) The Idol Dancer (1920) Remodeling Her Husband (1920, lost) The Love Flower (1920) Way Down East (1920) Dream Street (1921) Orphans of the Storm (1921) One Exciting Night (1922) The White Rose (1923) America (1924) Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) Sally of the Sawdust (1925) That Royle Girl (1925, lost) The Sorrows of Satan (1926) Drums of Love (1928) The Battle of the Sexes (1928) Lady of the Pavements (1929) Abraham Lincoln (1930) The Struggle (1931)