| The Mothering Heart | |
|---|---|
 Still from the film | |
| Directed by | D. W. Griffith |
| Starring | Walter Miller |
| Cinematography | G. W. Bitzer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 23 minutes (18 frame/s) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent with English intertitles |
The Mothering Heart is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the Museum of Modern Art. [1]
The film opens by showing a young woman (Lillian Gish) in a garden. She is tender hearted, demonstrated by her appreciation of the flowers and the rescuing of a puppy. A melancholic young man (Walter Miller) woos her and she is foolishly swayed more by his pain of rejection than her love for him and eventually agrees to marry.
Later in their new home together she takes in washing to help support them when her new husband has little income. Things change when he finds some success in a well paid job. He insists they celebrate at a restaurant where there is an Apache dance cabaret. He wears a new suit but she her plain street clothes. Her husband's eye is caught by a sophisticated single woman (Viola Barry) at the next table. Later, encouraged by the woman, the husband begins to deceive his wife and have clandestine meetings with her. She is rich and has a chauffeur-driven car at her disposal.
The wife, now pregnant, as evidenced by her interest in baby clothes, discovers a glove in her husband's coat pocket. She follows him and uncovers his deceit. After confronting her husband she leaves him and returns to the home of her mother (played by Kate Bruce) where the baby is born.
We now see the husband being dropped by the sophisticated woman for a new richer male companion (Charles West). The dejected husband sitting alone at home receives a letter from the wife telling him of the birth. He resolves to make it up with her.
We learn next that the baby has become ill and is attended by a doctor (Adolph Lestina). The husband arrives at the wife's mother's house and she allows him to see the wife and child. However the wife wants none of him and angrily rejects him. While the husband sits dejected in the garden the baby dies. The wife vents her anger on the bushes in the part of the garden in which the film opened.
She returns to find her husband bent in grief over the crib. He is tenderly holding the baby's dummy. Their hands touch and the husband sees she is still wearing her wedding ring. They are reunited in an embrace and the film ends.
The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a 1912 American short drama and a gangster film. It is directed by D. W. Griffith and written by Griffith and Anita Loos. It is also credited for its early use of follow focus, a fundamental tool in cinematography.
Judith of Bethulia (1914) is an American film starring Blanche Sweet and Henry B. Walthall, and produced and directed by D. W. Griffith, based on the play "Judith and the Holofernes" (1896) by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, which itself was an adaptation of the Book of Judith. The film was the first feature-length film made by pioneering film company Biograph, although the second that Biograph released.
Hearts of the World is a 1918 American silent World War I propaganda film written, produced and directed by D. W. Griffith. In an effort to change the American public's neutral stance regarding the war, the British government contacted Griffith due to his stature and reputation for dramatic filmmaking.
The New York Hat is a silent short film which was released in 1912, directed by D. W. Griffith from a screenplay by Anita Loos, and starring Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish.
Oil and Water is a 1913 film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Blanche Sweet. The supporting cast includes Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore, and Harry Carey. A stage dancer (Sweet) and a serious-type homebody (Walthall) discover, after marriage, that their individual styles don't mesh. The movie includes elaborate dance sequences.
So Near, Yet So Far is a 1912 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. Prints of the film survive in the Museum of Modern Art film archive.
Gold and Glitter is a 1912 American silent drama film co-directed by D. W. Griffith and Frank Powell. Lillian Gish, in the leading female role, was praised for its variety of emotion, in comparison to her previous roles.
My Hero is a 1912 American short silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Dorothy Gish.
The Burglar's Dilemma is a 1912 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. A print of the film survives.
A Chance Deception is a 1913 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Blanche Sweet.
The Unwelcome Guest is a 1913 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.
My Baby is a 1912 American short comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith and Frank Powell. Prints of the film exist in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress.
The Lady and the Mouse is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. A print of the film survives. Lillian and Dorothy Gish play sisters in the film. The only other two films where the Gishes play sisters are An Unseen Enemy (1912) and Orphans of the Storm (1922).
The House of Darkness is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.
Just Gold is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.
The Greatest Thing in Life is a 1918 American silent drama film about World War I, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, and David Butler. The film is now considered lost as no prints are known to exist.
A Romance of Happy Valley is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. Believed lost for almost 50 years, a print was discovered in 1965 in the State Film Archives of the Soviet Union, which donated it to the Museum of Modern Art.
Mary Ellen Comes to Town is a 1920 American silent comedy film directed by Elmer Clifton and written by Wells Hastings and Helen G. Smith. The film stars Dorothy Gish, Kate Bruce, Ralph Graves, Adolph Lestina, Charles K. Gerrard, and Raymond Cannon. The film was released on March 21, 1920, by Paramount Pictures. It is not known whether the film currently survives.
Almost a Wild Man is a 1913 Canadian silent short black and white film directed by Dell Henderson, written by William Beaudine and starring Dorothy Gish.
Adolph Lestina was an American stage and film actor who was a member of D. W. Griffith's stock company of film actors.
