The New York Hat (1912)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

Anita Loos (writer)
Frances Marion (contributing writer)

Release Date:

5 December 1912 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Plot:

When Mrs. Harding dies, she leaves a mysterious letter to her pastor. The note tells how her cold, miserly husband worked her to death...

Cast

Mary Pickford	...	Miss Mollie Goodhue (the girl)
Charles Hill Mailes	...	Mr. Goodhue (her father)
Kate Bruce	...	Mrs. Goodhue (her mother)
Lionel Barrymore	...	Preacher Bolton (minister)
Alfred Paget	...	The Doctor
Claire McDowell	...	First Gossip
Mae Marsh	...	Second Gossip
Clara T. Bracy	...	Third Gossip
Madge Kirby	...	Shopkeeper / At Mother's Deathbed
Lillian Gish	...	Customer in Shop / Outside Church
Jack Pickford	...	Youth outside church
Robert Harron	...	Youth outside church

Runtime:

16 min (16 fps)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Biograph Company

Trivia:

This was the last film Mary Pickford made for Biograph Company.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997)

"An unexpected trust"

This competent Biograph short is probably best-known for being the screen writing debut of the acclaimed Anita Loos. It's also incredibly well acted and directed with confidence by DW Griffith.

As well as being her last, this is perhaps the best performance by Mary Pickford in a Biograph short. You can see why she would later soar to superstardom by playing young girls. Here, at twenty, she plays what we would assume is a girl in her mid-teens, and looks more convincingly that age than when she first worked for Griffith at sixteen. She had a real gift for portraying innocence. Griffith makes the most of her abilities and moves the camera in close on her face at key moments.

It's also nice to see Lionel Barrymore in a lead role. Although he was an established stage actor, on the screen he really had yet to prove himself in anything other than a series of somewhat silly character parts. In the New York Hat however he shows himself to be a fine screen player, playing the preacher with subtlety and dignity. He too gets the full benefit of Griffith's camera.

You get the feeling that by now Griffith could do this sort of drama standing on his head. The easy movement between standard three-quarter shot and mid-shot is by now totally natural. But really, this is Pickford, Barrymore and, of course Loos' show, and for the most part Griffith just sits back and lets them get on with it.

Loos has written a strong story, although in many ways this is very typical Biograph fare, so I assume she was deliberately trying to write something in the Biograph style. Still it makes for an entertaining little film, and fortunately it was highly regarded enough to have been given two superb and well-cast leads.