I wrote last time about how directors were churning out movies at a fantastic pace in the early days of cinema. To put that idea into perspective, the first film D.W. Griffith directed was released on July 14th, 1908. Less than 4 months later, on November 10th, his 35th film hit theaters. And sure, these were all short films, but each was made with its own cast and crew, and shot from its own script, and then edited down to its final form. That’s a crazy pace by any standards, but there you have it. Equally insane by today’s standards: according to IMDB, Griffith directed Florence Lawrence in 108 different movies.
Anyway, for his 35th film, Griffith opted to do Shakespeare, and adapted The Taming of the Shrew into a 18-minute-long short. That took some heavy editing of the original play, which lasts for about 2 hours in its original form.
The film stars Florence Lawrence as Katharina, the titular Shrew, Arthur V. Johnson as Petruchio, her suitor, and Linda Arvidson, Griffith’s wife at the time, as Bianca, Katharina’s little sister. Shakespeare’s play has all sorts of characters and scenes, and is full of laughs and drama. Griffith gets rid of just about all of it. We see Lawrence acting like a shrew, which is the best thing I’ve seen in any film I’ve watched for this project yet. You’d think she’s overacting, what with all her hand gestures and facial expressions, but somehow, it works. I totally get why audiences fell in love with her all those years ago. She’s beating people down and smacking them around, and her triumphant stance at the end is glorious. Enter Petruchio. He tames the shrew, primarily by denying her a roast chicken. Somehow, it works, and the two of the team up after he beats down all the servants. Suddenly, they’re in love. The end. I know it sounds nutty, but believe me, it works. You can look at all the pictures of Florence Lawrence you want, and read all about her online, but if you watch this, I promise you will fully understand why she was the star she was.
This film doesn’t seem to have its own DVD or blu-ray release, likely because it’s so short, and somewhat obscure, nor could I find it on any collection of D.W Griffith’s works. Luckily, it does show up as an extra feature on a DVD of Dimitri Buchowetzki’s 1922 version of Othello, which is how I watched it. You can click the picture of the DVD below if you’d like to buy a copy of your own.
While looking for the film on DVD or blu-ray, I came across another Kino Video that I’m contemplating buying. It collects 23 short films Griffith directed during his stint at Biograph Pictures. I may pick it up someday, but for now I’m going to continue plowing through the list of films I already have lined up to watch.
Next I’m watching: Mr. Flip [1909], directed by Gilbert M. Anderson.
The Taming of the Shrew (Nov. 10, 1908)