One of the most famous and interesting short films from this experimental stage of Griffith's works, before embarking on increasingly ambitious feature films and increasingly melodramatic storytelling.
The musketeers of Pig Alley stands out because in this case the story of street fights between rival gangs in the surroundings of a fascinatingly busy street is the direct antecedent of all the gangster cinema that will triumph 15 years later (with von Sternberg) and will reach our days (De Palma, Cassavettes).
Griffith seems to pay special attention to the geography where he develops his story: a street seen from the front (always the same shot) crowded with passers-by, children, young people alternating, old drunks. A portal opens to this street on the right, in which the main couple lives with the mother, another entrance door to a bar attached to this portal and connected with it from the inside, and a little further down, on the same sidewalk another dance venue. There is also across the street and to the left, an area of alleys, including Pig Alley, packed with revelers, drunks, criminals, and children. The characters move continually through these places, often making the same journey over and over again.
Despite the few shots used, and the fact that there are no camera movements following the characters, the movements of the characters remain clear almost at all times.
The film begins with a young married couple in their room, while their mother sleeps. We can hardly know if it is a marriage or brothers, since as in Griffith the behavior of couples is of a nauseating chastity, and the titles present them to us as the poor musician and the young lady. What seems clear is that the young man leaves his home to earn a living and one assumes that for a long period of time, as the young woman cries disconsolately at the separation. The young woman is Lillian Gish, who is really fascinating to look at: virginal-looking as ever, but less childish than in other Griffith works, and with her intense expressiveness and marvelous beauty.
Later, reads the title, the young woman leaves the house with a bulky package. It is not very clear how much later it is. The fact is that the girl leaves the house leaving her mother resting, and is harassed by the Snapper Kid (a brilliant and charismatic Elmer Booth). Next comes the most famous shot in the film. Lillian Gish comes out of her portal angrily thinking about how a gang leader has messed with her. She leaves the portal and walks straight down the street with somewhat abrupt movements. In the opposite direction we see the back of another young woman, without any role in the story, a simple extra that we will not see again. The crossing of the two young women is very fast, they do not even look directly at each other, they simply turn slightly with a disdainful or surprised gesture (the face of the other girl Dorothy Gish is only seen in profile): without function, without consequences, but this shot calls powerfully our attention. The power of cinema, of an image, can focus our attention on details outside the story, totally tangential, denoting a much broader world than that of the three or four characters in the plot.
Anyway, the mother alone at home dies. And we see Lillian Gish come home from selling the contents in the package, to find her dead.
The change to the next scene supposedly takes a long time, because in the next scene we see the musician return, with enough money, and find himself in Pig Alley with the group of criminals. The Snapper Kid watches the musician brag about his winnings with a friend. Elmer and his gang follow him down the main street and see him enter his portal. They enter the bar next door, and through the door that connects the bar with the reception of the house, they attack him and rob him in front of the door of his house.
In the next scene the musician leaves the house to get back his money and wanders through Pig Alley. A girlfriend comes to find Lillian at home and takes her to the dance hall, frequented by gangsters and where the young woman meets the two rival gangs. Surprisingly for a young girl from a film by Griffith, although she refuses to dance, she does not say no to a drink with one of the gangsters (Elmer's rival), in a room of the place that is not very frequented. Elmer follows them and there is a verbal confrontation between the two gangsters. Lillian leaves offended and angry with both (probably the drink that the rival was going to serve her was not exactly what she had asked for). The two gang leaders seem to decide a confrontation outside (it turns out that they both work for the same big boss).
First Elmer's gang and then the rival gang pass through the small bar next to the couple's house, with their pistols in their right jacket pocket, and from there to the now more deserted alleys of Pig Alley.
Now comes the main sequence of the film: the fight between the gangs, which Griffith shows in detail from the beginning, as each gang arrives to the alleys and prepare to face their enemies. Their comings and goings. Here it is true that Griffith seems to break geographical coherence with the montage and the entrances and exits of characters and these places become somewhat imprecise. There is a fun battle with the gangsters hiding behind barrels (we remember the much more dreamlike sequence of Fantomas the following year). The shot of Elmer Booth and his henchmen closing in on the camera while crawling slowly up a wall, into extreme close-up and in focus at all times, is a wonderful example of the use of depth of field and focus adjustment for expressive purposes.
In the middle of the fight, the musician appears and unexpectedly recovers his money. Then the police burst in. The movie ends with a fun exchange of favors.
It seems almost impossible that all this fits in a quarter of an hour of silent film. The characters have a personality of great relief thanks to interpreters of enormous charisma, especially Elmer Booth (whose career would unfortunately be cut short 3 years later in a traffic accident) and Lillian Gish; the montage is a marvel of rhythm, the locations are extraordinary for their life and authenticity. Griffith signs a masterpiece full of talent and innovation.
Altogether the best short of Griffith, which proves once again that his true and most lasting inspiration came from narrating contemporary events (the modern story of Intolerance), and not on Victorian nineteenth-century stories or extravagant biblical re-enactments.
The musketeers of Pig Alley stands out because in this case the story of street fights between rival gangs in the surroundings of a fascinatingly busy street is the direct antecedent of all the gangster cinema that will triumph 15 years later (with von Sternberg) and will reach our days (De Palma, Cassavettes).
Griffith seems to pay special attention to the geography where he develops his story: a street seen from the front (always the same shot) crowded with passers-by, children, young people alternating, old drunks. A portal opens to this street on the right, in which the main couple lives with the mother, another entrance door to a bar attached to this portal and connected with it from the inside, and a little further down, on the same sidewalk another dance venue. There is also across the street and to the left, an area of alleys, including Pig Alley, packed with revelers, drunks, criminals, and children. The characters move continually through these places, often making the same journey over and over again.
Despite the few shots used, and the fact that there are no camera movements following the characters, the movements of the characters remain clear almost at all times.
The film begins with a young married couple in their room, while their mother sleeps. We can hardly know if it is a marriage or brothers, since as in Griffith the behavior of couples is of a nauseating chastity, and the titles present them to us as the poor musician and the young lady. What seems clear is that the young man leaves his home to earn a living and one assumes that for a long period of time, as the young woman cries disconsolately at the separation. The young woman is Lillian Gish, who is really fascinating to look at: virginal-looking as ever, but less childish than in other Griffith works, and with her intense expressiveness and marvelous beauty.
Later, reads the title, the young woman leaves the house with a bulky package. It is not very clear how much later it is. The fact is that the girl leaves the house leaving her mother resting, and is harassed by the Snapper Kid (a brilliant and charismatic Elmer Booth). Next comes the most famous shot in the film. Lillian Gish comes out of her portal angrily thinking about how a gang leader has messed with her. She leaves the portal and walks straight down the street with somewhat abrupt movements. In the opposite direction we see the back of another young woman, without any role in the story, a simple extra that we will not see again. The crossing of the two young women is very fast, they do not even look directly at each other, they simply turn slightly with a disdainful or surprised gesture (the face of the other girl Dorothy Gish is only seen in profile): without function, without consequences, but this shot calls powerfully our attention. The power of cinema, of an image, can focus our attention on details outside the story, totally tangential, denoting a much broader world than that of the three or four characters in the plot.
Anyway, the mother alone at home dies. And we see Lillian Gish come home from selling the contents in the package, to find her dead.
The change to the next scene supposedly takes a long time, because in the next scene we see the musician return, with enough money, and find himself in Pig Alley with the group of criminals. The Snapper Kid watches the musician brag about his winnings with a friend. Elmer and his gang follow him down the main street and see him enter his portal. They enter the bar next door, and through the door that connects the bar with the reception of the house, they attack him and rob him in front of the door of his house.
In the next scene the musician leaves the house to get back his money and wanders through Pig Alley. A girlfriend comes to find Lillian at home and takes her to the dance hall, frequented by gangsters and where the young woman meets the two rival gangs. Surprisingly for a young girl from a film by Griffith, although she refuses to dance, she does not say no to a drink with one of the gangsters (Elmer's rival), in a room of the place that is not very frequented. Elmer follows them and there is a verbal confrontation between the two gangsters. Lillian leaves offended and angry with both (probably the drink that the rival was going to serve her was not exactly what she had asked for). The two gang leaders seem to decide a confrontation outside (it turns out that they both work for the same big boss).
First Elmer's gang and then the rival gang pass through the small bar next to the couple's house, with their pistols in their right jacket pocket, and from there to the now more deserted alleys of Pig Alley.
Now comes the main sequence of the film: the fight between the gangs, which Griffith shows in detail from the beginning, as each gang arrives to the alleys and prepare to face their enemies. Their comings and goings. Here it is true that Griffith seems to break geographical coherence with the montage and the entrances and exits of characters and these places become somewhat imprecise. There is a fun battle with the gangsters hiding behind barrels (we remember the much more dreamlike sequence of Fantomas the following year). The shot of Elmer Booth and his henchmen closing in on the camera while crawling slowly up a wall, into extreme close-up and in focus at all times, is a wonderful example of the use of depth of field and focus adjustment for expressive purposes.
In the middle of the fight, the musician appears and unexpectedly recovers his money. Then the police burst in. The movie ends with a fun exchange of favors.
It seems almost impossible that all this fits in a quarter of an hour of silent film. The characters have a personality of great relief thanks to interpreters of enormous charisma, especially Elmer Booth (whose career would unfortunately be cut short 3 years later in a traffic accident) and Lillian Gish; the montage is a marvel of rhythm, the locations are extraordinary for their life and authenticity. Griffith signs a masterpiece full of talent and innovation.
Altogether the best short of Griffith, which proves once again that his true and most lasting inspiration came from narrating contemporary events (the modern story of Intolerance), and not on Victorian nineteenth-century stories or extravagant biblical re-enactments.