A Rude Hostess (1909) User Reviews

Admirable because of the excellence of the acting

[deickemeyer · 16 August 2014]

Sometimes a simple subject can be made notable by the acting, and in this picture the Biograph actors have achieved a success which is all the more attractive because it is worked out of what might at first thought be deemed unpromising material. The story is simple enough. A gentleman burglar enters a house, opens a safe and extracts therefrom a quantity of valuables and falls asleep, or pretends to be asleep in an easy chair when he hears someone approaching. The woman who enters suspects that there is evidence of something besides a mistake, and manages to detain him until she can ring for assistance and have the police called. Her success in detaining him is one of the best pieces of acting seen in a motion picture in a long time. In fact, both the lady and the burglar are adepts and they do their parts admirably. After it is all over and the burglar has denounced her as a rude hostess as he is led away by the police she has hysterics. This might seem out of place, but it is another of those natural touches for which the Biograph people are notable. The picture is not long, but is admirable because of the excellence of the acting. - The Moving Picture World, April 17, 1909

Giving Birth to a Nation

[Single-Black-Male · 14 February 2004]

This film is a mini-scene from the 34 year old D.W. Griffith's later epic, 'The Birth of a Nation'. He actually gives birth to the American nation through his hundreds of short films that are then culminated in his 1915 epic. Each short film is a mini-scene from the epic.