Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908)A family is terrified when an eagle carries off its young child. Director:J. Searle Dawley |
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Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908)A family is terrified when an eagle carries off its young child. Director:J. Searle Dawley |
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| Credited cast: | |||
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Henry B. Walthall | ... |
Woodsman
(as H. B. Walthall)
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Miss Earle |
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Jinnie Frazer | ... |
Baby
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| D.W. Griffith | ... | ||
A woodcutter says good-bye to his wife and child, and then goes off to work. After he has left, the mother leaves the child outside their cabin to play. Suddenly, an eagle swoops down and carries off the child. When the mother realizes what has happened, she runs to tell her husband. He and the other lumberjacks immediately set out to find and rescue the child. Written by Snow Leopard
In terms of quality, this is a pretty uneven feature, but it is certainly interesting. The story creates some good suspense, and although it seems pretty far-fetched, it was said to have been based, at least in part, on an actual incident. Some significant parts of the story rely heavily on special effects that do not hold up very well by later standards, yet they do tell the story clearly.
This movie might be best known now for the very early screen appearance of D.W. Griffith, as the father whose child is carried away by the eagle. His performance is at least adequate for its time, as are those of the rest of the cast.
The movie uses several sequences of visual effects to depict the eagle's capture of the child, and its subsequent conflict with Griffith. As was often the case in movies by Edwin S. Porter and other Edison film-makers, the emphasis is on making it clear what is happening, rather than on striving for a completely seamless or convincing effect. This makes the special effects look very unconvincing now, but to their original audience, they probably looked a lot better.
This seems to have been a pretty ambitious effort for its day, and even if it does not look very impressive now, it has enough interesting aspects to be worth watching.