The Lonedale Operator (1911)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Writers:

Release Date:

23 March 1911 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Drama | Romance | Western

Plot:

When her father becomes ill, a young woman takes over the telegraph at a lonely western railroad station...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Telegraph | Payroll | Melodrama | Wrench

Cast

Verner Clarges	...	In Payroll Office
Guy Hedlund	...	On Train
Jeanie Macpherson	...	In Payroll Office
W.C. Robinson	...	In Payroll Office

Runtime:

17 min (16 fps)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Inglewood, California, USA

Company:

Biograph Company

Trivia:

One of the 50 films in the 4-disk boxed DVD set called "Treasures from American Film Archives (2000)", compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation from 18 American film archives. This film was preserved by the Museum of Modern Art. This version has a piano music score and runs 17 minutes.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Since the movie was shot on an open-air set, the wind blows the paper's on the desk in the office as well as the clothes of the actors and Blanche Sweet's hair.

Movie Connections:

Remade as The Girl and Her Trust (1912)

Blanche Sweet is incredible in a good Griffith-directed Biograph.

Wow. It's hard to believe that Miss Blanche Sweet was fifteen when she was directed by the great D.W. Griffith in this Biograph production from 1911. Blanche, at such an early age, was not only extremely mature in terms her physique and baring, she was a remarkably accomplished actress. Her naturalistic acting translates well with modern audiences (at leased with all my friends to whom I've shown this movie). This film is a good one, suspenceful and atmospheric, but it's definatly not the best of Griffith's Biographs. It ranks pretty highly with the other work of his that I've seen. It is certainly aided by Sweet's performance, and also helpful the exemplary early use of "montage" which Griffith had been putting to use in his films as early as 1909. For a peak at what a great man like Griffith was doing before he made The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916) and Way Down East (1920), this is certainly one to take a good look or two at, just to get a peak at what the future had in store for cinema history.