A Calamitous Elopement

This short feature is just too contrived to work particularly well. It does have a some good moments, but it's hard to tell whether they were all intentional or not. It's only mildly interesting in general, and perhaps the most unexpected aspect is how morally neutral it is. Most of Griffith's films took clear moral stances, and indeed if there was a problem, it was that they went too far in their moralizing. This time, he seems to have been more interested in telling what he apparently thought was an entertaining story, and he seems to show no real concern at all for any of the characters.

The story is relatively involved for such a short feature. It starts with a young couple deciding to elope, while an opportunistic thief looks to take advantage of the situation. Almost the whole plot is contrived and implausible - in any movie you can accept one or two instances of this, but when almost every scene contains unlikely coincidences, bizarre decisions by the characters, improbable developments, and the like, it's just too much to overlook.

As a result, this is just not very good. It has a number of humorous moments, but it's not always clear whether all of them were intentionally funny or not. A more careful comedic touch could have smoothed out some of the apparent gags that don't quite come off. There is some skill in the way that the film was edited together, but nothing outstanding enough to make up for the rather weak nature of the material itself.