The Awakening (1909) User Reviews

2 by Griffith

[Michael_Elliott · 7 March 2008]

Getting Even (1909)

*** (out of 4) D.W. Griffith comedy about a mining town where all the men are in love with a young woman named Lucy (Mary Pickford). Budd, a younger guy, is also in love with her but he's constantly being picked on by the other men. To get even, Budd goes to a local dance dressed as a woman and soon all the guys start to hit on him. This is a pretty good short that has a few nice laughs. I'm not sure if this was one of the first cross dressing movies or not but I believe it's the earliest I've seen.

Awakening, The (1909)

** (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith short, which is rather rare because it has a screenplay by Mary Pickford. A man reluctantly marries a girl (Pickford) so that he can get his uncle's riches but after he gets the money he dumps her. Soon afterwards he begins to start seeing her face wherever he looks. This is a pretty by the numbers flick from Griffith who really doesn't bring much life to the story. I'm going to guess this is due to his feued with Pickford who not only demanded more money but demanded that Griffith let her write, which the director wasn't keen on.

Mary Pickford scriptwriter - credit where credit is due

[kekseksa · 7 October 2017]

This is a corny story (but no cornier than most of Griffith's comedies and light dramas, an area for which he had little or no talent. The themes of someone having to marry because of a rich uncle's will or similar, of an undesired arranged marriage that turns out well and of a misogynist reformed all abound in Victorian popular literature and drama.

They are very common too in early films right through the silent era (eg Wanted a Wife in a Hurry, Éclair 1911, Marriage forcé, Pathé 1914, the 1914 German film Engelein and Get 'Em Young, Roach 1926 or again L'Express matrimonial, Pathé 1912. Don't Tell Dad and Looking for Sally, both 1925 or again The Woman Hater, Powers 1910 and presumably films of the same name from Lubin 1909, Thanhouser 1910, Kalem 1912 and Essanay 1915) but you will have difficulty in finding many examples that predate this film of 1909 and the themes are all quite neatly combined here. Of the films cited only the Lubin film, which was however totally different and, by the sound of it, rather funnier, came out in the same year (and same month indeed).

Those envious of Mary Pickford's success would do well to think on that and consider whether their own less successful efforts were equally attuned to the times and ahead of the game....

Pickford would play an important role throughout her active career in all areas concerned with her films except, as far as one knows, the cinematography. She was involved in the writing, the direction and of course the production. Her films were often puerile and exploitative and the direction she allowed her career to take proved in the end a dead end from which she could not escape, but she was a multi-talented woman who very much made her own success and, ironically, programmed her own decline.

Much that provokes pleasurable sensations

[deickemeyer · 7 January 2015]

A love story of a different sort, intended to illustrate the perversity of Cupid's pranks when he sets out to force two people to love each other regardless of their own inclinations. Love is a matter which no one can control and to which all are alike susceptible to some extent; but the major had determined that he would not love, even though his uncle's will enjoined marriage within a certain limit, else his inheritance would be cut off. It seems that the time limit was about expiring, and the marriage was consummated, but the indifferent major left his bride and returned to his convivial companions at the club. While there, the face of the wife at home continuously haunted him, and finally, when he returns, just in time to have her fall from, a trellis into his arms, Cupid's work is done, and one can almost hear him chuckle as he disappears, seeking other fields to conquer. The staging, the acting and the photography combine to make a very pleasing picture, one that has no clement of gloom and much that provokes pleasurable sensations. It is quite up to the Biograph standard and is well regarded by the audiences who see it. - The Moving Picture World, October 16, 1909