DW Griffith's best known gangster picture, in fact the film that some say established the genre, was the renowned Musketeers of Pig Alley. However The Transformation of Mike, made a few months earlier, is a very worthy predecessor.
Like The Sunbeam, which appeared around the same time, Transformation of Mike sees Griffith working on a small canvas, with a handful of indoor sets arranged as if we are looking into a doll's house. Also as in The Sunbeam, he uses this arrangement to develop the intimacy and romance of the story. At the beginning, his crosscutting back and forth between Wilfred Lucas and Blanche Sweet implies a kind of inevitability in their eventually meeting. Later in the neighbourhood dance scene, he contrasts between two camera set-ups which are apparently supposed to be different ends of the same room. However one shows a crowded dance floor, the other a secluded table two very different spaces. When Sweet walks away from Lucas, back to the dance floor, his standing alone among the empty tables reflects his feeling of abandonment.
There are very few intertitles here just a small scattering to set each scene. The actors work exceptionally well at conveying feelings and intentions entirely through body language and facial expression. This may well be Wilfred Lucas' best performance, making the most of his brief period as Biograph's main male lead. Blanche Sweet had been an extra at Biograph since 1909, but here she is just starting to emerge as a leading lady despite still being very young.
This is a rarely seen Griffith short, only recently having become available on Youtube, and not featuring on any DVD compilation. It's not at all bad though, and shows the development of the gangster film as well as Griffith's handling of romantic drama.
