And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | And a Little Child Shall Lead Them |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1909 |
| length | 4 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Wark Griffith |
| script | David Wark Griffith |
| production | American Mutoscope and Biograph Company |
| camera | GW Bitzer |
| occupation | |
| |
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them ( German : And a little child will lead them ) is an American Filmmelodram of director David Wark Griffith from the year 1909 . The script was also written by David Wark Griffith, the title is a quote from the book of Isaiah in the King James Bible . The silent film is a production by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company .
action
A young couple is almost inconsolable after the death of their two-year-old firstborn child. The little toy dog that the deceased infant held in his arms when he died is a fond memory.
Seven years later, his father, a busy businessman, began to neglect his family. The second child, the now six-year-old daughter, suffers from this. The wife complains of her husband's indifference, and the couple get into such an argument that the separation is imminent. While sharing the household, the daughter finds the dead brother's toy dog and asks who will get it. Both parents reach out and embrace each other seconds later. The separation does not take place.
Production notes
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them is the conclusion of Isaiah 11: 6 of the King James Bible . The full verse reads: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them ( Isa 11.6 KJV ). In the 2016 standard translation the verse reads The wolf finds protection with the lamb, the panther lies with the kid. Calf and lion graze together, a little boy leads them ( Isa 11,6 EU ). The quote was repeated in the young film industry, also in a slightly modified form, as the title of short films. All these productions have in common that in them a child leads adults on the right path, they do not deal with a religious topic.
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them was filmed on February 22nd and 24th, 1909. The film is 340 feet in length and was released on a roll of 35mm film along with the short film The Deception . It was registered with the United States Copyright Office on March 13, 1909 , and was released in theaters on March 22, 1909. A copy is preserved in the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress .
criticism
One of the prettiest and most touching film stories ever made. It shows how a little child brings together a couple who through a trivial quarrel are about to separate. The work of the child is equally clever.
The Moving Picture World published a brief synopsis in its March 20, 1909 edition. The reviewer calls the scene in which the daughter asks who will get the toy dog as the most touching scene ever shot. In the following issue, a viewer from the theater business has their sayand praisesthe films by the Biograph Company , for example The Deception and And a Little Child Shall Lead Them , for their dramatic structure, the performance of the actors and the suggestive power of the images. This is the quality one would expect from the great theaters on Broadway. A strong film was made out of a small story, which moves the audience to tears in almost every showing. The acting performance of Marion Leonard is highlighted as above average, which is especially true for the key scenes of the death of her first child and the couple's reconciliation. The recording was also good overall, but the lighting left a lot to be desired in some scenes.
Sharon R. Ullman cites And a Little Child Shall Lead Them with A Child's Stratagem from 1910 as examples of the few early 20th century films that dealt with the subject of divorce from the child's perspective. Both films are tinged with the same sentimentality of Griffith 'that characterizes some of his great epics.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b And a Little Child Shall Lead Them . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 4, No. 12, March 20, 1909, p. 345, digitized .
- ↑ a b The Week's Films . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 4, No. 13, March 27, 1909, p. 367, digitized .
- ↑ a b And a Little Child Shall Lead Them , Website Silent Era , January 14, 2009, accessed January 17, 2019.
- ↑ And a Little Child Shall Lead Them in the Internet Movie Database , accessed January 17, 2019.
- ↑ display. In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 4, No. 12, March 20, 1909, p. 323, digitized .
- ^ Modern Art in Motion Pictures . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 4, No. 13, March 27, 1909, p. 363, digitized .
- ↑ Sharon R. Ullman: Sex Seen. The Emergence of Modern Sexuality in America . University of California Press, Berkeley 1997, ISBN 0-520-20954-0 , p. 82.