The Mother and the Law

'Motion pictures must be true to life. The truer they are the greater they are.'

D.W. Griffith¹

On 1914, even before the release of The Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith had been hankering to make an even more grandiose work that would surpass the Italian epics, such as Quo Vadis and Cabiria, then playing to great critical and financial success. However, there was not enough cash in his coffers to finance another major effort, so he had to rein in his ambitions and make what Joseph Henabery termed 'a little, cheap, quickie picture'.² After mulling over various scripts and finding them unsatisfactory, Griffith wrote one of his own. In 1916, he explained his motivation:

Several seasons back I came across Miss Marsh and Mr. Harron browsing around in an out-of-the-way section of the underworld in a Western city. They were making what we call 'life studies'. They seemed so detached from the strange undercurrents of this locality. The thought came to me of putting them into a picture which would reveal the heart of Young America tossed about by the world's old passions, joys and sorrows that add to the contemporary life's complexities.³

From this idea, Griffith developed a story that traced the lives of a boy and girl who come to the city, meet, fall in love, and marry. Similar to The Escape, made earlier in 1914 which dealt with the urban poor, his film would examine how his characters become pawns affected by societal forces.

Originally called The Woman and the Law – and referred to as such in the Majestic Company's books for over a year – the picture would during production be re-titled The Mother and the Law.In most film histories, this initial effort has been almost entirely ignored. Instead, critical discussion centers on the much modified version known as the 'modern' story of Intolerance. Little information exists about the original's plot, except for the comment in a trade magazine that the film dealt with 'an impoverished couple of the slums'.⁴

Griffith selected his cast carefully. For the feminine lead, he chose Mae Marsh.⁵ She was not a conventionally beautiful girl, but her face mirrors the look of the poverty-pinched lower classes and, with Griffith's coaching, she was able to make the transition from young daughter to distraught wife and then to grieving mother with great skill. In 1917, she modestly described her performance. 'I have seen Intolerance twenty times, I suppose, and it never occurs to me that "The Girl" in the modern epic is myself. It is all Mr. Griffith. When I watch her actions I am no more able to disassociate Mr. Griffith from them than I am able to watch the Babylonian spectacle without thinking of him. In his pictures everything – scenery and players – is just so many instruments in his orchestra.'⁶

Bobby Harron, as the boy, was also adept at taking direction. His performance is flawless and thoroughly convincing, even in his adoption of the perpetual stoop of the downtrodden. The rest of the cast was aptly chosen, among them Walter Long with his tough looks (he was Gus, the would-be rapist in Birth) as the underworld boss and Miriam Cooper (the placid sister in Birth) as his mistress, called 'the Friendless One'.

In general, this highly productive period of Griffith's life (1914–16) is relatively undocumented. Few paper records survive in his files, but some production details can be found in the company books of the Aitkens. Otherwise, one must rely on the recollections of those who worked with Griffith, which are often inaccurate and sometimes contradictory, and on contemporary references in the trade press, which, being closer in time, are far more reliable.

Even the dates when The Mother and the Law was first shot have been a matter of dispute. Karl Brown, the assistant cameraman, stated...