Confidence (1909) User Reviews

Two by Griffith

[Michael_Elliott · 29 February 2008]

Confidence (1909)

*** (out of 4)

An orphan girl runs away from her troubled past to become a nurse. After a couple years she also marries a doctor but someone from her past shows up to blackmail her. The story is told very well throughout making this a nice little film. Griffith's storytelling abilities are certainly getting better in this later 1909 films compared to some of his earlier stuff.

Lucky Jim (1909)

*** (out of 4)

Jealous Jack loves Gertrude. Gertrude loves and marries Jim. Jim dies so Jack marries Gertrude. Even with Jim dead Jack can't help be jealous of him. Here's a Griffith short that's an early slapstick comedy and this is probably the best comedy I've seen from the director. The plot is simple enough but the slapstick manages to get several laughs with most coming from the abusive wife.

Distancing the Other

[Single-Black-Male · 14 February 2004]

This short film is very subtle. You could be fooled into thinking that this is generally entertaining, but when you read between the lines you can see that the 34 year old D.W. Griffith is defining the nation by distancing the ethnic other. A clear example of this is the fact that the characters are all homogenous.