planktonrules Review of The Usurer

The Usurer (1910)

Despite not being at all believable, it's a pretty interesting morality tale

[6/10 · 12 August 2006]

This is an interesting little short from D. W. Griffith that is all about the evils of greed. It's a pretty obvious and heavy-handed tale but it somehow redeems itself by providing a horrific and rather interesting end to the old skinflint. It seems in the world of Griffith, people NEVER get an ordinary "comeuppance", but are killed in the most dramatic and extreme ways--such as when an unfaithful woman and her lover are sealed away in a room behind a brick wall in THE SEALED ROOM or women with obnoxiously large hats are ripped out of their seats by a giant iron claw in THOSE AWFUL HATS. And, I, for one, like these moments. They are silly but very watchable as they appeal to the non-intellectual that hides within us all!