This six minute offering was virtually begging to be remade into a feature length during the after-life of Griffith's work. It's not a particularly entertaining piece of self-contained footage, but it does create a vocabulary for subsequent productions. It's more of a template or blueprint for how films should be made in the future rather than a presentation of entertainment. I would say that this was a skeleton whereby successive writers and directors could add the flesh and muscle to enhance the piece. These short films that the 34 year old D.W. Griffith was making in 1909 were seeds that were being scattered to generate new work rather than being the finished article.
3 Reviews
Griffith Delivers a Comedy
Tornado_Sam8 January 2023
It's pretty rare to find anyone who praises D. W. Griffith for his comedies. Most people who know Griffith today for his wrongly interpreted "Birth of a Nation" and its exciting action scenes and suspense probably don't know that he was also the filmmaker of some rather quaint short comedies back in the day. "Getting Even" falls in this category, and like many other shorts of Griffith this early on (which in fact constitute the majority of the number of films he produced) it's somewhat strange to see Griffith go along with the standard drawn out long shots that marked pretty much every film in the day. But this is indeed most of what Griffith did before he became a master of some of the finest filmmaking techniques, and "Getting Even", being before 1912, is no exception.
The film is a simple revenge tale basically, about a guy who is humiliated by other men as he tries to talk to a woman (who, according to the full summary, is apparently the object of everyone's affections). To get revenge, he dresses up as a woman and goes to a local dance where the same men are, and they all begin falling in love with the guy without realizing they just got pranked. It's definitely an odd story for Griffith to be telling, but one can't complain as the comedy is fairly good for its time and the film is short enough to where it's no waste of time. Mainly worth seeing to see a Griffith comedy if nothing else, even though it's not as well known as the most widely viewed comedy of his, "Those Awful Hats" (from the same year).
The film is a simple revenge tale basically, about a guy who is humiliated by other men as he tries to talk to a woman (who, according to the full summary, is apparently the object of everyone's affections). To get revenge, he dresses up as a woman and goes to a local dance where the same men are, and they all begin falling in love with the guy without realizing they just got pranked. It's definitely an odd story for Griffith to be telling, but one can't complain as the comedy is fairly good for its time and the film is short enough to where it's no waste of time. Mainly worth seeing to see a Griffith comedy if nothing else, even though it's not as well known as the most widely viewed comedy of his, "Those Awful Hats" (from the same year).
The fun is based upon harmless jokes
deickemeyer30 December 2014
A Biograph subject which depicts a vigorous spanking bee in which a group of cowboys and the kid figure. But the kid turns the tables on his tormentors by appearing at a mask ball dressed as a belle and succeeds in getting his most troublesome opponent to making love. Upon his unmasking the ardent swain's consternation may be imagined. It can't be described. It is an amusing picture and the fun is based upon harmless jokes. Such acting as is required is in harmony with the subject and will commend itself to the most exacting critic. The film represents fun and such horseplay as men are disposed to show when a group are together. - The Moving Picture World, September 25, 1909
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