An interesting and unusual movie milestone

Lillian Gish and Elmer Booth in The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)

Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish in An Unseen Enemy (1912)

Charles Hill Mailes in The House of Darkness (1913)

Lionel Barrymore

Claire McDowell

Charles Hill Mailes

Jere F. Looney

A potentially violent patient in an insane asylum is calmed when he hears a nurse playing the piano. But shortly afterwards he breaks free, eludes his pursuers, and acquires a gun. He soon comes to a house where a young wife is ho...

D.W. Griffith

The House of Darkness

Music heals

It&apos;s always interesting once in a while to see an old short film, especially one from over a century ago when film was still in relative infancy. It&apos;s even more interesting when it has a young Lionel Barrymore in an early role far removed from his villain and cantankerous roles and direction by DW Griffith at a relatively early stage of his extensive career in quite a prolific year for him. Not to mention the very interesting and quite bold for the time subject matter.

&apos;1913&apos;s &apos;The House of Darkness&apos; is not one of Griffith&apos;s best short films, it&apos;s no &apos;The Mothering Heart&apos; or &apos;The Musketeers of Pig Alley&apos;. Also don&apos;t consider it one of his best overall. But it is a laudable effort and really admired and appreciated its good intentions with its message and how it dealt with a subject matter not covered a lot in film at this very early stage of film-making. So not anything to rave about and didn&apos;t love it, but this subject is not easy to tackle and it was done pretty well.

Sure, &apos;The House of Darkness&apos; is very melodramatic and it does go very overboard on it later on to the point of plain silliness.

Did think too story-wise it is very slight and felt over-stretched.

&apos;The House of Darkness&apos; though does have a lot that is worth recommending. The acting has strong presence without coming over as stagy, melodramatic yes but it was appropriate for the story. Barrymore commands the screen with no problem and Lillian Gish always made her films better and while her role is not massive she&apos;s lovely to watch. &apos;The House of Darkness&apos; is very sincere and hits hard, the message is not too heavy handed and while everything with the music is not exactly accurate its role in the story was handled compassionately.

Also thought that what &apos;The House of Darkness&apos; has to say about mental illness was quite thought-provoking and generally affecting. Griffith directs adeptly and with great technical skill and the photography is nicely crafted, beautifully framed and not primitive.

Not great but definitely worth seeing. 7/10.

It's always interesting once in a while to see an old short film, especially one from over a century ago when film was still in relative infancy. It's even more interesting when it has a young Lionel Barrymore in an early role far removed from his villain and cantankerous roles and direction by DW Griffith at a relatively early stage of his extensive career in quite a prolific year for him. Not to mention the very interesting and quite bold for the time subject matter.

'1913's 'The House of Darkness' is not one of Griffith's best short films, it's no 'The Mothering Heart' or 'The Musketeers of Pig Alley'. Also don't consider it one of his best overall. But it is a laudable effort and really admired and appreciated its good intentions with its message and how it dealt with a subject matter not covered a lot in film at this very early stage of film-making. So not anything to rave about and didn't love it, but this subject is not easy to tackle and it was done pretty well.

Sure, 'The House of Darkness' is very melodramatic and it does go very overboard on it later on to the point of plain silliness.

Did think too story-wise it is very slight and felt over-stretched.

'The House of Darkness' though does have a lot that is worth recommending. The acting has strong presence without coming over as stagy, melodramatic yes but it was appropriate for the story. Barrymore commands the screen with no problem and Lillian Gish always made her films better and while her role is not massive she's lovely to watch. 'The House of Darkness' is very sincere and hits hard, the message is not too heavy handed and while everything with the music is not exactly accurate its role in the story was handled compassionately.

Also thought that what 'The House of Darkness' has to say about mental illness was quite thought-provoking and generally affecting. Griffith directs adeptly and with great technical skill and the photography is nicely crafted, beautifully framed and not primitive.

Not great but definitely worth seeing. 7/10.

A potentially violent patient in an insane asylum is calmed when he hears a nurse playing the piano. But shortly afterwards he breaks free, eludes his pursuers, and acquires a gun. He soon comes to a house where a young wife is home alone, and there is a tense confrontation.

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