The Adventures of Dollie (1908)

Here’s another one-reeler it would be easy to overlook if it weren’t associated in an important way with D.W. Griffith. In fact, it’s the first film he directed, with, they say, an uncredited assist from perhaps his most significant collaborator, Billy Bitzer. 

Dollie is a young girl, maybe four or five years old, out with her parents on a nice day.  She strolls with her mother, stopping by a river to sit and watch the water flow by. A gypsy peddler approaches the woman to offer some baskets for sale. She refuses and he becomes abusive. But leave it to dad to rush up and send the gypsy packing.

Back at his camp, the gypsy and his wife seethe with the need for vengeance, so the gypsy goes back to Dollie. He grabs her and rushes back to his wagon when he hides the child in a barrel. Dad and mom realize their baby is gone and form a searching party. They are convinced at the gypsy came that Dollie isn’t there and hasten away.

As the gypsy couple drive their wagon across the river, the barrel falls out the back and floats away toward a waterfall. Griffith has essentially set up a situation he will exploit more expertly eight years later in Way Down East. Here the waterfall is a short drop, Dollie’s barrel glides along the quickly flowing current (but not rapids), and finally settles right where the girl and her mother had rested previously. A boy who is fishing from the spot sees the barrel and calls Dollie’s father. The container is opened and the child is reunited with her parents.

The film is photographed by Arthur Marvin in medium shots with the action taking place in the center of the frame. Griffith seems content to rely on the tactics of stage melodrama, not even taking advantage of the thrills a rampaging river would provide. When Bitzer got behind the camera and Griffith realized the freedom film gave him over the stage, the two men would spin this melodramatic hay into cinematic gold.

Arthur V. Johnson played the father, Linda Arvidson was the mother, Gladys Egan was Dollie, while Charles Inslee and Madeline West were the gypsy couple. The story was written by Stanner E.V. Taylor, and the picture was produced by Biograph.