Classics of the silent screen (1959)

In the Babylonian sequence, George Siegmann, one of Griffith's favorite villains and also one of his most reliable assistants, played Cyrus the Persian, who ultimately overthrew Babylon. In the background is the revolving Sun Image, an important part of the Persians' religious rites. Alfred Paget as Belshazzar and Seena Owen as the Princess Beloved. (starring Marguery Wilson and Eugene Pallette) of religious intolerance under the regime of Catherine De Medici. And the fourth and foremost story was concerned with the enmity of Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Persian, and culminates in the Fall of Babylon. Constance Talmadge, Seena Owen, Elmo Lincoln, Wallace Beid, Elmer Clifton, Alfred Paget, Tully Marshall and many other big-stars-to-be were featured in this episode. Griffith didn't tell his stories episodically, one by one, but told them simultaneously, in parallel action. He began by devoting long stretches of film to each story, to establish the period and the characters. Then as the film progressed, he cut more rapidly from story to story to emphasize the injustices common to all eras. And as all four stories reached their climaxes, he cut with fantastic fluidity from one story to another— from Cyrus' chariots racing to destroy Babylon to Catherine's troops about to massacre the Huguenots, and back to the modern story with the condemned boy starting his walk to the gallows. Not only was the idea vast in conception, but it was magnificent in execution, each cut almost mathematically plannedlong shot of one story to long shot of another, closeup to close-up, and so on. The rhythm and tempo increased until, in the words of Iris Barrv, it was "like 21