Star maker : the story of D. W. Griffith (1959)

The Story Behind the Making of Intolerance 119 Even while he was making The Birth of a Nation, he was also working on a picture to follow it, so driven, so restless, so energetic was this amazing man. It was called The Mother and the Law. The crux of it was a mother's struggles to get possession of her child who had been taken away from her by a cruel man who owned a mill in the town where the scene of the story was laid. In addition, there was a secondary plot that concerned the woman's young husband who was accused of a crime he had not committed. The poor woman had plenty of troubles, indeed. Just as everybody and everything seemed doomed there was to be a Griffith last-minute run to the rescue, and all was to end with the sun shining and everybody happy. A small story, compared to the mighty The Birth of a Nation. He had assembled a cast and, next morning, rehearsals were to begin and would continue for at least six weeks— backbreaking, temper-shattering rehearsals in which he sometimes coaxed his players in friendly tones, sometimes lashed them with words that were hard to forgive. But, some way or other, the players did forgive him. They all wanted to work for The Master. In the cast were Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Miriam Cooper, Monte Blue, Vera Lewis, Ralph Lewis, Douglas Fairbanks, Walter Long, Tod Browning. Personal Memory: In a letter to the author from Mae Marsh: The Mother and the Law was the forerunner of Intolerance; it became the modern story of that great epoch. One scene called for Robert Harron to be executed, although he was innocent. We did not put the feeling into the scene that Mr. D. W. thought we should, so he took us to San Quentin to see how a condemned man would act before he gave up his life. Motion pictures were made of the prison walls, the yard, the gates, and different places. While we were waiting inside the prison yard, Robert Harron lit a cigarette and started to smoke; just then a prison gate, leading to