The Girls and Daddy

Name: The Girls and Daddy
Director: D.W. Griffith
Genre: Drama
Released: 1909
Duration: 15 min
Cast: David Miles, Florence Lawrence, Dorothy West, D.W. Griffith, John R. Cumpson

1909 Drama 15 minutes Directed by D.W. Griffith

About The Girls and Daddy

Dr. Payson, a widower who treats poor patients without pay, is broke and has written an old friend for help. At the post office a crook and another man hear that the doctor's two daughters will be alone with the money. The girls are asleep, locked in each other's arms, when the crook climbs in. He leaves over the roof. The second man breaks in. One daughter climbs to the roof, finds the crook coming from the next house, and gets him to jump back through the scuttle. He fights the intruder until the man is down. Daddy arrives with two policemen. During the fight the crook slips out.

Cast & crew

More about The Girls and Daddy

D. W. Griffith directed and wrote the one-reeler. G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed it. Biograph released it on 1 February 1909. It runs 15 minutes. David Miles plays Dr. Payson. Florence Lawrence and Dorothy West play the daughters. Charles Inslee plays the burglar. Moving Picture World printed a synopsis on 30 January 1909. Griffith appears in blackface at a ball. The trade synopsis identifies the second intruder by race. A print is at the Library of Congress.

Themes

A doctor who does not charge his poor patients
A burglar who leaves when he sees the girls asleep
A second man fought on the roof
Dr. Payson
two daughters
burglar
post office
blackface
Biograph
Florence Lawrence

Background

The 30 January 1909 Moving Picture World synopsis writes the second intruder in the racist language of the period, and Griffith appears in the film in blackface.

Making

Griffith stages two intruders in one bedroom: the first leaves when he sees the sleeping sisters, and the second is the man the police take.

Look

G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed the post office, the bedroom, and the roof the daughter climbs.

Music

Silent.

Preservation

A print is in the Library of Congress.

Notes

Robert Harron plays a messenger. Anita Hendrie is in the post office.
John R. Cumpson, Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, and Mack Sennett are at the ball. Johnson and Sennett also play policemen.
The crook's change of heart, in the Moving Picture World account, comes when he sees the two girls asleep.
He exits over the roof into the next house, then returns through the scuttle.
Wikipedia notes Griffith's own blackface appearance as a small part at the ball.

Scenes

The crook sees the sisters asleep in each other's arms and goes out over the roof.
The daughter brings him back through the scuttle to fight the second intruder.
The policemen take the second man. The first burglar is already gone.