Detail View: Movie Posters: Nursing a Viper

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Nursing a Viper

Drama

Decade 1910

1909

Biograph Studios

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000986

Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Frank Powell

D.W. Griffith

Nursing a Viper (Biograph Studios, 1909). One Sheet (28 X 42). In the early days of motion pictures, legendary director David Wark Griffith worked to create a new cinematic language. Through the shorts he made during his time with Biograph Studios, Griffith developed and refined such techniques as cross-cutting, camera movement, close-ups, and more, techniques taken for granted now, but revolutionary and ambitious in their day. He was also one of the first to produce and direct a feature film in the U.S., Judith of Bethulia (1914). As an artist and a craftsman, Griffiths place in film history cannot be overstated. To say that the one-reel film represented here, Nursing a Viper, was an early effort in Griffiths career would be true, but at the same time misleading. Although its true that Griffith had only taken up the directorial reins in 1908, the year before this film was released, its also true that by the time Griffith made this picture, set in the days of the French Revolution, he had almost 200 short films to his credit. Although Griffiths best, and arguably most important, work, such as Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) was still ahead of him, it must be said that these early years were incredibly productive, fruitful, and important in developing the skills and techniques that Griffith, and virtually all other filmmakers, would use in the future. Of other historical importance about this short film is that it featured a young Florence Lawrence, the woman credited with being the first known movie star and Marion Leonard, one of Griffiths favorite female leads during his Biograph years. Paper from these early Biograph shorts is extremely rare, not surprising as it is nearly a century old. This particular stone litho one sheet is an incredible find. It has edge wear, a small tear in the left border, tearing at the fold lines, and corner creases, but professional restoration has largely addressed these flaws, making this a rare and historic

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2015-09-08

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1909

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