What the Daisy Said

This is an interesting and pretty good old-fashioned short drama. It's mostly worthwhile in that it features Mary Pickford, in the kind of role that she frequently played in short features before she became well-known in her own right.

Pickford plays one of a pair of sisters who are earnestly seeking signs as to what romantic attachments the future might hold for them, with the 'picking petals from a flower' method being one of their attempts to find out. Later, a gypsy fortune-teller gets involved, and the story that develops then becomes fairly eventful for such a short film.

The innocence of the girls and their familiar questions is contrasted with the more serious story developments. For the most part, the movie is done pretty well, and is worth seeing, particularly for Pickford's presence in the cast.

A slight but beautifully shot drama from D. W. Griffith in which Mary Pickford and Gertrude Robinson play a pair of sisters who fall foul of a fortune-telling gypsy. They both give agreeably restrained performances in an era which was still plagued by actors playing to the Gods as if they were in a theatre instead of on a screen.

Good vs Evil is and always has been the plot of a good story. Stereotype or not, in this case the gypsies do not have good intentions and are willing to beat up an old man. You have to get over PC brainwashing to view the film (or any Griffith film). It's 1910! And it is a short.

When I view silents I am seeing the birth of film. Knowing there is not going to be much of a plot I look for scenery, set design, costuming/hairstyles, and cinematography/composition. Since there is not much costuming in the film, except for the gypsies (with the wagon being real), we see what the people and places of 1910 looked like. Since filming took place outside on a windy day, housing, gardens, fields, waterfalls are all on location and are as they existed then. There is the beautiful Delaware Water Gap falls for a fantastic romantic backdrop which must have feasted the eyes of national movie goers who never saw the likes. And the waving field of wild flowers on a hillside amazed me it did not get trampled to death which tells me Griffith did not do many takes.

Then there is Pickford and Robinson who do not overact their parts as sisters, however Graybill the gypsy did - but that is what was expected of silent actors. This makes Pickford and Robinson all the more accomplished early on in their careers because they were able to get their feelings and longings across without much exaggeration. Griffith for his part shows how tight he can edit his films. View the film as a student of film history.

Sisters Mary Pickford (as Martha) and Gertrude Robinson (as Milly) play the old daisy game - "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not…" Then, Ms. Pickford goes to have her palm read by dashing gypsy Joseph Graybill, who has ulterior motives; apparently, he loves to seduce young women seeking advice on love. With romance blooming between herself and gypsy Graybill, the love stricken Pickford brings sister Robinson to have her palm read, too. You'll never guess what happens next; or, maybe you will…

Pickford shines in the lead role. Director D.W. Griffith and photographer G.W. Bitzer team-up to provide some typically shimmering exterior images. Owen Moore, Alfred Paget, Mack Sennett, and Charles West are among the notable "extras". The story is quite neatly done, albeit not recommended for P.C. police; it has the stereotypical bad "Gypsy". It's not the first, or the last, time the "scoundrels" (dis-)grace a Griffith picture.

***** What the Daisy Said (7/11/10) D.W. Griffith ~ Mary Pickford, Gertrude Robinson, Joseph Graybill

This early one reel Biograph drama has a very typical storyline for it's time, a young girl becoming involved with a crafty cad, in this case a gypsy. It opens with the enchanting scene of two pretty young sisters standing in a field of daisies, both hoping for romance to arrive. Soon enough it does for both sisters in the form of a womanizing gypsy and ends with their father being struck by the cad and the gypsy fleeing through the field of daisies with a mob of angry farmhands in hot pursuit. Mary Pickford and Gertrude Robinson portray the jilted sisters adequately in this fast moving drama, beautifully filmed on location and slickly directed and edited by D.W Griffith. While not a classic, still interesting for those curious in early silent cinema and a young Mary Pickford, who stands out with her unique naturalness.