Cinema hadn't quite seen the rapidity of edits in a movie as contained in Biograph Studio's March 1911 "The Lonedale Operator." Cross-cutting between two separate scenes, director D.W. Griffith used over 100 edits, an unusual amount of cuts during that time.
"The Lonedale Operator" begins lazily with long sequences, showing the love interest of Blanche Sweet and her train engineer boyfriend. She eventually fills in for her ailing father, the train station's telegraph operator. During late afternoon, a train arrives with a pouch full of money for the local mine's payroll. There's no secure safe to place the money in, but not to worry since the train station is relatively isolated with no one around, except for two drifters who have followed the payroll as it leaves the train into the hands of the Lonedale Operator.
As the film proceeds, Griffith quickens the pace of his edits as he juxtapositions between two separate plots: the robbery and the rescue, where the train with her engineer boyfriend is miles away. The video link below provides an explanation on what cross-cutting, or parallel editing, is all about as Griffith employs the technique to amp up the suspense.
"The Lonedale Operator" is also notable for a rare closeup of a prop, pivotal to the story. It wasn't the first cinematic closeup, as several articles allude to, but it was one of the first that provided a bit of comedy relief after such a harrowing story had unfolded.
Lastly, this was one of the first films Blanche Sweet appeared in. She was a very successful silent movie actress throughout the 1910's and 1920's. But Ms. Sweet could not make the transition into sound films, playing in only three before she retired from Hollywood.
