Reciew #912: The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)

Title: The Musketeers of Pig Alley
Year: 1912
Director: D.W Griffith
Country: US
Language: N/A

Gangster film has its roots in the 1930's wherein the prohibition laws combined with the Great Depression created a period of economic and social instability that was ripe with crime, criminals and the films about them. Warner Bros' was the catalyst behind these pictures, making the ever popular Little Ceasar and Public Enemy. Of course the mafia just didn't spring up in the 30's, they existed in the 1910's too. William Randolph Hearst's Chicago American and the Chicago Tribune would hire gangsters to intimidate vendors into selling their newspapers in a three year period known as the Circulation Wars. 

In this, a young wife and her musician husband live in poverty in a New York City tenement. The husband's job requires him to go away for for a number of days. On his return, he is robbed by the neighborhood gangster. Sometime later, an unrelated mob shoot-out ensues and the man recognizes the gangster.

Though the American picture The Black Hand (1906) is known as the first mafia picture, it would be D.W Griffith who would bring the genre into the mainstream with The Musketeers of Pig Alley. It is reported that he hired real gangsters to play parts in the film, I suppose to create some sense of realism. Griffith does a fine job at framing each scene with several increasingly complex crowd scenes. Remarkably each scene has a different feel and continually draws our eyes to the most important part of the action, in spite of all the bustling that is going on. 

We see quite daring editing for the time, showing that D.W Griffith had the potential to be a master filmmaker if he was not already one. The inter titles are used sparingly as the choreography of the action is what drives the plot along. Really, this film could have had no dialogue at all and it would be relatively easy to understand. 

The acting by Lilian Gish is, as always, remarkable. Considering the first film I've seen her in was Night of the Hunter (1955) when she was at the very end of her film career, I find it fascinating to view her beginnings in the film industry. Though not Griffith's best, it is a fine film and certainly important enough to view if you're a fan of his work. 

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