Billy BitzerFilmography

Hotel Variety

In this drama, set within an urban hotel, a nightclub dancer witnesses a gangland killing and must flee for her life. She...

Hotel Splendid

Lady of the Pavements

D.W. Griffith's last silent film, The Lady of the Pavements was based on La Paiva, a story by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller. Set in...

Drums of Love

Pioneering filmmaker D.W. Griffith's days of glory were well behind him when he agreed to direct Drums of Love. Indicative of...

The Battle of the Sexes

A remake of a 1914 D.W. Griffith potboiler, The Battle of the Sexes is a highly entertaining, if cautionary, tale of a...

Midnight Girl

This melodrama, which starred Lila Lee, had quite a few names in the cast that were well known at the time but are largely...

America

This epic tale about the American Revolution broke the bank for filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Robert W. Chambers loosely adapted...

The White Rose

Too long by at least 3 reels, D. W. Griffith's The White Rose is nonetheless one of the best and most accomplished of the...

Orphans of the Storm

Having turned the creaky old stage melodrama Way Down East into a money-spinning film, director D.W. Griffith set about to...

Sure Fire Flint

This is Johnny Hines' second starring feature -- the first was called Burn 'Em Up Barnes, so there seems to be a little theme...

The Love Flower

A more exotic story than 1920s audiences had come to expect from D.W. Griffith, The Love Flower nonetheless adheres to...

The Greatest Question

As a child, Nellie Jarvis (Lillian Gish) witnessed a murder, but it only remains a shadowy memory. After the death of her...

The Idol Dancer

Even though this is a lesser D.W. Griffith film, the casting is intriguing. Richard Barthelmess, who usually played a "good...

Way Down East

"I'm not a bad businessman", filmmaker D.W. Griffith once protested, "Honestly I'm not!" Yet industryites were certain that...

Broken Blossoms

Based on "The Chink and the Child", a story by Thomas Burke, Broken Blossoms is one of D.W. Griffith's most poetic films....

True Heart Susie

True Heart Susie is one of D.W. Griffith's "pastoral" films, wherein plot takes second place to characterization and romance....

A Romance of Happy Valley

Since much of this film takes place in rural Kentucky, where director D.W. Griffith grew up, it no doubt has many...

The Girl Who Stayed at Home

Out of all of Griffith's films about the Great War, this one impressed the least. Perhaps Carol Dempster should share part of...

Scarlet Days

This D.W. Griffith picture has the distinction of being, arguably, the worst film that the director ever made. For starters,...

Hearts of the World

On the heels of his masterpiece, Intolerance, which dramatized the futility of war born out of prejudice, director...

The Great Love

This war-time D.W. Griffith film was literally filler -- some of the footage was left over from around the time he shot...

The Greatest Thing in Life

In the sentimental world of filmmaker D.W. Griffith, the greatest thing in life is love. Obtaining it and understanding it,...

Intolerance

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could...

The Birth of a Nation

The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and...

The Battle of the Sexes

Filmed in a fast five days, The Battle of the Sexes was D. W. Griffith's first production after breaking loose from his...

The Escape

Paul Armstrong's venerable stage melodrama The Escape was first brought to the screen by D.W. Griffith in 1914. In true...

Judith of Bethulia

Conservative Biograph Studios, having galloped to prominence on the coattails of their star director D.W. Griffith, refused...

The Avenging Conscience

This innovative psychological drama represents one of D.W. Griffith's early full-length feature films and contains...

Home, Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home has been referred to by its leading lady Lillian Gish as "the first all-star film." Indeed, virtually every...

A Timely Interception

Three Friends

The "three friends" in this sentimental Gaumont effort are an elderly cab driver, his faithful horse and his pet dog. Early...

A Welcome Intruder

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

A besieged blockhouse containing a frightened Lillian Gish, marauding Indians, and a Mexican who heroically brings the...

The Wanderer

Her Mother's Oath

A Girl's Stratagem

Olaf-An Atom

The Unwelcome Guest

Two Men of the Desert

The Yaqui Cur

The Tender Hearted Boy

The Sheriff's Baby

The Telephone Girl and the Lady

The Stolen Loaf

The Sorrowful Shore

The Ranchero's Revenge

Fate

The Reformers

The Perfidy of Mary

Pirate Gold

During the Round-Up

The Little Tease

Love in an Apartment Hotel

The Mothering Heart

A Misappropriated Turkey

Near to Earth

A Misunderstood Boy

Oil and Water

Just Gold

The Mistake

The Lady and the Mouse

An Indian's Loyalty

Drink's Lure

Brute Force

The Hero of Little Italy

The House of Darkness

His Mother's Son

The Coming of Angelo

A Chance Deception

Death's Marathon

Broken Ways

An Adventure in the Autumn Woods

With the Enemy's Help

The Punishment

The Eternal Mother

Just Like a Woman

One Is Business, the Other Crime

The One She Loved

The Painted Lady

The Old Bookkeeper

A String of Pearls

A Tale of the Wilderness

An Unseen Enemy

The Transformation of Mike

Friends

The Female of the Species

D.W. Griffith -- The Female of the Species and Selected Biograph Shorts, Vol. 3 is an intriguing collection of socially...

A Temporary Truce

A prospector's (Charles Gorman) wife (Blanche Sweet) is kidnapped by a Mexican bandit (Charles Hill Mailes), but the two men...

When Kings Were the Law

The Old Actor

The Old Actor was produced by the Eclipse Company, one of the lesser film firms of the pre-1910 years. Unable to find work...

The Schoolteacher and the Waif

Black Sheep

Cherubic character actor Otis Harlan stars as Goodrich Mudd, the "black sheep" of the film's title. The bane of his prominent...

A Pueblo Legend

The Sands of Dee

The Musketeers of Pig Alley

Sunbeam

Old Stephen Rutherford (Gerald Griffin) is a wealthy curmudgeon who disowned his son when he married a poor girl. The son is...

Root of Evil

Heredity

Nine-year-old Nedda (Madge Evans) is a direct descendant of the Trevors, a family that can trace its roots back to the reign...

The New York Hat

The last film Mary Pickford did for director D.W. Griffith was made from the first scenario Anita Loos ever submitted to a...

An Outcast Among Outcasts

My Hero

The Narrow Road

Elmer Booth is an ex-convict, and Mary Pickford is his devoted wife. Booth and his buddy are miserable in prison, but Mary...

The Spirit Awakened

A Siren of Impulse

A Sister's Love

So Near, Yet So Far

The Mender of Nets

Mary Pickford plays a fisherman's daughter who mends her father's fishing nets. A young man (Charles H. West) falls in love...

Man's Genesis

Man's Lust for Gold

The Massacre

A wagon train is attacked by marauding Indians in this typically grisly Biograph one-reel western melodrama preserved in the...

A Lodging for the Night

The Burglar's Dilemma

Lena and the Geese

The Lesser Evil

An Indian Summer

His Lesson

The Informer

The Inner Circle

Home Folks

Iola's Promise

Filmed during the Biograph Company's yearly winter excursion to sunny California, this one-reel Western melodrama features...

Heaven Avenges

In the Aisles of the Wild

A Change of Spirit

Fate's Interception

A Feud in the Kentucky Hills

Gold and Glitter

The Girl and Her Trust

This exciting drama from D.W. Griffith was a remake of his earlier The Lonedale Operator. Grace (Dorothy Bernard) is a...

Two Daughters of Eve

Under Burning Skies

For His Son

My Baby

The Baby and the Stork

A Beast at Bay

A Child's Remorse

Brutality

The God Within

The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch

Billy's Stratagem

A Cry for Help

The Diamond Star

Fisher Folks

The Crooked Road

A Country Cupid

Heart Beats of Long Ago

Italian Blood

The Old Confectioner's Mistake

Fate's Turning

Fighting Blood

The Indian Brothers

The Italian Barber

Mary Pickford was popular enough in early 1911 to be identified by name in the trade magazine Variety's review of...

His Daughter

His Trust Fulfilled

How She Triumphed

Dan the Dandy

A Decree of Destiny

In the Days of '49

The Heart of a Savage

Love in the Hills

The Jealous Husband

The Revenue Man and the Girl

The Long Road

The Lonedale Operator

This simple and very effective melodramatic short film was a landmark in its day; in fact, today it is still a fine example...

Lily of the Tenements

Madame Rex

A Knight of the Road

The Last Drop of Water

The Making of a Man

The Miser's Heart

Paradise Lost

The New Dress

The Poor Sick Men

A Romany Tragedy

The Primal Call

The Rose of Kentucky

Saved from Himself

Her Awakening

The Smile of a Child

The Sorrowful Example

The Spanish Gypsy

The Squaw's Love

Swords and Hearts

Sunshine Through the Dark

As in a Looking Glass

Teaching Dad to Like Her

The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of

The Thief and the Girl

Through Darkened Vales

The Trail of Books

Three Sisters

The Two Sides

The Voice of the Child

A Terrible Discovery

The Unveiling

The Two Paths

D.W. Griffith's The Two Paths is frequently written off as a "potboiler," but, in 1911 at least, any one of Griffith's...

What Shall We Do with Our Old?

The Broken Cross

A Woman Scorned

Was He a Coward?

Wintering in Southern California 1910-1911, D. W. Griffith and the Biograph stock company filmed this western melodrama,...

Bobby, the Coward

His Mother's Scarf

His Trust

A Wreath of Orange Blossoms

The Chief's Daughter

This one-reel Indian melodrama was directed by D.W. Griffith on locations at San Fernando and in the San Gabriel Mountains...

The Adventures of Billy

Conscience

Her Sacrifice

The Battle

When a Man Loves

The Blind Princess and the Poet

The White Rose of the Wilds

Failure

Ruling Passion

The Two Brothers

A Victim of Jealousy

Two Little Waifs

The Biograph melodrama Two Little Waifs was partially filmed on location in Greenwich, Connecticut. Placed in an orphanage,...

Wilful Peggy

Peggy (Mary Pickford) is a strong-willed young woman who lives during the 18th century. She is not attracted to any of her...

The Unchanging Sea

Love Among the Roses

Little Angels of Luck

D.W. Griffith dashed off the one-reel Little Angels of Luck entirely within the confines of the Bronx Biograph studios. Since...

Man

Usurer

Unexpected Help

The Woman from Mellon's

The Song of the Wildwood Flute

The undeveloped terrain of Fishkill, New York and Westfield, New Jersey stood in for the "Wild West" in the Biograph...

Simple Charity

Among the many villains in D.W.Griffith's 1916 epic Intolerance were those self-styled "social uplifters" who presumptuously...

A Romance of the Western Hills

A Salutary Lesson

Rose O' Salem Town

In his characteristic fashion, D.W.Griffith attacked modern-day hypocrisy and bigotry by using a historical example in Rose...

Waiter No. 5

This D.W.Griffith-directed Biograph melodrama is set during the Russian Revolution. No, not the successful 1917 coup, but...

Winning Back His Love

What the Daisy Said

Serious Sixteen

White Roses

The Purgation

Muggsy's First Sweetheart

A Rich Revenge

One Night, and Then

Running just shy of a full 1000-foot reel, Biograph's One Night -- and Then was what was known at the time as a "bohemian"...

The Rocky Road

This 990-foot Biograph "temperance melodrama" was filmed in late November of 1909. Charles Craig plays the leading character,...

The Oath and the Man

The outskirts of Paterson, New Jersey proved an interesting substitute for 18th-century Paris in Biograph's French Revolution...

The Newlyweds

On the Reef

Filmed between December 12 and 14, 1909, the Biograph "triangle drama" On the Reef was ready for theatrical display within...

A Mohawk's Way

Always fascinated with Native American mythology and folklore, director D.W. Griffith turned out no fewer than six "Indian"...

The Modern Prodigal

Over Silent Paths

In Old California

In Life's Cycle

This Biograph "temperance melodrama" was filmed at the company's Bronx Studios, with location work completed in...

The Marked Time-Table

A Midnight Cupid

The Message of the Violin

Thanks to constant television exposure in the early 1950s, The Message of the Violin is one of the best-known of...

In the Border States

A Plain Song

In the Season of Buds

The Impalement

The Last Deal

This Biograph gambling melodrama was completed by D.W. Griffith in a fast two days. The hero, a chronic gambler, embezzles...

That Chink at Golden Gulch

The unfortunate title is the only truly "racist" aspect of this Biograph one-reeler. Set in the Old West (actually the...

The Final Settlement

The Golden Supper

Gold Is Not All

The Iconoclast

No relation to the 1910 D.W.Griffith production of the same name, the 1913 release The Iconoclast was a three-reeler from the...

The House with Closed Shutters

The Lesson

Fugitive

Long before his epic Birth of a Nation, D.W.Griffith was turning out such one-reel Biograph Civil War melodramas as...

The Cloister's Touch

This Biograph "monastic drama" was set during Feudal Times. Kidnapping the wife of one of his vassals, a despotic Duke forces...

Her Terrible Ordeal

An excellent early D.W.Griffith effort, Her Terrible Ordeal was completed the first week of December, 1909, and released six...

Her Father's Pride

The Honor of His Family

Like most of the director's Biograph Civil War dramas, D.W. Griffith's The Honor of His Family can be regarded today as...

The Duke's Plan

This Biograph costume drama was set in France during the era of King Louis XIII. Upon learning that her father intends to...

The Converts

Having moved to the California facilities of Biograph studios in late January of 1910, D.W.Griffith wasted no time getting to...

The Englishman and the Girl

D.W. Griffith's last 1909 production, The Englishman and the Girl starred Griffith regulars Charles Craig and Mary Pickford....

Examination Day at School

The New Jersey communities of Paterson and Westfield were used as exterior "backdrops" in this Biograph comedy....

A Flash of Light

His Sister-In-Law

His Last Burglary

His Last Burglary was also director D. W. Griffith's last location jaunt to Coytesville, New Jersey. Unhinged by grief after...

The Face at the Window

Faithful

The Dancing Girl of Butte

Described by its parent studio Biograph as a "western comedy," The Dancing Girl of Butte was filmed in the wide open spaces...

As the Bells Rang Out!

As It Is in Life

A widower (George O. Nicholls) must raise his young daughter by himself. He gets a job at a pigeon farm. He falls in love...

Way of the World

The Banker's Daughters

This 989-foot D.W. Griffith production was advertised by its home studio of Biograph as a "contemporary melodrama." Most of...

An Arcadian Maid

Mary Pickford is a young woman who convinces a farmer's wife to hire her as a maid. When a travelling salesman comes by the...

The Twisted Trail

The Thread of Destiny

The Sorrows of the Unfaithful

Taming a Husband

The Bronx studios of Biograph pictures were transformed to the drawing rooms of 18th-century Europe in this rare comedy from...

Sunshine Sue

Biograph stock-company player Marion Sunshine was an ideal choice for the leading role in D.W. Griffith's Sunshine Sue. A...

A Child's Impulse

The Call to Arms

The Broken Doll

When an Indian is found cruelly murdered, the tribe begins to plan for a revenge attack against the nearby white settlement...

Thou Shalt Not

Child of the Ghetto

After Many Years

Call

Described by the Biograph publicity department as a "circus romance," D.W. Griffith's The Call was partially filmed on...

A Child's Stratagem

A Child's Faith

Ramona

The Gold Seekers

The Cardinal's Conspiracy

The Children's Friend

This 386-foot-long D.W. Griffith production was released by Biograph on the same reel as Griffith's 587-foot comedy...

The Broken Locket

Advertised by Biograph studios as a "Contemporary Temperance Melodrama," D. W. Griffith's The Broken Locket was filmed in...

A Rude Hostess

Resurrection

The Girls and Daddy

A Burglar's Mistake

Comata, the Sioux

Indian maiden Clear Eyes (Marion Leonard) makes the mistake of marrying a white man, Bud Watkins (Arthur Johnson), who leaves...

Confidence

The Brahma Diamond

Choosing a Husband

Completed in late 1909, Biograph's Choosing a Husband was a rare comedy effort from D.W.Griffith. The heroine is ardently...

A Convict's Sacrifice

Biograph's The Convict's Sacrifice was lensed by D. W. Griffith on location at Fort Lee, New Jersey. Released from prison, a...

The Cord of Life

The Renunciation

D.W. Griffith's Renunciation is a comedy western, filmed in the wilds of Shadyside, New Jersey. Fascinated by a pair of...

Oh, Uncle!

Running 292 feet (or approximately 4 minutes), D. W. Griffith's Oh Uncle features Billy Quirk, who later enjoyed a brief...

A New Trick

One Busy Hour

The Peachbasket Hat

The Prussian Spy

The Politician's Love Story

Nursing a Viper

Described by its parent studio Biograph as a "French Revolution melodrama," Nursing a Viper runs a thrill-packed 920 feet (or...

Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade

The Salvation Army Lass

The Restoration

This 974-foot Biograph subject was designated by the studio as a "Contemporary Melodrama." The main character, a young...

The Red Man's View

A Rural Elopement

The Roue's Heart

Suicide Club

The Faded Lilies

The Biograph Bulletin described D.W. Griffith's Faded Lilies as a "Contemporary Unrequited Love Tragedy." That's quite a lot...

The Cricket on the Hearth

The Criminal Hypnotist

Getting Even

"A contemporary comedy" was the Biograph Bulletin's description of D.W. Griffith's Getting Even. The scene is a small mining...

The French Duel

The Friend of the Family

A Corner in Wheat

A Drunkard's Reformation

The Death Disc

The Eavesdropper

The Country Doctor

The Curtain Pole

The Deception

The Gibson Goddess

Test

A Baby's Shoe

The Better Way

Sweet and Twenty

The Way of a Man

Sacrifice

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

The Expiation

A Fair Exchange

Fools of Fate

D.W. Griffith's Fools of Fate was filmed in Cuddebackville, New York, back to back with the same director's Leather Stocking....

At the Altar

The Fascinating Mrs. Francis

A Fool's Revenge

Lady Helen's Escapade

His Wife's Visitor

His Ward's Love

The Medicine Bottle

Incorrectly reviewed under the title The Wrong Bottle, this D. W. Griffith melodrama was actually copyrighted as The Medicine...

The Mexican Sweethearts

The Message

In a Hempen Bag

His Lost Love

His Duty

In Little Italy

The Honor of Thieves

The Hindoo Dagger

Her First Biscuits

This D. W. Griffith-directed comedy was allegedly filmed in a single day. Florence Lawrence, "The Biograph Girl," plays the...

The Mended Lute

Lucky Jim

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea

The Light That Came

Love Finds a Way

The Lonely Villa

The Lure of the Gown

D.W. Griffith's The Lure of the Gown was advertised by Biograph Films as "An Italian Contemporary Romance" -- with Fort Lee,...

The Little Teacher

This D.W. Griffith-directed "contemporary comedy" was filmed at the Bronx headquarters of Biograph studios, with location...

The Mills of the Gods

Mr. Jones' Burglar

The Mountaineer's Honor

The Little Darling

Running 211 feet (approximately 4 minutes), Little Darling was filmed right after the more ambitious D. W. Griffith...

The Maniac Cook

Mr. Jones Has a Card Party

Jones and His New Neighbors

A Change of Heart

Directed by D.W. Griffith, Change of Heart was a standard-issue Biograph subject. The film begins on a sordid note, as a...

The Awakening

Running 691 feet (approximately eight and a half minutes), D.W. Griffith's The Awakening was advertised as a "Contemporary...

A Midnight Adventure

A Sound Sleeper

The Son's Return

Those Awful Hats

In Old Kentucky

Actually filmed in Cuddebackville, New York, D. W. Griffith's In Old Kentucky was one of the director's many "dry runs" for...

To Save Her Soul

The Sealed Room

Incorrectly reviewed by the trad magazine Variety under the title The Sealed Door, this Renaissance melodrama is among the...

The Open Gate

Through the Breakers

Those Boys!

Tragic Love

The Seventh Day

In the Window Recess

In the Watches of the Night

Jealousy and the Man

Jilt

The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals

Jones and the Lady Book Agent

The Indian Runner's Romance

D.W. Griffith's Indian Runner's Romance represented one of the director's first forays to Biograph's facilities in...

They Would Elope

Tender Hearts

Slave

The Necklace

A Sweet Revenge

A Strange Meeting

The Valet's Wife

Most film historians agree that D. W. Griffith was sole director at Biograph Studios during the fall and winter of 1908. No...

The Taming of the Shrew

The Stolen Jewels

The Reckoning

The Vaquero's Vow

Not a wartime drama in itself, this routine story of intrigue and betrayal is set fifteen years after the fact. During the...

The Snowman

The Song of the Shirt

A Smoked Husband

The Test of Friendship

Where the Breakers Roar

Lonesome Junction

The Princess in the Vase

Professional Jealousy

The Pirate's Gold

Mrs. Jones Entertains

Mr. Jones at the Ball

The Ingrate

The full title of this 3-reel melodrama was The Ingrate, or the Veil of the Past. Unable to support his sweetheart (a bank...

Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court

Her First Adventure

Money Mad

Hulda's Lovers

A Famous Escape

Falsely Accused!

The Clubman and the Tramp

Outpost in Malaya

According to the trade magazine Variety, the early D. W. Griffith effort The Planter's Wife was inspired by a stage melodrama...

Father Gets in the Game

The Christmas Burglars

Caught by Wireless

The Boy Detective

Concealing a Burglar

A Calamitous Elopement

Betrayed by a Handprint

Devil

The Man and the Woman

The Feud and the Turkey

The Yellow Peril

The Zulu's Heart

Romance of a Jewess

In this four hanky early silent melodrama, Ruth tries to survive amidst tragedy and toil on New York's Lower East Side. It...

Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker

This touching story is about a little girls who attempts to pawn her doll for food money for her sick and starving mother....

Bobby's Kodak

The Black Viper

Classmates

Yale Laundry

Mr. Gay and Mrs.

Dr. Skinum

Arrival of Emigrants, Ellis Island

San Francisco Disaster

Funeral of Hiram Cronk

Pennsylvania Tunnel Excavation

Opening the Williamsburg Bridge

N.Y. Fire Department Returning