The Musketeers of Pig Alley
(D.W. Griffith, US 1912, 17 min., 16mm)
The Soul of Youth
(William Desmond Taylor, US 1920, 60 min., DCP)
The same year they collaborated on the definitive silent version of Huckleberry Finn, director William Desmond Taylor, writer Julia Crawford Ivers, and star Lewis Sargent re-team for this social drama about welfare, politics, and familial love. Ed Simpson (Sargent) becomes the object of taunting and the target of discipline in the orphanage he’s put in. When his beloved dog is sent away, Ed follows, taking to the streets and trying to make ends meet. When he and a friend uncover incriminating evidence on a mayoral candidate, Ed’s life is put on the line. Preceded by The Musketeers of Pig Alley, one of the earliest gangster films, where a poor married couple is caught between a pickpocket and a gangster.
Live piano accompaniment by Philip Carli.
DCP preserved by the Library of Congress. 16mm print from the George Eastman Museum collection.
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