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A Temporary Truce

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A Temporary Truce
Directed byD. W. Griffith
Written byGeorge Hennessy
Starring
CinematographyG. W. Bitzer
Distributed byBiograph Company
Release date
  • June 10, 1912 (1912-06-10)
Running time
17 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

A Temporary Truce is a 1912 American short silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Blanche Sweet. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the Library of Congress.[1]

Plot

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Mexican Jim, the villain, kidnaps Alice, wife of Jack the prospector. Jack declares a temporary truce with Jim so they can both battle the Indians as a common enemy.[2]

Cast

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Themes

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D. W. Griffith did not always portray Mexican characters in a negative light; however, in this film they are portrayed as a threat to white families and women.[3] The film is more complex in this regard that previous Griffith work.[4]

Production

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The cast was considered to be quite large for a short film under two reels.[5] This is one of three D. W. Griffith films that Bert Hendler appeared in.[6] The cast also included Mae Marsh, who worked with Griffith on many films, including The Birth of a Nation. She was one of his favorites and in a 1923 interview, Griffith noted that "Mae Marsh was born a film star."[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Silent Era: A Temporary Truce". Silent Era. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  2. ^ Niver, Kemp R. (1985). Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress. p. 321. ISBN 978-0-8444-0463-9.
  3. ^ Bernardi, Daniel; Green, Michael (2017). Race in American Film: Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation. ABC-CLIO. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-313-39840-7.
  4. ^ Usai, Paolo Cherchi (2019). The Griffith Project, Volume 5: Films Produced in 1911. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83902-011-7.
  5. ^ Film & Video Finder: Title Section (A-K). National Information Center for Educational Media. 1997. p. 3110. ISBN 978-0-937548-29-5.
  6. ^ Slide, Anthony (2012). The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. University Press of Mississippi. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-61703-250-9.
  7. ^ Lowe, Denise (2014). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-71896-3.
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