Hearts of the World

This is one of my favorite Bobby Harron films. He had grown out of supporting-role status and had become a leading man, and a very effective one. He's believable in everything he does here.

It's also fascinating for its authentic battleground footage, shot in WWI France. Griffith could have died while filming it, and some of the soldiers accompanying him one day were killed by a shell that barely missed Griffith and his crew; Lillian Gish reported how shaken and tearful he was when he told them, later that day, what had happened.

Bobby Harron would die in real life two years later, and in this movie, there is a scene where his fiancee (the incomparable Lillian) thinks he has been killed. What she does, in this scene, is something I've never seen anywhere else. I'll let you find out for yourselves. There's the interest of viewing Lillian and Dorothy playing rivals for The Boy, when in real life, Dorothy was the one involved with Harron. Dorothy gives her best performance here; at least, it's the best I've ever seen from her. She's marvelous as the "Little Disturber", who makes a play for The Boy in the beginning, then finding strength of character during the bombardment of her village. Her role is both comic and dramatic. I can't help wondering what she thought of the scene in which Lillian kisses Bobby, the only time I can think of where you can clearly see Lillian kissing her leading man.

The movie contains many surprising scenes: A shot of a civilian victim; the real ruins of a French town after heavy bombing; the trenches; and one shot you wouldn't even see in a modern film, that of a woman breastfeeding her child.

Griffith intended to show the horrors of war, and I think that his own experiences with the first world war made him even more qualified to do so.

Bobby, you were wonderful.