classic rules of this art-unit are established, men with equal genius
with D'Annunzio and no more devotion, will give us the world's
masterpieces. As it is, the background and mass-movements must stand as
monumental achievements in vital patriotic splendor.

D'Annunzio is Griffith's most inspired rival in these things. He lacks
Griffith's knowledge of what is photoplay and what is not. He lacks
Griffith's simplicity of hurdle-race plot. He lacks his avalanche-like
action. The Italian needs the American's health and clean winds. He needs
his foregrounds, leading actors, and types of plot. But the American has
never gone as deep as the Italian into landscapes that are their own
tragedians, and into Satanic and celestial ceremonials.

Judith of Bethulia and The Battle Hymn of the Republic have impressed me
as the two most significant photoplays I have ever encountered. They may
be classed with equal justice as religious or patriotic productions. But
for reasons which will appear, The Battle Hymn of the Republic will be
classed as a film of devotion and Judith as a patriotic one. The latter
was produced by D.W. Griffith, and released by the Biograph Company in
1914. The original stage drama was once played by the famous Boston
actress, Nance O'Neil. It is the work of Thomas Bailey Aldrich. The
motion picture scenario, when Griffith had done with it, had no especial
Aldrich flavor, though it contained several of the characters and events
as Aldrich conceived them. It was principally the old apocryphal story
plus the genius of Griffith and that inner circle of players whom he has
endowed with much of his point of view.

This is his cast of characters:--

Judith Blanche Sweet
Holofernes Henry Walthall
His servant J.J. Lance
Captain of the Guards H. Hyde
Judith's maid Miss Bruce
General of the Jews C.H. Mailes
Priests Messrs. Oppleman and Lestina
Nathan Robert Harron
Naomi Mae Marsh
Keeper of the slaves for Holofernes Alfred Paget
The Jewish mother Lillian Gish

The Biograph Company advertises the production with the following Barnum
and Bailey enumeration: "In four parts. Produced in California. Most
expensive Biograph ever produced. M