A first-born baby girl, is sent away and placed in the care of Gretchen, a trusted peasant woman, who is the widowed mother of a child about the same age. The two children grow up as sisters. Later, upon her deathbed, the noble lady repents and sends for her child to reinstate her. Gretchen takes this opportunity to make a great lady of her own daughter Lena, the goose girl, by sending her to court instead of the real heiress. Hence Lena is taken before the noble lady as she breathes her last, happy in the belief that she has made reparation. Lena is now a great lady, but the title does not fit well. She longs to be back with Gretchen and her “geeses”.
Director: D.W. Griffith.
Stars: Mary Pickford, J. Jiquel Lanoe, Kate Bruce, Mae Marsh, Edwin August, Claire McDowell, W. Chrystie Miller.
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Note: Many thanks to Scott for sending me a copy of this movie, which has the correct framerate, the print on Youtube of this movie plays at wrong speed (too slow), that’s why the duration is longer, this one has the correct framerate which resembles more to the original shooting speed and duration of the film.
A very rare D. W. Griffth is always worth viewing & this Mary Pickford short is straight forward & as charming as most of his films. Made more in the style of the early American cinema’s tableaux style of presentation, it is a perfect example of the short film Griffith work did. Thanks to Scott & Jon for getting this exceptional quality print on line.
Despite her extreme fame, I had never seen a Mary Pickford film prior to this one (having only even learned her name through the lyrics to the recent Some Like It Hot musical), and this is only my third Griffith picture. While I think any silent film is worth watching, I’m afraid I don’t have much positive to say about Lena and the Geese. My main complaint with the film is simply that the process of watching the film itself gives the viewer very little information that can’t be found by reading its synopsis or intertitles. Watching the scenes play out could still be enjoyable despite this flaw if they added more charm or emotional color, but there’s very little of either to be had, in my opinion, other than an amusing shot of a goose searching for and longing for Lena. Why bother to film scenes to go with the intertitles at all, if the scenes don’t actually add anything? I wondered if this was a problem with Griffith himself in this era, but the other two movies of his I’ve seen–The Lonedale Operator and Lady Helen’s Escapade–are both older than this one (being from 1911 and 1909, respectively) and I found them much more entertaining. The version of The Lonedale Operator I watched (downloadable from the NFPF at https://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/the-lonedale-operator-1911) does admittedly have tinting and a score, and it’s true they add something to the experience that is missing from this version of Lena and the Geese, but the copy of Lady Helen’s Escapade I watched (downloadable from youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_obgy18GVhA) has neither tinting nor score, seems slightly incomplete (containing what appears to be a stand-in frame for the presumably missing newspaper closeup) and even, I suspect, runs at twice the proper speed. Yet none of those flaws kept Lady Helen from being much more interesting to me than Lena. Both Lady Helen and Lonedale have far fewer intertitles than Lena while still remaining perfectly coherent, and Lonedale–which introduces characters in much the same way Lena does–allows those characters to actually do things in their introductory scenes that create charm, visual interest, and visual storytelling. What do we get from the introduction of Lena in Lena and the Geese? We see her herd geese, get in a strange and meaningless tiff with her mother, then just as meaninglessly make up. What do we actually learn about the characters that we couldn’t already infer? What charm is added? For the introduction of Lena’s “sweetheart”, he kisses her on the cheek and has an ugly haircut–nothing more. Whereas in The Lonedale Operator, when the two main characters are introduced, we get interesting camera angles, dynamic background characters, movement into and out of frame, changes of scenery, and plenty of interaction between characters, all of which simultaneously moves the plot forward, characterizes the leads, and shows us both what’s lovely about each of them and what they see in each other. Lady Helen’s Escapade has one similar theme to Lena–a rich woman bored of her station–but contains much more energy and surprise. Lena and the Geese simply reads like a warmed-over fairytale, where every plot point can be predicted in advance.
It doesn’t help that this film seems to have one of the most off-putting morals I’ve yet seen in silent cinema: If you’re born to the wealthy class, you can only find happiness in your money, and if you’re born poor, riches will only make you miserable. While I don’t know if that’s exactly the *intended* moral, it’s certainly a plain reading of the text, and it does nothing to help endear the film to me.
Regardless, I’m extremely grateful to have the chance to see this film (especially at this speed!). As I said, I find all silent films to be worthwhile, even the ones I don’t actually like. Thank you, Jon, for the work you do here.