SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

peefyn Watching this movie today, it's one that's more interesting than it is entertaining. In addition to being an early piece of cinema (and one that uses editing to some extent), this is also the earliest surviving movie with Mary Pickford, and maybe natural place to start if you want to explore her career. She plays the damsel in distress, and, well, you can't fault her performance as it leaves little doubt that that's what she is.I'm sure this was a thrilling watch back in the day, and I hope there are some written accounts of how the audience reacted to it. It's obvious that the suspense is there, but only temporary accounts can tell if it worked as intended.

Robert J. Maxwell I'm not going to rate this short film because it's more than one hundred years old, so how can we judge it properly? (Was Napoleon a better general than Alexander the Great?) In 1909 the automobile and telephone had only just stopped being novelties. Films themselves were primitive. No roofs, so the shots could use available light. Most of the elements of a modern film are there -- a camera, sets, actors, cross cutting -- but too many are missing -- sound most of all.It's a melodrama in which a man, presumed to be a doctor, is called away from his home by a false alarm from three thieves. Once the pater familias is out of the house, the three sneaky-looking robbers break into the back room where the safe is. They have to force their way through three -- count 'em, three -- locked or barricaded doors. The terrified wife and the three lovely little daughters in white huddle together. Two of the miscreants make a bee-line for the safe, while the third assaults the wife.The helpless family is save by deus ex telephone, that marvelous and mysterious invention, for which this film is a kind of advertisement, like Dirty Harry's .44 magnum. The head of the house and some friends burst in and nab the robbers. Fade out on the father with his arms around his shivering but now safe family.The story reflects the values of D. W. Griffith, and the prevailing values of the period for all I know. I was just a child at the time. The wife is almost as helpless as the little tykes (all female). They need a man to protect them. Grown women are pure. Children are even purer -- pristine, in fact, or else why are they all dressed in white? There are good guys who are men of honor and there are bad guys, with little in between "good" and "evil". Things were only a bit more complicated by 1915 and "The Birth of a Nation." This short film is an historical curiosity, true, but carry me back to 1909. If only issues were quite as clear as the movies -- then and now -- make them out to be.Oh, also, at one on-line site at least, while you watch this, you're treated to a great rendition of Bach's magnificent and aptly dramatic Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

Tomi Kuusisto This is a good example of an idea that Hollywood uses nowadays. Panic Room was an attempt to make this into a full length film, but it dragged too much to be very exciting. But this short silent film shows the same plot, but without all the unimportant excess. What is left is the original, good idea, and that makes up the whole film. Suspense is retained throughout. Quality film making and innovation that is all too rare now, almost 100 years later.

Snow Leopard This is a decent short drama that creates some fairly good suspense with a story of a mother and her children being attacked by a gang of deceitful and brutal thieves. For its time, the story is told pretty well, shifting scenes at times to heighten the suspense. It does get a bit choppy in places, and things don't always fit together smoothly, whether due to the editing or perhaps simply due to its age. (It just doesn't seem to be as carefully pieced together as many of Griffith's short films.) But it's all watchable, and the story makes you want to find out what will happen. It should be interesting enough for anyone who likes these early short melodramas. A young Mary Pickford also has a small role.