The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)

Directed by

D. W. Griffith

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

17 min

Rated

NR

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 102 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This short silent film shows a young man caught between a street gang and the police in New York City. A poor musician struggles to protect his wife from the gang's threats and violence.

early cinemagrittystreet-levelhistoricroughstraightforwardrawurban

What happens

The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a 1912 American short drama and a gangster film. It is directed by D. W. Griffith and written by Griffith and Anita Loos. It is also credited for its early use of follow focus, a fundamental tool in cinematography. The film was released on October 31, 1912, and re-released on November 5, 1915, in the United States. The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey where many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century. Location shots in New York City reportedly used actual street gang members as extras during the film. In 2016, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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