Mary Pickford's first credited role in a 10-minute chase that invented modern cinema.
During the American Revolution, a young soldier carrying a crucial message to General Washington is spotted and pursued by a group of enemy soldiers. He takes refuge with a civilian family, but is soon detected. The family and their neighbors must then make plans to see that the important message gets through after all.
Direction
Griffith inventing cross-cutting and chase structure whole cloth.
Acting
Mary Pickford already magnetic at 17, before she was America's Sweetheart.
Director
D.W. Griffith
Owen Moore
Colonial Army Messenger
James Kirkwood
Messenger's Father
Mary Pickford
Messenger's Sister
D.W. Griffith
Lottie Pickford
Mack Sennett
Hessian
George Siegmann
Hessian
Henry B. Walthall
Florence Lawrence
Kate Bruce
Soldier's Family
Robert Harron
Farmer
Arthur V. Johnson
Hessian
Wilfred Lucas
George Nichols
Hessian
Billy Quirk
Hessian
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