The townspeople having found out just when the raid on the Indian village and the slaughter of the men and women of the tribe was to take place, closed up shop and school, and swarmed out to within a safe distance of the riding and shooting incidental to Custer’s Last Fight, and spent the day in the enjoyment of new thrills.
There was a two weeks’ fight over a sub-title in “The Massacre”—the scrappers Mr. Griffith and Mr. Dougherty.
David never used a script, and a sub-title never was written until he was convinced that one was necessary to elucidate a situation. A picture finished, at its first running we would watch for places where the meaning seemed not sufficiently clear; where we doubted if the audience would “get” it. And in such a place in the film, a title would be inserted. So “The Massacre” finished, and being projected, this scene was reached:
Horses with riders dashing madly down the foreground, the enemy in pursuit, then the riders dismounting and using the horses as a barricade, shooting over them.
Here arose the disagreement about the sub-title. Mr. Griffith wanted to insert a caption “Dismounting for Defense.” Mr. Dougherty said, “The audience will know that is what they are doing.” But Mr. Griffith was not so sure about it, so he said: “Now I think, I’d just like to have the title; they may not know what I am trying to show.”
“Yes, they will,” said Doc.
Even Mr. Kennedy was swept into the debate. As the argument continued his morning greeting became, “Well, are you still at it, you Kilkenny cats?”
The title went in. How it would improve some pictures in these days to have two weeks of conversation over a sub-title. How a good old row with the whole force would perk things up for some directors, for too many of them, poor things, have had their pictures yes-ed to death by the fulsome praise of their assistants; the “yes-sirs” who, grouped in friendly intimacy about their director, have only one answer when he says: “Do you like that scene?”
“Oh, yes, sir, the scene is wonderful.”
“Do you like that title?”