The Mother and the Law

This film was originally part of a much bigger production. Griffith made the epic Intolerance in 1916. That film told four separate stories interlocked with one another. The roadshow presentations had cost a great deal. To recoup the losses he went back to it three years later. Two of the stories were recut as standalone features. New footage and new title cards were added. The second of them became The Mother and the Law. Its story is set in the present day. There is a strike at a factory and the owners act harshly. A poor family is caught in the middle of that fight. Circles policing public morals get involved as well. There is a trial too. The film shows how all of this ruins ordinary people. Mae Marsh and Robert Harron appear in the ninety nine minute film, an American production D.W. Griffith finished in 1919.