"The Country Doctor" was directed by D.W. Griffith and has an appearance by Mary Pickford (without her usual ringlets) but otherwise it's a rather undistinguished little film. The biggest problems are the film's length (it really could have been a bit shorter) and some terrible overacting at the end.
A doctor is called away from his own sick daughter to minister to a sick child in a nearby home. However, after saving that child, he learns that because he was gone, his own child dies--and he and his wife go through some silly histrionics and gesturing when this occurs.
Films made in the very early days of cinema were extremely brief (less than 10 minutes--often much shorter) but at about 14 minutes, "The Country Doctor" is actually way too long, as it cannot maintain much momentum because the plot is quite thin. Also, while Griffith made some lovely and inspired film, this one just seemed amazingly uninteresting until the unintentionally funny ending.
A doctor is called away from his own sick daughter to minister to a sick child in a nearby home. However, after saving that child, he learns that because he was gone, his own child dies--and he and his wife go through some silly histrionics and gesturing when this occurs.
Films made in the very early days of cinema were extremely brief (less than 10 minutes--often much shorter) but at about 14 minutes, "The Country Doctor" is actually way too long, as it cannot maintain much momentum because the plot is quite thin. Also, while Griffith made some lovely and inspired film, this one just seemed amazingly uninteresting until the unintentionally funny ending.