Name: Suspense
Director: Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley
Genre: Thriller
Released: 1913

Lois Weber was the highest-paid, most prolific director in Hollywood by the mid-1910s and arguably America's first major filmmaking star behind the camera, yet she's largely been written out of the standard silent-film canon. Suspense is a genuine piece of film-grammar innovation: it uses a triangular split-screen to show three lines of action happening at once, plus an early subjective point-of-view shot from inside a speeding car, techniques that were still considered daring decades later. The whole film runs about ten minutes and was made on what was, even by 1913 standards, a shoestring budget. Lois Weber was the highest-paid, most prolific director in Hollywood by the mid-1910s and arguably America's first major filmmaking star behind the camera, yet she's largely been written out of the standard silent-film canon. Suspense is a genuine piece of film-grammar innovation: it uses a triangular split-screen to show three lines of action happening at once, plus an early subjective point-of-view shot from inside a speeding car, techniques that were still considered daring decades later. The whole film runs about ten minutes and was made on what was, even by 1913 standards, a shoestring budget.

Suspense

1913

Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley — USA — Thriller

A car races to the rescue