D.W. Griffith's 5-minute gender-bend chaos from cinema's infancy.
Tom and Ethel separately decide to go bathing in a river. Pranksters switch their clothes and they each have to dress up as the opposite sex.
Acting
Marion Leonard commits fully to masculine swagger.
Direction
Griffith already showing cross-cutting mastery in 5 minutes.
Costume
The swimming suits are basically wool onesies. Torture.
Director
D.W. Griffith
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jack Pickford was Mary Pickford's less famous younger brother; D.W. Griffith loved casting the whole chaotic family.
This was Griffith's 23rd film in 1909 alone—directors then were basically content farms.
US
