A contest is being held in Cremona for the best violin, with Giannina's hand in marriage as the prize. Filippo is secretly in love with her, but is also ashamed of being a cripple, so he switches his superior violin with that of another apprentice, Sandro, whom Giannina loves.
Acting
Mary Pickford's screen debut at age 16.
Direction
Griffith's early cross-cutting experiments.
Director
D.W. Griffith
Herbert Prior
Taddeo Ferrari
Mary Pickford
Giannina, Taddeo's Daughter
Owen Moore
Sandro
David Miles
Filippo, the Cripple
Harry Solter
The Judge
Marion Leonard
The Judge's Companion
Charles Avery
Worker / In Crowd
Clara T. Bracy
Arthur V. Johnson
In Crowd
Violet Mersereau
In Crowd
Mack Sennett
In Crowd
John R. Cumpson
In Crowd
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Mary Pickford's first credited screen appearance, launching cinema's first superstar.
The Cremona setting evokes Stradivari's legacy, using violin-making as shorthand for soulful artistry in early cinema.
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