(Flash Review)Love in the 19-teens was a different world. Normal lil' Susie has a glimmer in her eye for her neighbor William. They go out for soda and ice cream a few times and she is thinking this is my future husband. William is boneheaded with the ladies. He is afraid to move in for the kiss and is easily wooed away from Susie by other ladies while out with Susie. Susie does a lot of nice things for William, without him knowing, thus he never fully understands her true feelings. Will William get his act together or will he make a move for a girl of 'paint and powder' as they describe a non-genuine lady in that era? Cute little romantic tale from 1919. Emotions told well without words.

Lillian Gish stars as the title character in TRUE HEART SUSIE (1919), a bucolic romance directed by DW Griffith. Susie loves William (Robert Harron), but he doesn't fully commit himself to her. Susie makes sacrifices so that William can go to college and become successful. He comes back to town as a minister, and Susie expects that they will marry, but Bettina, a vibrant and modern city girl (Clarine Seymour) sets her sights on the hapless William.TRUE HEART SUSIE is a quite charming film, a portrait of a different era with different values. Susie typifies domesticity, constancy and self- sacrifice, simple country values. Bettina and her friends, the "paint and powder brigade", represent the city life – fast-paced and artificial, enticing men with "suggestive clothing" and heavy use of makeup to emphasize the physical and superficial. Susie becomes insecure because of her appearance and determines to entice William with the same "paint and powder" and flashy dress as Bettina, and her aunt says that she looks like a "Jezebel"! So Susie changes her clothes and goes back to her normal simple look. It's pretty obvious which side will win out in the end, but William and Bettina's marriage proves an unexpected roadblock for Susie. Griffith could lay it on thick with his title cards in many films, driving home the moral of the story with sledgehammer force, but in this film he is comparatively restrained.Lillian Gish again shows her acting prowess as Susie, a simple girl who shows herself to be very resourceful and self-sacrificing. Gish was one of the great screen beauties of her time, but she is quite convincing as the plain heroine. Gish is superbly expressive, nuanced and naturalistic, the only off moment being a bit of jumpiness that Griffith liked to induce in his leading ladies for some very strange reason. Robert Harron is also quite good as William, who is oblivious at first to Susie's affections, but then comes to realize his mistakes. Clarine Seymour is charismatic as the scheming Bettina, full of energy and mischief. Future Griffith leading lady Carol Dempster is effective in a small but important role as Bettina's best friend.Longtime Griffith cinematographer Billy Bitzer again shows his mastery of the camera. The film has a warm, tranquil feel throughout, taking advantage of the beautiful country scenery and using different tints for day, night, and indoor and outdoor scenes. Overall, TRUE HEART SUSIE is a charming film, a "small" film in Griffith's repertoire, but in its modest way, one of his most artistically successful. It features fine acting, a moving story, and it's lovely to look at. SCORE: 9/10

This is a classic case of allowing society and traditionalism hold you back from what you really desire. There was once a time in society where the belief was that things had to be done strictly by the book and if you did them any other way then you were wrong. This belief system was not only for one part of life, but for all. There was a strict way for church's to operate, people to dress, families to conduct business, and also for people to interact with each other and if you did any of these differently than the norm then you were out of order. This was not the time to be different in society; it was a time to conform to traditionalism. Susie was as true to the traditional ways as "the needle to the pole." Susie allows her traditional ways to keep her from getting the man that she longed for from childhood. She was never willing to tell him what she truly wanted to neither through actions nor words while other girls did. Susie sat on the sideline and watched as other women robbed her of the stock she had invested so much in. Susie was so caught in tradition and being nice that it was too a fault. In the end it hurt her more than it helped. One thing I noticed was that Susie was more loyal to her mother than she was to her own desires and that loyalty cost her many years of happiness. Susie eventually married the man of her dreams, but it was well into her later years of life and she could never be as happy as she could have been had she gone with her gut feeling and told the young man how she felt. Susie surely had a true heart.

"True Heart Susie" was one of my favorite silent films that I watched during my class. This cute love story follows the lives of William and Susie. By the end of the film I found myself loving Lillian Gish's character (Susie). She sacrifices a lot in order to win William's heart over. I thought that Lillian Gish did a fabulous job throughout the entire movie. In the beginning of the film, Susie (Lillian Gish) tried to kiss William (Robert Harron) in a number of scenes and both characters did a wonderful job at creating awkward moments. I thought they did a fabulous job at making the audience feel uncomfortable as we watched Susie repeatedly getting denied by William. Griffith did a wonderful job at capturing Susie's emotion throughout the movie. The close up shots that were taken really enhanced emotion throughout the film and I found myself feeling genuinely sorry for her. During the movie, we hope and expect that Susie and William end up together, but when William meets Betty our prediction of the movie changes. The movie ends rather dramatically and unexpectedly which I favored because we always assume that endings are happy. This was the only silent film that I have watched where I felt connected to one of the characters. Lillian Gish did such a good job at grabbing the audiences attention through her facial expressions that I found myself hating Betty and feeling extremely sad when her and William got married. I don't think Griffith could have chosen a better actress to play Susie. I would definitely recommend watching this movie just to see Gish's performance. Griffith did a fabulous job at making this a sweet yet unexpected love story that captured my attention fabulously. If you're going to watch a silent film, I would definitely say that this is the one to watch!