Friends is a 1912 film written and directed by D. W. Griffith

D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

 and starring Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

, Henry B. Walthall

Henry B. Walthall

Henry Brazeale Walthall was an American film actor.-Career:Walthall began his career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway in a supporting role in William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide in 1906–1908. His career in movies began in 1908, in the film Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, which also...

, Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...

, and Harry Carey. Walthall and Barrymore portray two old friends who each wind up involved with a beautiful girl (Pickford) who lives above a mining camp saloon

The film, by the Biograph Company, was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...

 when many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century. A print of was run at the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in July 2007 as part of a Biograph retrospective.

Cast

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

... Dora (the orphan)

Henry B. Walthall

Henry B. Walthall

Henry Brazeale Walthall was an American film actor.-Career:Walthall began his career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway in a supporting role in William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide in 1906–1908. His career in movies began in 1908, in the film Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, which also...

... Dandy Jack

Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...

... Grizzley Fallon (Dandy Jack's friend)

Harry Carey ... Bob Kyne (the prospector)

Charles Hill Mailes

Charles Hill Mailes

Charles Hill Mailes was a Canadian actor of the silent era. He appeared in 290 films between 1909 and 1935.He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and died in Los Angeles, California...

... The bartender

Elmer Booth ... Man in saloon

Frank Evans ... Man in saloon

Robert Harron

Robert Harron

Robert "Bobby" Harron was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in scores of films, he is possibly best remembered for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed films Intolerance and The Birth of a Nation...

... Stableboy

Adolph Lestina ... Man in saloon

Walter Miller ... Man in saloon

W. C. Robinson

W. C. Robinson

W. C. Robinson was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 177 films between 1910 and 1932. He died in Maywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Daredevil Jack * Brute Force * Judith of Bethulia...

... Man in saloon