D.W. Griffith: Years Of Discovery 1909-1913 (1996) Rating: Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, Donald Crisp, Dorothy Gish, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett Director: D.W. Griffith Category: Drama, Classics, Classics Studio: Image Ent. Subtitles: [None] Length: 334 mins     A 2-Disc Set For the five years between 1908 and 1913, D.W. Griffith directed some 450 films for the Biography Company, delivering at a rate of two or three films per week.These films, one and two reels in length, are sometimes regarded as apprentice works, films in which Griffith borrowed, invented, and perfected the forms and techniques that he later used to such memorable effect in The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and Isn't Life Wonderful? (1924).But the Biographies were more than that. The twenty two films presented in this collector's version of D.W. Griffith: Years of Discovery: 1909-1913 are the centerpieces of that extraordinary group of films.Selections include such widely recognized masterworks as The Musketeers of Pig Alley, The Battle at Elderbush Gulch, The New York Hat, and Corner in Wheat.But lesser known social dramas like What Shall We Do With Our Old?, The House of Darkness, and a comic gem called The Sunbeam are also included.They rank among the best in a collection of short films that helped shape cinematic narrative for two generations. Plots are simple and direct, and if the films are saturated with quassi-comic clich