SOURCE: "Thomas H. Ince: His Esthetic, His Films, His Legacy," in Cinema Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, Winter, 1983, pp. 2-17.

In the following essay, which was first published in 1965, Mitry evaluates Ince as an artist rather than as a businessman or technical innovator.

If D. W. Griffith can be called the earliest poet of an art whose basic syntax he elaborated, then Ince can be said to be its earliest dramatist.

Indeed, his explorations of the medium dealt far more with plot construction, with original subject matter and with the expression of ideas—allowances being made for the means at his disposal—than with technical innovation.

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Unlike Griffith, staging for Ince was a secondary concern and consequently his personal touch is to be found elsewhere. It would thus be incorrect to speak of his "style" if indeed style subsists more in a work's outward form than in its spirit...