AM&B ad a policy at this time (the film was in fact shot in August 1901) of giving a certain leeway to their cinematographers to produce photographic studies that would be listed in the catalogue (as was this one) as "experimental". This was an acceptance of the really very poor quality of photography in US films by comparison with their French counterparts. But since the company knew that the lowest-common-denominator viewer - the average Joey the Bronx as it were - was not necessarily going to appreciate the interest of a film that neatly caught the moment of intersection of two trams, the films were designated in this way, as would not have been necessary in a more sophisticated European film market. The notion, probably introduced by Wallace McCutcheon unquestionably helped enormously in improving the quality of photographic work at AM&B and their cinematographers - Armytage, Marvin (who shoots this film , Weed and Bitzer - were soon quite the best the US had to offer, a fact that would contribute very greatly to the company's success towards the end of the decade under D. W. Griffith.
Review of Broadway & Union Square, New York
