By 1910, Shaw decided to expand his entertainment career into acting in motion pictures or, as they were often called in the early silent era, "photoplays". His first screen work was in shorts for Edison Studios, all filmed at the company's main production facility in
the Bronx in New York City and
on location elsewhere in the city or at nearby sites in
New Jersey. While some modern film references include a pair of 1909 Edison releases in Shaw's filmographies, none of those references cite period sources or documents preserved in film archives that confirm he actually performed in those two productions. A profile of Shaw included in a 1912 issue of
The Edison Kinetogram states that Shaw by then had been "appearing in our productions by special arrangement, for the past two years". The studio newsletter also notes that it was not until January 1912 when such special arrangements ended and the experienced performer became an official member of the Edison Stock Company, the studio's select lineup of full-time actors. In the film's opening sequence, Shaw, who is in heavy "old-man's" makeup and attired in a padded light-colored
trench coat, dominates the foreground action. Edison, like other studios in those early days of the silent period, produced films at seemingly breakneck speed, often completing productions in a matter of days and at times in a single day. Shaw's acting work in both uncredited and credited role was therefore equally prolific after joining Edison. He acted much more frequently in studio productions during the latter half of 1911, and in November that year was credited for his role in Edison's adaptation of
Robert Louis Stevenson's 1888 novel
The Black Arrow. In that period, he performed in a wide range of other screenplays. He portrayed, as a few examples, the title character's uncle in the light comedy ''Mary's Masquerade
; starred in the historical drama The Death of
Nathan Hale; played the title character in The Kid from the Klondike
; was a major supporting player in The Reform Candidate
; co-starred with Mary Fuller in The Modern Dianas''; co-starred in an adaptation of British author
Charles Reade's 1866 novel
Foul Play; portrayed a
Continental officer in
How Mrs. Murray Saved the American Army; played a central character in
The Awakening of John Bond, a story highlighting urban poverty and the scourge of
tuberculosis; and starred in the holiday drama
Santa Claus and the Clubman.
Directing at Edison, for the World's Best Film Company, and at IMP, 19121913 In 1912, Shaw continued to act in Edison productions like
The Corsican Brothers, ''The Bachelor's Waterloo
, The Nurse
, Tony's Oath of Vengeance
, The Patent Housekeeper
, A Man in the Making
, and other assorted dramas and comedies, although the studio by mid-summer of that year elevated him to the full-time position of director. In the September 1, 1912 issue of its semimonthly newsletter The Edison Kinetogram'', the company formally announced its recent promotion of Shaw: The film-industry journal
Motography also reported about Shaw's promotion, noting that at a special "photoplay dinner" held on September 7 for studio personnel at New York's
Coney Island, he was introduced as a speaker at that event and as a "director of Edison films". Some of the additional films he directed during the remainder of 1912 include
A Question of Seconds,
A Fresh Air Romance,
A Romance of the Rails,
The Governor,
Hearts and Diamonds,
The Grandfather,
Mary in Stage Land,
The Girl from the Country, and
The Crime of Carelessness. The film presents the tragic contemporary tale of a New York
newsboy, who lives in dire poverty with his abusive grandmother and ends with the boy drifting out to sea in a small boat, desperately searching and likely dying in a doomed attempt to find a better, more humane life beyond the horizon. In recognition of the motion picture's importance to the United States' motion picture heritage, the Library of Congress in December 2000 selected
The Land Beyond the Sunset for addition to the
National Film Registry, a collection of films that are deemed "'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'". Shaw finally left Edison in January 1913after the release of
At Bear Track Gulchto direct
The Wizard of the Jungle, filmed on location "in the wilds of the Florida jungleland" for the World's Best Film Company. He then completed screen projects for Independent Moving Pictures, a New York City studio most often referred to in trade publications and in general conversations within the film industry by its
acronym, "Imp". During the early months of 1913, he directed
The Old Melody and
The Cub for that studio. Regarding the latter, the film critic for the trade journal
The Moving Picture World described the production as "a brisk, modern newspaper story, written and produced [directed] by Harold Shaw", adding that the IMP release was a "good offering".
Working in England, 19131915 Having gained significant production experience managing his own theatre company and then acting in and directing screen projects for Edison and IMP, Shaw accepted an offer in May 1913 to proceed immediately to England to be "director-in-chief" for the newly established
London Film Company, which was in the final stages of completing Twickenham Studios, its large production facilities in the London suburb of
St. Margarets. His first film completed there is
The House of Temperley (1913), a drama produced in collaboration with
Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of
Rodney Stone, the 1896 novel on which the motion picture is based. In fact, that adaptation directed by Shaw was the first
feature released by the London Film Company as well as the first picture completed at Twickenham.
The House of Temperley proved to be a commercial success in both Britain and overseas markets, prompting the London studio to assign Shaw to direct more than 30 additional projects for the company between 1913 and 1915. He immediately volunteered for the Canadian army to support the British empire but was turned down for service. Despite that rejection, Shaw at London Films began writing and directing additional screen projects, many with stirring "military-patriotic" themes as well as short dramas with scenarios about "German spies and intrigues".
South Africa, 19161919 costumed as
Zulu warriors and as heavily armed Dutch settlers. In May 1916with the approval if not the encouragement of Foreign Office officials in LondonShaw moved to
South Africa after accepting a job offer from African Film Productions (AFP) to be that company's "chief producer-director". Central to that assignment was for Shaw to direct
De Voortrekkers, a planned historical
epic to be filmed in
KwaZulu-Natal. The project proposed to portray from the perspective of that region's white minority the "
Great Trek" made by Dutch-speaking
Voortrekkers or "pioneers" in the 1830s, a time when South Africa was a colony of Great Britain. According to Flugrath, who married Harold Shaw a month after the film's release, location work on
De Voortrekkers took its toll on the cast and crew, especially on the director and on scores of native African
extras injured during the battle re-enactment. Simulated fights between black and white performers during filming quickly escalated to genuine, near deadly off-camera altercations after some of the extras portraying the Dutch settlers "secretly filled their guns with pebbles" instead of firing empty barrels at their Zulu counterparts. The original print distributed to South African cinemas reportedly had a runtime of "some two hours", although much shorter versions of the picture were later presented in foreign markets. After the release of
De Voortrekkers and the end of his association with AFP, Shaw in late January 1917 embarked on an extended international journey, leaving South Africa and traveling for months to India,
Ceylon, the
Far East, Egypt, and to other destinations. The tour, conducted for both business-related reasons and as a honeymoon trip after marrying Edna Flugrath, consumed most of the year, but Shaw returned to South Africa near the end of 1917. At that time, he decided to establish his own motion picture company there, selecting
Sea Point, a suburb of
Cape Town, as the site to build his production facilities. The company's first studio building, which was constructed around a renovated "abandoned carbarn", was surrounded by attractive seascapes and landscapes that provided Shaw a wide assortment of convenient filming locations, ranging from Table Bay with its broad stretches of beach to diverse higher elevations distinguished by
Lion's Head Mountain. With Shaw's wife Edna Flugrath and English actor Norman Tharp in co-starring roles, the project proved to be a grueling experience for cast and crew while traveling and filming for weeks in the late-winter conditions of far-off Lithuania. Tharp, who closely resembled Lenin, portrayed in the production the dissolute character "Lenoff", who falls desperately in love with a ballerina (Flugrath), becomes a ruthless Bolshevik revolutionary, and ultimately commits suicide when she elopes with a Russian prince.
Variety in the United States, in its March 26, 1920 issue, updates its readers:
The Land of Mystery was released in the United Kingdom in July 1920 and was presented "week after week" in London and elsewhere in England. Despite the film's commercial success, the logistical challenges of shooting the drama in Lithuania and the ensuing political controversies connected to the British government's association with its production may have influenced Shaw's decision to accept an offer in the fall of 1920 from
Stoll Pictures in London to join its staff of directors. For two years, Shaw directed a series of dramas and comedies at Stoll. His first for the studio is
Kipps (1921), an adaptation of
H. G. Wells' 1905 novel. During that film's production,
Motion Picture News reported that Shaw went on location for one day to the prestigious
Savoy Hotel in central London and "took over the lounge and grill room" of the building to shoot scenes. It was further reported that H. G. Wells himself was present at that filming, which occurred during the hotel's less-congested hours between "midnight until seven in the morning".
Kipps was another critical and commercial success for Shaw, who completed at Cricklewood and on location in various English counties at least six more films for Stoll:
The Woman of His Dream (1921);
A Dear Fool (1921);
General John Regan (1921);
False Evidence (1922);
The Wheels of Chance (1922), another adaptation of a work by Wells; and
Love and a Whirlwind (1922).
Return to the United States and final films, 19221925 Shaw and Flugrath returned to the United States in 1922, arriving at
Ellis Island in September, over two months before the release in London of Harold's final film for Stoll,
Love and a Whirlwind. The silent romantic comedy was well received by both critics and audiences, with the Chicago-based reviewing service
Screen Opinions judging the production to be "neatly directed" and its content "clean, full of ginger". Two other releases that the director completed for Metro are the 1923 drama
Held to Answer, currently considered
lost, and the 1924 drama ''
A Fool's Awakening''. In addition to directing and planning future film projects in Hollywood, Shaw became increasingly active in local and national professional organizations, especially in the
Motion Picture Directors Association (MPDA). He was elected secretary of the association in October 1925, just a few months before his untimely death. ==Personal life==