Two years before his big break at Fox with Seventh Heaven, Borzage was one of the few directors who had a trial run at the newly-formed MGM. And just as the others(Benjamin Christensen, Josef VonSternberg, Dmitri Buchowetzki)he was more or less fired after more or less completing a picture, which was assigned to him by his bosses. This is adapted from a successful play, which might be surprising for a silent, although it was not rare, and it features the improbable Creighton Hale as the hero of a multi-layered love triangle: on the day she might flee with the family's best friend, the wife of a boring but wealthy man(Hale) invites her mother-in-law, who fled with her husband's best friend 30 years ago, to come back to the family castle, in order to ask her if her own intention is worthwhile. Although she looks 50 years older(As does her beau)the mother somewhat convinces the young woman, who flees, but... the husband catches her back. This was meant to be comedy, and it is not very good as such, but the interest is of course the possibility to see the future director of Seventh Heaven or Lucky Star deal with the theme of love and its consequences and inject his own treatment of love matters into this brew. It is clear from the outset that, although it is meant to be a comedy, the passion elements are treated seriously, and the dilemma is all the more remarkable that we never feel the heroine's intention to commit adultery and escape her husband as a sin. We are in Borzageland, the country in which love has all the power. So, however flawed, this little film is worth a viewing, considering that the man who directed it would very soon become a genius.
Review of The Circle
