Ethel Grandin had already tried to find film work at American Biograph but when director D.W. Griffith asked to see her legs (just to make sure she was not bow legged) she left in a huff!! The next port of call was I.M.P. - Carl Laemmle's company, recently returned from Cuba where they had gone to dodge the Patent's officers. The little maverick company had started to acquire some prestigious names - Herbert Brenon, George Loane Tucker and Thomas Ince who found in Ethel his perfect leading lady. As Ethel recalled, Tucker asked her if she would do some scenes for him but it had to be quick. "Traffic in Souls" was inspired by the Rockefeller White Slavery Report and New York District Attorney Whiteman's investigations into vice. It was made for $5,700 from donations put up by Brenon, King Baggott and others and without Laemmle's permission, that's why everything was hush-hush but with 30,000 people seeing it in it's first week and soon to be playing in 28 cinemas in greater New York alone it made enough for Uncle Carl to put together a reputable studio - Universal.
As "head of the house" Mary (Jane Gail) finds it hard to keep flighty younger sister Lorna (Ethel Grandin) who is often late for work, in check. Someone else has his eye on Lorna - he is a scout for the local brothel - the "trafficker in souls"!!
Gail (who does a super job), Matt Moore and Grandin may have been the nominal stars but the real eye opener (to the public of 1913) must have been the devious means the villains went to, to procure the innocent young girls to fill their "suspicious houses". The different men on every corner, so when a policeman sends a disreputable rat (posing as a helpful citizen) about his business, there is always another toad around the corner to guide a poor innocent country girl (Luray Huntley, wife of Walter Long who plays one of the policemen) to a recommended "boarding house". Two Swedish girls see their brother at the docks but he is soon involved in a "scuffle" and another helpful Swede pops up to direct the girls to the Swedish Employment Bureau!! In an interesting plot twist Officer 4434 stages a huge raid on the premises, rescuing all the girls but not finding out who runs the operation!!
Meanwhile Lorna's disappearance has caused a sensation and Mary is sacked for bringing notoriety to the shop. To the rescue is wealthy Mrs. Trubus who secures Mary a job in her husband's office and where Mary finds, after mopping up some spilt ink, a hidden Dictaphone that helps her expose Mr. Trubus as the man at the top of the vice and corruption tree. The Dictaphone could have been a stumbling block but luckily Mary's father is an inventor who has created a machine for recording Dictaphone messages on cylindrical disks!! There mayn't be any customers (as one reviewer questions) but Ethel Grandin is called on to do some powerful emoting (1913 style) as she realises where her love of good times and fancy gifts has led her. And when the whip comes out as a last resort to force Lorna's bidding......
The film can be repetitive with too many scenes of just too many people crammed into an office forever counting their ill gotten gains but the very drabness of the sets give it an almost documentary feel, with the many exteriors of 1913 New York giving it a quaint period look.
Highly Recommended.
As "head of the house" Mary (Jane Gail) finds it hard to keep flighty younger sister Lorna (Ethel Grandin) who is often late for work, in check. Someone else has his eye on Lorna - he is a scout for the local brothel - the "trafficker in souls"!!
Gail (who does a super job), Matt Moore and Grandin may have been the nominal stars but the real eye opener (to the public of 1913) must have been the devious means the villains went to, to procure the innocent young girls to fill their "suspicious houses". The different men on every corner, so when a policeman sends a disreputable rat (posing as a helpful citizen) about his business, there is always another toad around the corner to guide a poor innocent country girl (Luray Huntley, wife of Walter Long who plays one of the policemen) to a recommended "boarding house". Two Swedish girls see their brother at the docks but he is soon involved in a "scuffle" and another helpful Swede pops up to direct the girls to the Swedish Employment Bureau!! In an interesting plot twist Officer 4434 stages a huge raid on the premises, rescuing all the girls but not finding out who runs the operation!!
Meanwhile Lorna's disappearance has caused a sensation and Mary is sacked for bringing notoriety to the shop. To the rescue is wealthy Mrs. Trubus who secures Mary a job in her husband's office and where Mary finds, after mopping up some spilt ink, a hidden Dictaphone that helps her expose Mr. Trubus as the man at the top of the vice and corruption tree. The Dictaphone could have been a stumbling block but luckily Mary's father is an inventor who has created a machine for recording Dictaphone messages on cylindrical disks!! There mayn't be any customers (as one reviewer questions) but Ethel Grandin is called on to do some powerful emoting (1913 style) as she realises where her love of good times and fancy gifts has led her. And when the whip comes out as a last resort to force Lorna's bidding......
The film can be repetitive with too many scenes of just too many people crammed into an office forever counting their ill gotten gains but the very drabness of the sets give it an almost documentary feel, with the many exteriors of 1913 New York giving it a quaint period look.
Highly Recommended.