User Reviews

Vivian Prescott entrances Charles West despite the warnings of his friends, and he asks her to marry him. When he discovers her in the arms of another man, he is heartbroken, and goes with his friend to the countryside to forget. There he meets charming Mary Pickford, and he realizes that she represents a better form of love. Miss Prescott, however, wants the rich West, and so pursues him to the country to renew her hold upon him.

I'm not particularly fond of the story, which is rather simplistic, but it is well directed, well acted, and the print I just looked at on the Niles Museum site is in perfect shape, newly drawn from the Library of Congress's Paper Print collection; its wonderful condition really shows off the wonderful dimensionality of cameraman Billy Bitzer work. It also is a very early example of the vamp in the movies.

"And a little child shall lead them." Whether or not one is ready to accept this picture in its entirety one must, indeed, admit its dramatic power and agree that it is graced by consummate acting. Is is not difficult to understand the indecision which possesses Raymond. Such indecision has been characteristic of men since there were men. But the interposition of the child arouses something in him which lay dormant, as it does in the heart of main a man until an influence like this causes it to blaze forth and sweep nil obstacles from its path. Men are impulsive, and while their impulses are not always to be commended, this picture conclusively shows that they can be made right under the proper influence. In reality this picture is a subtle study in the impulses and influences which mold men's actions, and as such it possesses more than the ordinary dramatic and ethical interest. - The Moving Picture World, July 9, 1910