User Reviews

I agree with other reviewers that the silent De Mille seems better than the talkie De Mille we are more familiar with. This film is a nice little gem.

The lighting and intense shadows is striking and the ending is oddly enigmatic. The acting is restrained and the Cinderella twist is clever. The pacing is a tad slow but the action fight scene at the end is quite violent considering clearly no stunt men are used. Reid clearly throws a man up and over his head to the ground and the furniture is not breakaway.

As others have commented on, I was interested in seeing Wallace Reid because of his tragic end. I wanted to see what he was like before the tragedy of 1919. He is certainly good looking and the role might have been cliché and boring except for his understated but clever way of turning a cliché rich young guy into an interesting man who is no one's fool.

He smiles as the secondary villain tries to lure him into an obvious trap as if pitying the transparent ploy. He seems to almost be playing, toying, with the drunken husband when they fight over the gun during the robbery. Reid's performance is almost ironic, making the throwaway part quite interesting.

Seeing the film you do see what a tragedy that 1919 accident was which destroyed him. Reid had the looks and talent to have been a great star. Instead he was destroyed by the age of 31.

JEF

This is a better than average silent movie and it's still well worth seeing if you are a fan of the silents. However, if you aren't yet a fan of the genre, I suggest you try a few other films before watching this one. That's because the plot just seems pretty old fashioned and difficult to believe in spots. But, despite this, it's still a good film and kept my interest.

A nice lady unfortunately hooked up with the wrong man and ran away to marry him. The film starts five years later after she has come to realize that he is really a brutal thief. Despite this, she tries to make the best of it and not dwell on how good life had been before this jerk came into her life. However, the rent is due and there's no money, so the lady is forced to look for work. She becomes a personal seamstress for a rich lady whose husband is trying to swing a business deal. Unfortunately, the lady who they were trying to hook up a potential client with for a dinner party can't make it and the seamstress is paid handsomely to be the man's date. Well, like Cinderella, she cleans up pretty well and the man is infatuated with her! What to do now--given that she is actually married and the new fella wants to marry her?! Well, see the movie yourself to see how it's all resolved. I DIDN'T like how they handled the husband, as it seemed awfully predictable and clichéd. However, once he was out of the way, I do admire how the film also DIDN'T give up a by-the-numbers finale and left the film with a few loose ends.

All in all, a very good film worth seeing, but certainly not great.

One of the earliest surviving DeMille films, THE GOLDEN CHANCE is one of his society dramas, here starring Wallace Reid and Cleo Ridgely. Cleo plays a judge's daughter who elopes with what turns out to be a violent, no account thief who spends what little money there is on booze and has her living in a squalid apartment house. In desperation for money, Cleo takes a job as a seamstress with a rich couple, the Hilarys. The matron is impressed with Cleo's poise and learns Cleo has a good background despite her current address. That very night, the Hilarys are hosting a dinner in honor of a millionaire (Wallace Reid) whom the husband hopes to sign up for a business venture. When the young socialite the wife wanted to pair up with millionaire at the dinner cancels at the last minute, in desperation she gets Cleo to fill in for her. Reid proves to be quite taken with Cleo at the dinner and the couple persuade him to stay for the weekend insisting Cleo (who reluctantly goes along with their plans due to her poverty) will also be there. Wallace Reid falls hard for Cleo who can't help respond to his kindness and gentlemen ways after her time with her brute of a husband. And those dreamy eyes and broad shoulders don't hurt either.

Meanwhile, Cleo's husband Steve is planning a break in at the very home she is staying at, unknown to either of them, after jewels. Eventually, all hell breaks loose. The movie's ending is rather abrupt and does not end in the expected romantic clinch probably due to the distaste some in the era might have that a married woman would find happiness elsewhere, even with having a violent mug of a husband, but it leaves a respectable door open that clears the way for our lovebirds presumable future happiness off-screen.

This is an average silent melodrama and probably would not appeal to those who don't care for silents. The story has more holes than Cleo's well-worn shoes and quite a number of absurd bits. How nice the matron has a dress - AND SHOES - that can fit last minute invite Cleo. How did well-bred Cleo ever get tangled up with a cardboard hoodlum like her husband? Wallace Reid not only falls in love at first sight but pronounces Cleo marriage material by day two. Steve hides from Mrs. Hilary at the house - behind Cleo! Steve doesn't hesitate to pull a gun on Cleo and threaten her but curiously takes his time to pull it on Wallace when he is caught in the house. Most outrageous is when the police raid the apartment building where Steve and Cleo live on at least the second floor Steve is shot as he tries to get away on the fire escape and falls from the window to the ground. The police then carry him up to his apartment for him to die in his bed!! Some of these incredible bits probably drew laughs at their absurdities even back in 1916.

Cleo Ridgely is a pleasant screen performer who evokes sympathy and light charm if not quite the bewitching beauty that might instantly captivate a heartthrob of a millionaire like Wallace Reid. Reid is attractive and still projects the charisma that made quite a few lady moviegoers hearts flutter way back when and gives a good performance in an undemanding role. The supporting cast does well although as stated earlier Horace B. Carpenter's Steve character is such a cartoonish villain he would probably twitch his mustache if he had one. It's nice to see this film still exists even if it is a rather unmemorable programmer.

As with "The Cheat", which Cecil B. DeMille made concurrently with this film, "The Golden Chance" features chiaroscuro effects: blackened out backgrounds, symbolic shadows, mood-setting shades and other effective uses of lighting. But, DeMille and cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff took the lighting much further in "The Cheat". It dominated the picture, and made it one of the more exceptional early feature-length films. Additionally, Wilfred Buckland's minimalist settings are effective, as in "The Cheat". The melodrama is about as uninteresting and unimportant, too.

The story in "The Golden Chance" is about a woman who marries down to an abusive drunk and thief, but after a Cinderella episode falls in love with a millionaire. It's generic, classist, forgettable, escapist pastiche. Yet, forget the story, this is recommendable for being a well-crafted film for 1915, and for being available today in such high quality.