User Reviews

A photoplay written by one woman, directed by another and acted by a third member of the gentler sex, should be a correct and convincing revelation of female character. In "The Glory of Yolanda," a five-reel Vitagraph Blue Ribbon feature, Maibelle Heikes Justice, inspired, no doubt, by the vogue of the Russian Ballet at the present time, has made a beautiful peasant girl of the land of the Tzar the heroine of the story, and endowed her with a purity of mind that is "proof and bulwark" against every temptation. So severe is the test and so complete her resistance that an apotheosis entitled, "The Triumph of Innocence," might well have been the closing scene of the picture. Not since Ouida created the pathetic little peasant in "A Pair of Wooden Shoes," has an equal amount of unsophistication and female virtue been found in a work of fiction. Briefly told, the story introduces Yolanda when she is leading the life of the ordinary Russian peasant girl, except that she passes considerable of her time in dancing out in the open. The Grand Duke Boris sees her and advises her mother to take her to Petrograd and have her trained for the ballet. The nobleman furnishes the necessary money. Yolanda makes a sensation as a dancer, and when the Duke calls to collect upon his investment, he is killed by the girl's brother. A young artist, who loves and is beloved by Yolanda, has been started on his way to Siberia by the Duke. Yolanda joins him, and the way for the release of both is foreshadowed. No subtle complication of plot or disquieting touch of realism, interfere with the smooth flow of the romance through the accustomed channels. It is all if Gorky and his school had never been, or that it was thought necessary to give him and his followers a well-merited rebuke. Fortunately for this old world of ours, the love of romance and the belief in virtue are still strong in the breasts of a goodly portion of honest folk. The writer of this review is not informed as to whether Miss Justice had Anita Stewart in mind when she planned her photoplay; at any rate, the character of Yolanda has fallen to the proper person. The amazing innocence of mind attributed to the Russian girl, as depicted by Anita Stewart does not impress one as an assumption but as a fact. It has not been given her to sound the tragic note, but whatever stands for girlish charm, beauty of character and purity of mind in the art of acting is hers to command. Marguerite Bertsch has been a painstaking and sympathetic director, and the local color throughout the production is counterfeited with excellent discernment. The different Russian types, both peer and peasant, are skillfully played by the several members of the cast. – The Moving Picture World, February 3, 1917