User Reviews

The real grey wolves of this picture were, in one sense, not the tame animals used in the forest scenes, but the speculators in the Chicago wheat pit. Though not a life portrayal, it's a story of business life. Both hero and villain are what might be called giants of the wheat pit (stock market). In the early they are rivals in love. The villain is a bad loser and tries to ruin the hero by "bearing" on the wheat market. They and their adherents come together on the floor of the pit and the scene makes a good picture of the rush and pandemonium of that place at such a time, with its excited faces, its hands waved in the air, its pushing and struggling for place. The hero's health breaks under the stress of the encounter and he is almost ruined financially. The doctor sends him to the woods, where he is pictured as having a different kind of struggle for his life, this time with real wolves. He returns and, in another encounter with the villain on the floor of the pit, wins and is made richer at the villain's expense. The picture is not up to Selig standard. Its first weakness lies in the fact that the great majority of spectators won't understand enough of what goes on in "the pit" to get a clear idea of the struggle. Most will be prejudiced against the hero as a wheat speculator; and not sympathizing, will lose the thread of the story and let the rest pass on over their heads. Even those who understand will find in this picture of the pit, good as it is, many suggestions of unreality. It might have been effective on the stage where voices and noise would have hidden its necessary defect, which is that nearly every one of the minor figures acted his part well for a moment, stopped acting for just one second, when perhaps he was brushed aside by one who was acting more vehemently for the time, and took up his part again. The mind notices these things and they ruin the illusion. This reviewer has never seen a battle scene where actors' faces or even gestures were plain that was truthfully effective and for just this reason. The picture of the hero's experience in the forest was weak for two reasons. It was "played"' for the story's sake. This was very plain in one instance. The hero, hearing wolves, ran away from his gun. A man might have done so, of course; but the action weakens our sympathy for him, and the small boy especially will feel disgusted. It wasn't necessary. Guns sometimes get jammed. The man might have been shown as crouching in the back of the hut after he had reached it, depending on picking off the wolves as they came through the window. This would account for the fact that he didn't protect the window that he was unable to close. It was naturally the place to begin his struggle with them. The scene was also weak from the fact that the wolves were a bit too tame. The villain looked more like a stock broker than the hero did. He did not fit his part very well. The minor actors did very good work. - The Moving Picture World, September 9, 1911