On the surface it was a typical Griffith/Gish collaboration - death of a baby, distant husband and a vamp who lures husband away, but what an astonishing performance by 17 year old Lillian Gish who had only just started in films the year before. Lillian has a mothering heart as is shown by her sympathy for two little puppies tussling over a tin can but it is against her inner feelings that she consents to marry her ardent young man (Walter Miller). The audience sympathy is all for Miss Gish as she takes in ironing and hides her sickness, determined not to let her husband think she cannot do her part. Miller's "husband" is a shadowy figure. Once he prospers, an "idle woman" (Viola Barry) who frequents the same café that he and his wife visit, catches his wandering eye. In a modern, psychological twist he has already taken Lillian's confidence away from her - criticizing her dress and homely ways, so by the time they get to the café she feels withdrawn and lonely.
Viola Barry's interpretation of the "idle woman" is extremely modern - there is no heavy vamping, she is just a good time girl out for a fling and when Miller gets too possessive there is always someone else to meet - in exactly the same way she met the erring husband.
Lillian Gish really comes into her own during the second half of the film - from the time she finds a glove in her husband's pocket and gazes penetratingly right into the camera, only her eyes changing expression to convey first wonderment and then realisation. She returns to her mother where her sickly baby dies, again the scene with the doctor: she will not be kept from her baby and as she wanders the garden takes out her frustration at life on the rose bushes. Just amazing to see how instinctively she grasped cinema acting so early in her career.
Viola Barry's interpretation of the "idle woman" is extremely modern - there is no heavy vamping, she is just a good time girl out for a fling and when Miller gets too possessive there is always someone else to meet - in exactly the same way she met the erring husband.
Lillian Gish really comes into her own during the second half of the film - from the time she finds a glove in her husband's pocket and gazes penetratingly right into the camera, only her eyes changing expression to convey first wonderment and then realisation. She returns to her mother where her sickly baby dies, again the scene with the doctor: she will not be kept from her baby and as she wanders the garden takes out her frustration at life on the rose bushes. Just amazing to see how instinctively she grasped cinema acting so early in her career.