Listed as a "fragment" on the Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers set, "On the Brink" seems to be a mostly-intact one-reeler and one of the first that Lois Weber directed (and wrote, produced and starred in--she did it all and was likely the major creative force behind this one rather than Edwin S. Porter, who was more of a production supervisor at this point, or her husband Phillips Smalley, for whom most including himself have acknowledged as the less involved of the supposedly-co-directing couple.) The only earlier film of hers I've seen and which is included on the same set is "From Death to Life," which was released a couple weeks earlier than this one in June 1911, and two more of her films were released between them--a busy schedule they kept up in those nickelodeon days.
More striking than anything else about the surviving print of "On the Brink" is that it's gorgeous--the location shooting, natural lighting and the tinting/toning. Even when the print gets scratchy it seems rather apt as it occurs by the crashing waves of the seashore. Indeed, the picture was singled out in contemporary press for its beauty and its tinting in particular (as quoted in Shelley Stamp's book "Lois Weber in Early Hollywood"). Perhaps, just as now, back then not all nickelodeon prints looked as good as this. And, it was this pictorial beauty, as well as a tendency towards supposedly higher-brow scenarios from Weber, that Rex productions built their reputation upon.
Dress "On the Brink" up as much you want as about the relationship of a woman (Weber) with her mentally-disabled brother or about romance, all as shot lovingly on location, the plot here still concludes with the then-popular last-minute-rescue formula. The same action-packed, race-against-time kind of scenario that would be later employed for her early masterpiece, "Suspense" (1913). D.W. Griffith was also well known for this genre. This one even features a rather ridiculous contrivance for the rescue, as Weber's character tails her romantic co-lead until accidently getting herself locked inside a freezer. Fortunately, Weber would prove to be much smarter behind the screen.