This late Biograph Griffith starts out pretty well and develops into a very tense situation: Blanche Sweet plays a dancer and we get a five-minute Isadora-Duncan style production that I couldn't help snickering at -- Ben Model was playing the piano -- who falls in love with and marries Henry Walthall, 'The Idealist'. They have a daughter, but eventually she grows so bored with her new staid life that she signs over her daughter to Walthall and goes back on the stage .... and then one evening her daughter wanders away from home into her path....
The problem I have with this movie is that the ending is rushed and unsatisfactory. Having established a good dynamic story tension based on character, Griffith writes it off in half a minute, leaving me dissatisfied. Happily, except for the purpose of the story, Griffith is at the top of his form and his prime troupe is on view, with tiny parts being played by Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey Sr.
The problem I have with this movie is that the ending is rushed and unsatisfactory. Having established a good dynamic story tension based on character, Griffith writes it off in half a minute, leaving me dissatisfied. Happily, except for the purpose of the story, Griffith is at the top of his form and his prime troupe is on view, with tiny parts being played by Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey Sr.
