User Reviews

Sidney Drew is the master painter of the title. He takes on Courtenay Foote as his apprentice. However, Drew's eyes and powers are in rapid decline and Foote can see the result in his master's work. One evening, Rosemary Theby comes downstairs to find the younger man working on her uncle's painting -- and doing a better job than her uncle is capable of.

Sidney Drew was the uncle of the famous Barrymores (John, Lionel and Ethel). He began his movie career at Vitagraph and soon established himself as a fine screen comic, adept at playing neurotic middle class people, along with his second wife. Together the two wrote, directed and starred in a funny series of comedies for Vitagraph and later for their own company, releasing through Metro. When Sidney's son, S. Rankin Drew, was killed during the First World War, he went into a decline and soon died. In this rare straight role, he offers a solid dramatic performance.

If you wish to take a look at this movie, a good copy is on the Eye Institute site on YouTube.

An artistically made picture that is not strongly dramatic; for it has several situations and the author seems not enough interested in any one of them, although there is a most worthy and deeply poignant state of affairs when the Master Painter (Sidney Drew) is trying to paint his last great masterpiece and failing, though he doesn't know it, for his protégé (Courtenay Foote) is touching it up behind his back. The love story between the pupil and the niece (Rosemary Theby) seems a not very convincing or important part of the whole. The picture is well acted and beautifully staged and, with many high merits, will make a good offering. It is clearly photographed. The author is Russell F. Smith and it was produced by Rogers Lytton. - The Moving Picture World, August 2, 1913