One reason I dig the old flicks because of the historical settings. After seeing this movie, I have decided to deduct points for poor editing for all films going forward. Indeed, a decent editor would have put this film into high orbit.
W.C. Fields seems a little out of place in this silent flick, awaiting peak performance in the talkies. Carol Dempster's natural energy makes her the most interesting character of the bunch. She grows on me. Nice sentimental story, whose predictable ending comes about in an unpredictable way.
The editing was so bad that I started to guess when the next discontinuity would come. This was 1925, where silent film was approaching its zenith. The butchery is inexcusable.
It's hard to escape the impression that Chaplin's "The Circus" (released 2 years later) was in some way inspired by this offering from his friend, DW Griffith.
The nice clean print, available on DVD, was a pleasure to watch. But let's face it: Stuff like this is of greatest interest to film buffs and WCFields aficionados. Enjoy!
Also, I now close all silent reviews with this tip: If you can play it on a PC, using a media player with speed adjust, you can enjoy these gems at 1.2x or 1.4x speed, with no loss of intelligibility or tonal distortion in the music. It works best for dramatic work. The comedies are already speeded up!
W.C. Fields seems a little out of place in this silent flick, awaiting peak performance in the talkies. Carol Dempster's natural energy makes her the most interesting character of the bunch. She grows on me. Nice sentimental story, whose predictable ending comes about in an unpredictable way.
The editing was so bad that I started to guess when the next discontinuity would come. This was 1925, where silent film was approaching its zenith. The butchery is inexcusable.
It's hard to escape the impression that Chaplin's "The Circus" (released 2 years later) was in some way inspired by this offering from his friend, DW Griffith.
The nice clean print, available on DVD, was a pleasure to watch. But let's face it: Stuff like this is of greatest interest to film buffs and WCFields aficionados. Enjoy!
Also, I now close all silent reviews with this tip: If you can play it on a PC, using a media player with speed adjust, you can enjoy these gems at 1.2x or 1.4x speed, with no loss of intelligibility or tonal distortion in the music. It works best for dramatic work. The comedies are already speeded up!