Review of The Mended Lute

A Biograph which tells a tale of Indian love and romance, laid in the region about Spirit Lake, Iowa. It is the familiar love story, where the lover accepted by the Indian girl is objectionable to her father, and despite her protests she is given to someone else. The lovers manage to get together, however, and escape, but are captured and condemned to death. When tortured the brave exhibits such fortitude that he wins the admiration of his captor, who frees him and sends them away together. This is the story, but the working out of the details, which are believed to be true in every particular to Indian life as it was known among the Sioux at that time, will command attention wherever the picture is shown. For one thing, it illustrates an entirely new feature of that life. It is generally supposed that the Sioux is without sentiment of any kind, but to see here blended so much poetry and romance, and to see them both based upon what appear to be actual facts, is a view of Indian character which will be interesting, because new. And the technical quality of the work is beyond criticism, as the Biograph work is understood to be, while the acting is up to the high standard which those players have set. One wants to see this picture more than once because it seems convincing and develops such a new and interesting phase of Sioux character. The canoe race also is exciting and skillfully handled, a subject in itself. - The Moving Picture World, August 14, 1909