The first thing that should be noted about this movie is that only about half of its original five reels survives: most of reels two and thee, and the final half of the the fifth reel. There is extensive decomposition on those portions. Nonetheless, because of a significant early role by Lon Chaney (in a white wig), Chaney superfan Jon Mirsalis paid for the transfer and wrote and performed a new score for LON CHANEY: BEFORE THE THOUSAND FACES, a DVD available from Ben Model's Undercrank Productions.
Dorothy Phillips has her husband go off to Europe on business, where he finds himself joining a war; in the meantime, her son, who is engaged, wants to volunteer for the US Army because war with Mexico looks imminent. However, Lon Chaney has developed a "heart depressant" and Dorothy steals some and administers it to her son, so he is too sickly to join the army. Because of his illness, his fiancée breaks their engagement and marries another man. It all turns out to be a dream, and when she wakes, she realizes that a man has to do what a man has to do and a woman must go along with it.
It's still early days for feature production, and the two-and-a-half-reels of the movie that survives are more than adequate for the story. The synopsis offered indicates that the story is eked out with a prologue that stretches the story out for several decades, indicating that it was felt that a feature had to have a certain depth and breadth that this movie attempts to show rather clumsily. In addition, the "it was all a dream" ending and the moral of the story, which does not seem to follow from any of the action -- other than things turning out nightmarishly --looks like another attempt to pad a solid two-reeler into feature length.
Miss Phillips' performance is broad and melodramatic. The other actors are more restrained, which indicates that it is a vehicle for Miss Phillips. All in all, I was not impressed, although it's good to see this early work from a period when Hollywood was still getting on its feet as a factory ton, when Universal, the production company for this flick, would become the largest producer of movies in the world for a time.
Dorothy Phillips has her husband go off to Europe on business, where he finds himself joining a war; in the meantime, her son, who is engaged, wants to volunteer for the US Army because war with Mexico looks imminent. However, Lon Chaney has developed a "heart depressant" and Dorothy steals some and administers it to her son, so he is too sickly to join the army. Because of his illness, his fiancée breaks their engagement and marries another man. It all turns out to be a dream, and when she wakes, she realizes that a man has to do what a man has to do and a woman must go along with it.
It's still early days for feature production, and the two-and-a-half-reels of the movie that survives are more than adequate for the story. The synopsis offered indicates that the story is eked out with a prologue that stretches the story out for several decades, indicating that it was felt that a feature had to have a certain depth and breadth that this movie attempts to show rather clumsily. In addition, the "it was all a dream" ending and the moral of the story, which does not seem to follow from any of the action -- other than things turning out nightmarishly --looks like another attempt to pad a solid two-reeler into feature length.
Miss Phillips' performance is broad and melodramatic. The other actors are more restrained, which indicates that it is a vehicle for Miss Phillips. All in all, I was not impressed, although it's good to see this early work from a period when Hollywood was still getting on its feet as a factory ton, when Universal, the production company for this flick, would become the largest producer of movies in the world for a time.
