User Reviews

The scenario of "The Man Who Forgot," a five-reel Paragon photoplay, is from the story of the same name by James Hay. Jr. It is a story with a purpose; after the first two reels it takes up the subject of temperance and advocates it with all the conviction of William Jennings Bryan. The issue is made a national one and the end of the drama sees it a part of the Constitution of the United States. The author, however, has not forgotten that the mission of a screen play is to entertain, not to proselyte, and the plot has to do with the fall and rise of a young man who awakens from a long debauch to find his memory gone and he himself without the power to recall his own name. His resolve to fight the evil which has nearly ruined him puts him at the head of a national temperance movement, and he carries the struggle into the halls of Congress, and wins. The love interest is not neglected. The reformer falls in love with the daughter of a United States Senator who is the political leader of the liquor interests, and every means at the command of influence and money are used to discredit the young chap and turn his sweetheart against him. All of these efforts end in failure and the senator concludes to accept the reformer as his son-in-law, once the mystery about his birth is cleared up and the temperance cause is triumphant. The production is excellent. Prom the Chinese opium den in the opening scene to the incidents that were photographed at various well known localities in Washington, great care has been taken with the filming of the picture. The scenes outside the Capitol and in the Senate are the real thing, and the large crowds of temperance advocates are handled skillfully by the director, Emile Chautard. The cast is also of superior quality. – The Moving Picture World, January 20, 1917