A two-part picture, play introducing the denizens of the slums. There is a love theme running through the plot which is not intensely interesting. The photography and direction seems to be the best part of the picture. Many exciting scenes occur, such as they are. - The Moving Picture World, August 15, 1914
2 Reviews
Lawlessness Must Defeat Gangsters and Social Injustice
briantaves15 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Neighborhood urban gangs provide a family and a form of assistance in the two-reel GANGSTER AND THE GIRL (1914). While such Ince protest films as THE Italian are better known, this was not the first instance of the theme in Ince's work, as I outline in my biography.
Slum child Molly Ashley (Alma Rubens) happens to wear the same clothes one day as a female pickpocket, who, to avoid capture, plants the evidence on Molly. In this way, an otherwise law-abiding young woman, gains a criminal past she can never loose. Her sweetheart, Jim Tracy, leader of the local hoods, rescues her en route to the penitentiary, but she must live undercover.
Meanwhile, the Tracy gang stages daring robberies to try and gather the funds necessary to prove her father's innocence and gain his release from jail. These raids are brought to the attention of the police detective John Stone (Charles Ray). He determines to infiltrate the Tracy gang and adopts a disguise. After a month with the gang, Molly has told him the truth, and then she discovers John's own true identity. She is torn; to turn in one will cause the death of the other, and that is not an end she wants for either Jim or John.
Finally it is another of the gang who turns them in, and still lacking needed evidence, John flees with the last of the gang to their hideout. Jim, unsure who has betrayed them, blames Molly, and when he and John struggle, Molly shoots Jim. Some time later, Molly receives flowers from John, who is coming to spend his vacation with her. Only through extraordinary circumstances has she regained freedom and reputation. It was initially the forces of the lawless, not the law, that helped free her and tried to assist her father; before John, the court had wrongly condemned her to jail.
Slum child Molly Ashley (Alma Rubens) happens to wear the same clothes one day as a female pickpocket, who, to avoid capture, plants the evidence on Molly. In this way, an otherwise law-abiding young woman, gains a criminal past she can never loose. Her sweetheart, Jim Tracy, leader of the local hoods, rescues her en route to the penitentiary, but she must live undercover.
Meanwhile, the Tracy gang stages daring robberies to try and gather the funds necessary to prove her father's innocence and gain his release from jail. These raids are brought to the attention of the police detective John Stone (Charles Ray). He determines to infiltrate the Tracy gang and adopts a disguise. After a month with the gang, Molly has told him the truth, and then she discovers John's own true identity. She is torn; to turn in one will cause the death of the other, and that is not an end she wants for either Jim or John.
Finally it is another of the gang who turns them in, and still lacking needed evidence, John flees with the last of the gang to their hideout. Jim, unsure who has betrayed them, blames Molly, and when he and John struggle, Molly shoots Jim. Some time later, Molly receives flowers from John, who is coming to spend his vacation with her. Only through extraordinary circumstances has she regained freedom and reputation. It was initially the forces of the lawless, not the law, that helped free her and tried to assist her father; before John, the court had wrongly condemned her to jail.
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