User Reviews

Several weeks ago the Selig Company released a melodramatic picture, "The Still Alarm." This was taken from a very popular play, with a well-knit plot and clearly contrasted characters, and the Selig producer pictured it in an artistic and pleasing way. It enjoyed, from all accounts, a deserved success. Between that picture and "Through Fire and Smoke" there is enough similarity to invite comparison. The former is a much stronger picture. To begin, the characters of this picture are not sharply contrasted; it is, in one sense, a picture without either heroine or villain and without a hero, for this hero did what was his duty only. A melodrama, under these conditions, is sadly hampered at the very beginning. It is, naturally, a love story. The fireman and the girl are shown in the first scene talking together in front of the fire engine house. It's a pretty picture and it is according to rule. It wakens our expectations. The girl continues on her way to work and meets the young floor-manager of the factory. They enter together. This player doesn't seem to the reviewer wholly convincing as a floor-manager. As a character he doesn't qualify as a villain at any time; he is merely a. weak, contemptible fop. The girl is plainly attracted by him, perhaps by his good clothes. At noon, she goes out with the manager to luncheon in an expensive restaurant. The girl, under his influence, forgets the fireman, her first and truest friend. This is not commendable in the girl; it does not increase our respect or sympathy for her, or our interest in the story. She does nothing at any time worthy of a heroine. The fire, as shown, is thrilling. It was caused not by the manager, although due to his stupidity and carelessness. In the panic, this weakling snatches the life line from the heroine. This merely means that he is to be first down to safety. During this struggle, the other players seem interested spectators. Did they forget the danger? If not, they were keeping cool heads, and in either case it seems to detract from the panic. The hero as a fireman rescues her; but it isn't personal, many others are being rescued also. Partly the picture is a melodrama with a purpose and as such is an anomaly. It seemed to this reviewer that the scenes didn't hold the story in very well. The scene at the engine house, the meeting of the heroine and manager, the factory, including the starting of the fire, the rescue and the girl's home were absolutely needed. The other scenes were not absolutely needed. Some of them added very little to the picture. The scene showing the girl and the manager walking in the park seems merely to delay the action. There is nothing more weakening to an exciting story than to "drag in" scenery when not in accord with the action. - The Moving Picture World, September 16, 1911