This is a great look into life in the uptight 1910s in Texas with broken families reuniting under awkward circumstances. The star is really Horace, the son from a prior marriage visiting his mother and sister. Lily Dale, the sister and the character who offers the title of the play, has all the best lines. Horace has no good quotes that I remember, therefore, he is sort of like you and I, the audience, but nonetheless, the star, since it is through him that all drama is triggered. Lily Dale is also from the prior marriage. But mother and sister are now linked to a new father figure, the second husband. Horace is not a part of this new union. Through inaction and sometimes outright comment the sister and the stepfather let Horace know he has no status in this new family unit; he is not welcome. The mother is conflicted. I couldn't help but think of my grandmother's life and what it must have been like for her and her siblings with their mother and stepfather, so this film had some impact for me. Lily Dale is naive, needy and manipulative; and being courted by a fun-loving regular guy who has no real purpose in this drama except to trigger some scary premarital talk between mother and daughter about sex and child birthing. The drama begins and ends with Horace being anxious about never having been baptized. Maybe that could be an issue in the 1910s, but really, who cares today? The script has wonderful contradictions, for example, LD describes the house as gloomy and silent before Horace arrived, yet she still seems to want him to leave. My favorite quote from LD: "look away, I want to ask you something."
