Claire McDowell is tired of the exhausting routine of being the hardworking wife of farmer Arthur Johnson. When he sets out for the fields, she abandons home and baby to run off with Harry Solter, but her sister, Florence Lawrence pursues her and restores her to home.
D. W. Griffith had been directing for only four months when this one-reel melodrama came out, and there's little of cinematic interest here, although the shots at Little Falls in New Jersey are quite lovely. There is some interest in character differentiation, as Miss Lawrence is lively as "Tomboy Nellie", far from Griffith's usual Victorian adolescent. Still, there is some tightening up in the editing; however, the long shots, arm-waving pantonmime, the lack of the Biograph Right Wall and the absence of the tight alternation of pursuer and pursued that would become a hallmark of his chases is still absent.
D. W. Griffith had been directing for only four months when this one-reel melodrama came out, and there's little of cinematic interest here, although the shots at Little Falls in New Jersey are quite lovely. There is some interest in character differentiation, as Miss Lawrence is lively as "Tomboy Nellie", far from Griffith's usual Victorian adolescent. Still, there is some tightening up in the editing; however, the long shots, arm-waving pantonmime, the lack of the Biograph Right Wall and the absence of the tight alternation of pursuer and pursued that would become a hallmark of his chases is still absent.