Filmed after Alice Guy's Solax period, this one must be regarded as accomplished for its day but remains a creaky formula melodrama.
Beginning a notable career (the silent Get Rich QUICK WALLINGFORD, ALEXANDER HAMILTON and the Louis Hayward MAN in the IRON MASK) Doris Kenyon comes on here as an artist's model posing for painter Wm. Morse in his studio with the pair of pet monkeys. When his painting of her sells at the briskly edited auction, they go off for a holiday together at a hotel where the manager has a side line taking compromising glass plate snaps of guests. His shot is the pair of them sitting in the open on a bench, which gives you some idea of the film's notion of raunchy. Morse proves grabby so Doris moves on, marrying rich businessman (and co-author) Holbrook Blinn who asks her mother's consent. The couple have a child.
Meanwhile Morse has paired with the hotelier's daughter Donelson, who he plied with liquor. She takes a dim view of Kenyon posing for his new painting in Imperial robes, after he comes for his model again. The girl is barely prevented from slashing the canvas. Meanwhile the hotel manager is getting blackmail cheques from Doris, using the photo and his register. Revolvers are produced from drawers.
The film's best elements are a none too lively depiction of the lives of the well to do and young Kenyon's appealing performance - until we get into the throat clutchings of the final section. The minorities appear in subservient roles - an ineffectual Japanese House Boy, black musicians in the lengthy indoor carnival parade sequence.
The indoors lighting is pretty brutal but the editing does move closer and back again for dramatic effect and the camera follow the action, panning and tilting, with a few iris effects. The film makes effective use of inset close ups, including a "thinks" shot of the pavement below or a crowing cock to visualise sound. Devices like showing Donelson watching the compromising activity by shooting her through the glass textured door make their point. As with contemporary Raoul Walsh, camera technique is sometimes smoother than the Griffith films but the subject matter is inferior.
The Cinémathèque Français reconstruction on their Henri site is quite good and appears near complete but it is not tinted and the captions are missing. The plot is not hard to follow but the crosses printed in, at the points where titles should be inserted, are distracting. There are a couple of brief patches of decomposition.
Beginning a notable career (the silent Get Rich QUICK WALLINGFORD, ALEXANDER HAMILTON and the Louis Hayward MAN in the IRON MASK) Doris Kenyon comes on here as an artist's model posing for painter Wm. Morse in his studio with the pair of pet monkeys. When his painting of her sells at the briskly edited auction, they go off for a holiday together at a hotel where the manager has a side line taking compromising glass plate snaps of guests. His shot is the pair of them sitting in the open on a bench, which gives you some idea of the film's notion of raunchy. Morse proves grabby so Doris moves on, marrying rich businessman (and co-author) Holbrook Blinn who asks her mother's consent. The couple have a child.
Meanwhile Morse has paired with the hotelier's daughter Donelson, who he plied with liquor. She takes a dim view of Kenyon posing for his new painting in Imperial robes, after he comes for his model again. The girl is barely prevented from slashing the canvas. Meanwhile the hotel manager is getting blackmail cheques from Doris, using the photo and his register. Revolvers are produced from drawers.
The film's best elements are a none too lively depiction of the lives of the well to do and young Kenyon's appealing performance - until we get into the throat clutchings of the final section. The minorities appear in subservient roles - an ineffectual Japanese House Boy, black musicians in the lengthy indoor carnival parade sequence.
The indoors lighting is pretty brutal but the editing does move closer and back again for dramatic effect and the camera follow the action, panning and tilting, with a few iris effects. The film makes effective use of inset close ups, including a "thinks" shot of the pavement below or a crowing cock to visualise sound. Devices like showing Donelson watching the compromising activity by shooting her through the glass textured door make their point. As with contemporary Raoul Walsh, camera technique is sometimes smoother than the Griffith films but the subject matter is inferior.
The Cinémathèque Français reconstruction on their Henri site is quite good and appears near complete but it is not tinted and the captions are missing. The plot is not hard to follow but the crosses printed in, at the points where titles should be inserted, are distracting. There are a couple of brief patches of decomposition.
