Norma Talmadge, looking charming in little-old-lady make-up, is waiting for the doctor to tell her whether he can save Eugene O'Brien, her husband's life. Meanwhile, she thinks about their past: forty minutes of how they came to run off, despite the objections of her father -- including a charming sequence in which she is dressed in umpteen layers of clothes in the mid-Victorian style. We also see him fighting off a murderous gang while she sits crying over her dead baby, and Gertrude Astor telling Miss Talmadge he loves her now, give him his freedom, until he announces they are broke.
The version I looked at had a quarter of its original 108 minutes lost, so there is little of the sense of build-up that original audiences saw. We do get to see Miss Talmadge in ornate costumes, which I never think really suit her; she was such an extraordinarily beautiful woman that rich clothes on her were painting the beautiful lily. What's left is the outline of a story, of the heartaches that a long and lasting love must endure. It's the sort of a movie that has always touched the sentimental audience, and was powerful enough that Mary Pickford chose to remake it as a sound film, with herself in the lead.
With Claire McDowell, George Nichols, and the always welcome Charles Ogle.
