I just adored this homespun little movie with a rural twist on the David and Goliath story. It reminded me a lot of a Mary Pickford movie, it was sweet, entertaining and left you feeling good afterward! The Kinemon family are a loving, religious and close-knit family who really find out through a series of tragedies what it means to pull together! And Tol'able David is forced to grow up fast and find out to his delight that he's more than just tol'able! There are some funny scenes in this movie. One of my favorites being when Richard Barthelmess's David is sitting on a fence imagining that he's driving the mail cart complete with a fancy top hat and whip and then he wakes up and the fence breaks and he falls! There's another cute scene where his dog steals his pants and David's running around in a barrel.
But the movie has plenty of tragedy too! One of the most poignant scenes is when David is going off to revenge the crippling of his older brother and the death of his father, and his mother literally grabs him by the legs to stop him. The look on his face! What a wonderful actor Richard was! If the Academy Awards had been around then, he surely would've won! This movie is not for people who don't like early, sentimental silent cinema. They might find it trite and some of the story unrealistic.Watch for the wonderful Ernest Torrence playing the creepiest villain ever!
But the movie has plenty of tragedy too! One of the most poignant scenes is when David is going off to revenge the crippling of his older brother and the death of his father, and his mother literally grabs him by the legs to stop him. The look on his face! What a wonderful actor Richard was! If the Academy Awards had been around then, he surely would've won! This movie is not for people who don't like early, sentimental silent cinema. They might find it trite and some of the story unrealistic.Watch for the wonderful Ernest Torrence playing the creepiest villain ever!