TWELVE MILES OUT is hard to judge in its current condition. The print I saw was definitely incomplete, particularly in regards to setting up characters. The intertitles were translated awkwardly from French, leading to unintentionally amusing typos during dramatic scenes.
Judging from the hour-long copy that exists, TWELVE MILES OUT appears to have been a standard romantic potboiler of the time. It is competently shot and matinee king John Gilbert is a roguish, charming bootlegger with eyes for society girl Joan Crawford. This was an early role for Crawford and one can tell she is still learning the ropes from the limited reactions she has to what's going on: either tight-faced disapproval of all the criminal shenanigans or teary-eyed fear. Ernest Torrance is the villain of the piece, a rival bootlegger who seems more interested in having Crawford to himself than anything else.
So on the whole, there are no big surprises here. As always with silent movies, we are lucky to have films such as this preserved, no matter their quality. TWELVE MILES OUT could use explanatory intertitles showing what was cut just for story clarity, but on the whole, it is an entertaining bit of MGM fluff.
Judging from the hour-long copy that exists, TWELVE MILES OUT appears to have been a standard romantic potboiler of the time. It is competently shot and matinee king John Gilbert is a roguish, charming bootlegger with eyes for society girl Joan Crawford. This was an early role for Crawford and one can tell she is still learning the ropes from the limited reactions she has to what's going on: either tight-faced disapproval of all the criminal shenanigans or teary-eyed fear. Ernest Torrance is the villain of the piece, a rival bootlegger who seems more interested in having Crawford to himself than anything else.
So on the whole, there are no big surprises here. As always with silent movies, we are lucky to have films such as this preserved, no matter their quality. TWELVE MILES OUT could use explanatory intertitles showing what was cut just for story clarity, but on the whole, it is an entertaining bit of MGM fluff.