This first-rate production from MGM, effectively evoking the Victorian atmosphere and attitudes of 1840s New England, is a fine film about the redemptive power of religion that isn't at all preachy or stereotypical.
Highlighted by sensitive performances from Lars Hansen as a divinity student, Marceline Day as his fiancée, and especially Pauline Starke as the prostitute who comes between them, this film is not a melodrama as some have described it, but treats seriously complex issues of rape and the Christian's moral duty to sinners, and shows to what desperate measures people may resort in order to achieve redemption. Without giving away too much, I will add that the way former prostitute Bess Morgan preserves her new-found virtue defies Christian orthodoxy yet defines her as a hero just the same, and demonstrates just how subtle these early non-talking films could be.
Highlighted by sensitive performances from Lars Hansen as a divinity student, Marceline Day as his fiancée, and especially Pauline Starke as the prostitute who comes between them, this film is not a melodrama as some have described it, but treats seriously complex issues of rape and the Christian's moral duty to sinners, and shows to what desperate measures people may resort in order to achieve redemption. Without giving away too much, I will add that the way former prostitute Bess Morgan preserves her new-found virtue defies Christian orthodoxy yet defines her as a hero just the same, and demonstrates just how subtle these early non-talking films could be.