A tight production with no wasted shots, flows develops and resolves nicely in tempo and enjoyable for it. We are treated with some remnants of the old stage wild hand movements but not too much. The 'wronged' woman is depicted well and you can feel her isolation from the three.
This must be one of only very few films where Mary Pickford plays a sinister dark role. She created the initial problem by suggesting to her sister something might be up between the husband and the other woman and, throughout treated the 'other' woman with some contempt and suspicion. Love the little sneer she gave!! The only contemptuous nasty sneer I have seen from Pickford.
Throughout the film you see Mary at the back of most scenes or rather behind the two woman, almost lurking and suspicious and, at the very end it is Mary who is out in front, her back to us, her dark looking presence gone and the two woman together.
It is also very noticeable that Pickford moves body and hands deliberately very slowly, especially at the beginning - method acting as the thirsty woman in the desert. Mary gives a stillness and quietness to the setting amongst the greater actions of the others.
This is the only dark role I have seen Mary in and she did it well, too bad she got type-cast so soon into other guises. Also very nice to see the healthy full face of the young 20 year old Mary (and recently married to Owen Moore).
One can only wonder at Griffith's message with this film and its title, considering his background and his other moralistic films. He seems to be saying three woman together is trouble, a triangle leaves room for back biting. This is idea is reinforced at the end of the film where you see Pickford out of the way in the distance and the two women problems solved together. But a baby is the magic formula for harmony among women. Pretty obvious I guess - he is saying a woman's position is with child.