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There are some tense moments in the telling of this gripping story

[deickemeyer · 27 November 2016]

Into this simple pastoral Biograph has put its best. It is a plain tale of plain people. The adornment is in the acting, chiefly of father and daughter, although mother and son do the full share that the lines lay upon them. The father is of the stern, Puritanical type; whiskers, no mustache, long coat; his Bible is always by him. Every small community has at least one of him, and every small community will immediately recognize the very man in the mind of the writer of the scenario. The father forbids the son and daughter going to the barn dance. The son disobeys. Castigated, verbally and physically, beyond endurance, the son puts in a couple of stiff ones to the paternal jaw. It is hard to repress "Hit him again!" The son is thrown out. The sister gathers her savings and lets herself out of her window to get the small sum to her brother. It is a pretty illustration of a sister's devotion. The father warns the family the son's name is not again to be spoken. The portrayal of the cowed and shrinking mother and daughter is notable. Well, the son gone, the family moves to new fields. The blacksmith comes to board with them. He falls in love with Mary; she, strangely enough, also with him. The son writes home; the father refuses to listen to the letter. Mary and the blacksmith are married, and the latter goes to town. The son comes home. The husband, returning earlier than expected, sees Mary and her brother embracing. Mary and her mother take the son into the room where the father sits asleep. When he awakes he orders out the son. Mary calls his attention to the fact that in his hand there is the collar and tie he tore from the neck of his boy when he threw him out. The father takes his son in his arms. About this time the blacksmith, unable longer to stand the pressure, breaks into the room. Abashed, he drags Mary into the next room to put on her shoulders the new coat he had brought her; he failed, however, to recover in time the note he had left in the coat telling of his intended departure. There are some tense moments in the telling of this gripping story. - The Moving Picture World, June 22, 1912