One Touch of Sin (1917) User Reviews

Miss Brockwell is afforded a part well suited to her

[deickemeyer · 2 February 2015]

Gladys Brockwell is presented as the star in "One Touch of Sin," an interesting western melodrama written by L. Genez and directed by Richard Stanton. The theme, dealing with a girl's misguided love, while not an unusual one, has been strengthened by the work of the director, who has judiciously handled the situations afforded. Mary Livingston, an innocent girl, who in an eastern city loves and trusts Richard Mallaby, a western miner and gambler, only to find her confidence misplaced, later meets him again in a mining camp, where he makes repeated attempts to gain possession of her. She is befriended by Watt Tabor, whom she marries to avoid being sent to prison for theft of money which she has taken to save herself from starvation. His love and unselfishness, which even includes sending east for her baby, finally awaken her love, after a big scene in which a disgruntled employee blows up the mine, causing the water to rush into the chamber where Tabor and Mallaby are engaged in a fierce struggle, ending in Tabor's dragging Mallaby out of the swiftly rising water and Mallaby's death after he has begged Mary's forgiveness. As Mary, Miss Brockwell is afforded a part well suited to her, and which she handles well, especially the scene where, realizing her condition, she begs Mallaby to marry her, and later, in a dance hall, where in a struggle with Mallaby, after securing his pistol, she is only prevented from killing him by Tabor, who takes the weapon from her. The work of the other members of the cast, including Jack Standing as Richard Mallaby, and Willard Louis as Watt Tabor, together with Sedley Brown, Carrie Clark Ward, James MacDonald and Charles Edhler, is good, and a touch of human interest is added by little Frankie Lee and his pet dog in the western scenes. – The Moving Picture World, February 10, 1917