"The Hidden Way" (1926) is a spiritual driven drama that is beautifully realized for putting across its message with an extremely well-acted drama wrapped around it. If there's hokum at all, it's wrapped up wholly in the character played by Ned Sparks - Mulligan - a slick and unreformed pickpocket whose breezy way and cigar chewing demeanor almost caricature a stand-up comic, one you love to watch when you should be watching out. Sparks is fun nevertheless, even though we know he's just no good. Then there are two just released prisoners from the nearby prison, Tom Santschi and Arthur Rankin. They'd perhaps like to go straight, but... Then the leads, Mary Carr - as Mother - and Gloria Grey - as Mary - are the propelling forces of the plot. Mary is trapped on board a runaway wagon with a bolting, spooked horse and is "saved" by Santschi and Rankin. This leads to their being given temporary residence and food with Carr and Grey. Meanwhile, Sparks shows up to make the men a threesome. They plot and they plot to get money out of a jar so they can split it. Then it's discovered that there's a natural spring on the property. They plot and they plot to make it a profit making venture. They try to "fix" the water to give it character enough to make it a legitimate "spring water" for safe consumption at sale. What they don't realize, but discover too late, is that the water was already good enough. Now there are three more characters to introduce. One of them is Jane Thomas, a woman with a baby who becomes a part of the group, a group that is in constant flux because Mother always - always - always accepts the needy for either supper or even lodging for a while. Then there's the father and son duo, Wilbur Mack and William Ryno, businessmen (though one of them's a sharpie), and one of whom is the father of Thomas' baby, though he won't pay any alimony and, well...a creep.
Mother here is biblical. She often is seen reading scripture to lead her life in the way the scriptures prescribe. It's not something that "interferes" with the plot driven drama of the characters, but, frankly, it's the "message" that Ida Mae Park, the author of the play and the script for the film wished her director-husband, Joseph de Grasse to leave with the viewer. It's not necessarily done subtly, but it's also not shoved down the viewers throat. Indeed, the acting is so top notch that the "message" is received much like reading an essay of Emerson. If you don't wish to read it - if you don't wish to watch - you can turn away and not be any the wiser. Too bad for you.
Tom Santschi and Mary Carr are both particularly outstanding. Santschi has several layers to his performance. Remembered especially for his characterization in films like "3 Bad Men", directed by John Ford, he shows he had multiple gifts for his profession when allowed to show them. Mary Carr was "Mother", or a character of a mother, in a long host of films. Here she seamlessly fits her ability to the rôle and makes it utterly genuine. Well worth the watch; although the younger set may find the underlying moral purpose trying in the aura of today's feature films and their content.
