Captain Salvation

Lars Hanson is a seminary student in this silent feature, who is engaged and a model citizen in a small fishing village on the coast of Massachusetts in olden times, but his defense of a lady of ill repute who's "lost" lands him in hot water and the people who have been shunning her have started to alienate him as well. Through a series of events, both of them get out of town by means of a ship, which is presumably a fishing or cargo ship in search for goods, and thereby leaves his girl in the wake of the upset and still pining for him. But, on the ship, they soon find out that the crew and captain are not what they seem. After a scuffle and a dramatic moment between the young lady and the captain, the emotional ending begins. What began as a rather straight-forward and involving little film becomes a very moving and sensitive experience. I'm so glad I taped and watched this forgotten film. Lars Hanson, star of The Scarlet Letter with Lillian Gish, and who was quite the sex symbol of his day, is very effective as a man of the cloth and underplays his role. What might have been corny or over-the-top by someone like Richard Dix is very heartfelt and sincere by Lars. "Captain Salvation" can be found on TCM (in fact it was just on, but I watched my own copy of it) and is a silent film that sadly has been overshadowed by major films like Metropolis, Sunrise, Greed, and a lot of director D.W. Griffith's. Discover it today.