The idea of this film is one which earns our commendation for its very whimsicality. It deals with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We do not know if any of the readers of The Moving Picture World are of a sufficiently speculative nature to ask themselves what sort of place the world would be if everybody told the truth, on the truth were instantly discoverable. No doubt, in the present imperfect state of human nature, the world with nothing but the truth in it would be a very unpleasant place to live in; in fact, come to reason it out, it could not be done. Some years ago, W. S. Gilbert, the dramatist, handled this very theme. He wrote a fairy play called "The Palace of Truth." All the characters in this play told the truth, and the result was that everybody was made uncommonly uncomfortable. Something like this idea has instigated the Gaumont film of "Telltale Reflections." A piece of apparatus, called the hypnotic mirror, has the wonderful faculty of revealing past misdemeanors of persons in whose presence the mirror is uncovered. For example: A wretched burglar is brought before a magistrate. The mirror is uncovered, and in its surface we see reflected the actions of the burglar, who, being thus found out, is led away by a policeman. Then hubby comes home under suspicion by his wife, who, uncovering the mirror, sees re-enacted before her the Bacchanalian orgy in which her faithless spouse recently took part. So she gets real mad and smashes up the happy home. Next we are shown a schoolroom interior and the head master asleep. A pupil puts a fool's cap on his head and plays other jokes on the sleeping master, who, when he wakes, tracks down the real culprit by means of the hypnotic mirror. So it goes. As we have said, this is a whimsical idea, and it received applause for its whimsicality. Of course, being a Gaumont, it is an excellent photograph. - The Moving Picture World, November 20, 1909
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