A picture made unusually interesting by Norman MacDonald's strong portrayal of a vindictive old miser. This old man tries to get his enemy's son convicted of murdering him. He sets his trap well, even making a will in the man's favor to provide a motive, and setting one of his cottages on fire, as though to cover the crime. Then he keeps in hiding, but is discovered just before the execution. The Selig people some time ago used this same character and situation, which came perhaps from a popular detective story, but their picture didn't equal this this on account of Essanay's old miser. The Selig picture was, however, better conducted. This story is clear only as to its main thread; some of its subordinate things are not understood. Because of this, and because the producer conducted the picture as a detective story, inasmuch as he kept at every step the outcome hidden as much as possible, although the detective was not the hero, he failed to get at certain points the feeling of suspense that was desirable. He didn't explain enough to awaken expectation. In a detective story the audience's opinion of the detective's brain power furnishes this. We didn't know much about the detective in this case, and were not made interested in his part of the work. We were left merely guessing, not expecting anything. It is always the little things that make for suspense. The unexpected things have legitimate use in pictures, but in another way. Francis X. Bushman plays the youth suspected of murder. Also in the cast are Harry Cashman, Beverly Bayne, Mildred Weston and Helen Dunbar. - The Moving Picture World, December 14, 1912
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