Washington Irving's famous legend, made so by Joseph Jefferson, has been filmed, and will make a valuable addition to the available list of school subjects. The story covers two reels. It follows more the lines of the play than those of the book, but it is to be regretted that old dog Wolf is omitted from the film. The first scene is of the village tavern; on a board in the background is conspicuously posted "Rip's score." Rip is being plied with drink by the wily tavernkeeper, and between steins he plays with the children, the same old, lighthearted, good-for-nothing, who will work for everybody hut himself, laid down in the book. When Rip returns to his home he finds Dame Van Winkle in one of her choicest fits of rage. The lightning shows at the window when the gale blows the shutter ajar. The two young Van Winkles are watching their father as he caresses their mother and tries stealthily to abstract the maternal purse from the pocket of the ample apron. Detected, repulsed, and enjoined to "Get out and don't come back!" Rip goes out into the black storm. Dame Van Winkle repents, but her calls fail to reach the ears of Rip. The second reel opens with Rip in the mountains, carrying his long-barreled gun. This weapon, by the way, is not a flintlock; it is a percussion-cap affair, an invention of many years following Rip's ante-Revolutionary days. We see the runtlike, elflike, bewhiskered bowlers at play; they induce Rip to "take something," which, as always, was not difficult, and Rip sleeps. The awakening of the sleeper and his return to the village, his stop at the tavern and the scenes at his home, where he is reunited with his family, his once sharp-tongued wife now as meek as formerly she was vitriolic, and the ejection of the master of the house ad interim, are all well done. - The Moving Picture World, July 6, 1912
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