For the Soul of Rafael

Clara Kimball Young was a capable actress who could perform in farce or melodrama -- her TRILBY is still quite watchable -- but she all too often found herself cast in melodramatic tripe. This is an example of her worst.

This is not to imply that there weren't people trying. DP Arthur Edeson shot some beautiful stuff for this movie, and the wedding scenes are gorgeous. Nor was money spared for sets, costumes or beautiful locations. But a script that holds that you can tell good people because they are miserable and make everyone around them miserable, that telegraphs every plot twist and which depends entirely on titles for plot advancement does not make for a good movie. Nor do any of the directing choices, in which the actors do bad Duse imitations and there is no sign of movement or, indeed, much life at all -- take a look at the party scenes in which people stand around doing exactly the same thing over and over -- do not help.

In short, this is a horrid movie. If it were not such a good print and the photography occasionally quite good, I wouldn't even give it a two out of ten.