Kindling

1915 was the year that Cecil Demille came into his own as a film maker and he turned out a bunch of movies that year. They ranged in quality from good programmers to great. Except for one issue, this could have been great. Instead it is merely pretty good.

Charlotte Walker and Thomas Meighan are married and living in the worst slum in their city. She is pregnant, but can't tell him because this, he tells her, is no place to raise children She gets a job as a seamstress and, through a series of events gets hooked up into a robbery.

Visually this is a brilliant piece of film making. Demille and his cinematographer, Alvin Wyckoff, show you a slum with babies dying with flies on them, children eating out of garbage cans and filth on the street that would not be approached on the American screen until von Sternberg shot DOCKS OF NEW YORK. Tommy Meighan does his usual fine job, the supporting cast is more than competent and the plot, while melodramatic, makes sense and it's character and circumstances that drive the story, instead of having the plot mechanically drive the characters.

Were these the only items of note, I would give this my highest recommendation. Unfortunately, Charlotte Walker is bad. She is very bad, overacting up a storm and looking like she wants to convince everyone she is miserable by gesture, rather than acting.

She doesn't wreck the movie, which simply indicates how strong the other points are. In fact, it is quite watchable, makes some nice points as a social drama as well as a personal one. But I do wish Demille could have gotten a better actress.

I have noticed that when the 34 year old Cecil B. DeMille adapts a play into a film like this one, he distorts the textuality of the piece. Characters are changed or relegated for commercial purposes. What audiences are willing to read they are not willing to watch on screen.