The Unwritten Law

Elaine Hammerstein is Charles Clary's secretary which, she has to remind him frequently, is a business relationship. She and fellow employee Forrest Stanley are in love, and she has father William Mong to take care of. He's lost all his money in speculations. Clary develops an elaborate scheme to get Miss Hammerstein. He sends Stanley down to Mexico, and has their correspondence intercepted, and forges a telegram to Stanley in Miss Hammerstein's name that it's all over. He also sets up a scheme to have Mong unwittingly forge a check; and finally, he has a story planted in the newspaper that Stanley was killed fighting over a cantina girl.

It's an elaborate version of some old-timey melodrama that doesn't show much originality until the final ten minutes. On the other hand, the actors are all good -- Miss Hammerstein is excellent as well as beautiful --and despite camerawork by Frank B. Good that is 90% still takes, there are signs of being willing to spend money in this early Columbia feature; a sequence in which an airplane catches fire and plunges into the sea is well shot, and the print is enhanced by parts of the frame being hand-colored (for those of you unfamiliar with the technique, it's called "handschlegel"). The presentation is enhanced by a good score by David Drazin and, in the dvd edition that Ed Lorusso funded via Kickstarter -- he's done about two dozen of them -- there's a short subject from 1910 starring Florence Turner.

Elaine Hammerstein is largely forgotten, but she was a significant performer from 1915-1926, appearing in almost 50 films. She was also the cousin of Oscar Hammerstein II. She died in an auto accident with her husband in 1948, 54 years old.

Helen (Elaine Hammerstein) loves Jack (Forrest Stanley), but their jealous boss sends him to Mexico on a wild goose chase so he can chase Helen.

Meanwhile, the boss tricks Helen's silly old father into a stock scheme that forces the old fool into forging a check.

The boss then produces some fake telegrams that claim Jack has been killed. He then coerces Helen into marriage even though she tells him she respects him but could never love him.

Jack makes his way back to Chicago and confronts the lying boss at his lavish estate, but when the boss ends up shot to death, who will the police arrest?

Handsome production from Columbia includes impressive sets and even a airplane sequence with Handschiegl (a hand coloring technique).

Stars Hammerstein and Stanley are good. Charles Clary plays the boss, Mary Alden the housekeeper, Johnny Fox the office boy, and William V. Mong the old father.