The First Degree

Frank Mayo rushes into the grand jury and confesses to having killed his half-brother, Philo McCullough, who has threatened to kill anyone who dares to marry Sylvia Breamer -- who is wed to Mayo -- and blackmail him with exposure of his criminal past. Nonetheless, Mayo insists it was an accident. The prologue being complete, we enter the body of the movie.

This was a recent premiere on Turner Classic Movies, and it's in remarkably good condition for its age. The presentation was excellent, although I think it was projected just a tad too slow. The reason it wasn't shown earlier is that for most of the last century, it was considered lost, until an archivist was going through some agricultural movies and discovered it there. And so we have it once again, a watchable little programmer from Universal with a nice twist ending.

The story is quite a good one. The villain is a brother in law who decides if he can't get the girl, he will punish the man she loves--his half brother. He is a heroic man who foils some bank robbers and then gets arrested for the crime--on the say so of said brother-in-law. He is sent to prison. He starts up again and is running for office, when the brother in law shows up an discredits him. In an endless fight the bad guy is supposedly killed and our hero thinks he is being arrested for it. Filled with guilt, he confesses, telling everything that has happened to him. But there is a twist at the end. I got caught up in this because the villain was so bad and I wanted the man to come out on top. Nicely restored film. I agree, the music is throbbing and doesn't do justice to this silent film.

A more than decent silent film was ruined by a horrible musical score. Doesn't fit the period or silent film at all. I took a point off just for that. I can even forgive the too tidy predictable ending but the music is unforgivable.

The acting was good and the lead actor did a great job not over doing it which could have easily happened. The actor playing his half brother could have done a better job though.

There were a couple really done well film sequences. Nothing new or ground breaking even for the time, but good elements for such a lost film in any case.

It's short and none of the time is wasted. Totally worth the viewing.

Thank goodness for private film collections.

This is a film long thought lost. Anybody interested in its discovery is encouraged to read about it on the Chicago Film Archive site, dated August 3, 2020, so I won't repeat the details.

The movie concerns two brothers, one good-for-nothing blackmailing the virtuous one, because they both love the same gorgeous dame.

Sylvia Beamer is the love interest and she's definitely worth dying for.

Frank Mayo effectively portrays psychological torment so he had me along for the entire ride.

CFA not only brought this film back from the dead, they commissioned a score by Quasar Wut-Wut. They contributed a fresh, contemporary soundtrack that add a kinetic propulsion to the images.

All in all, a rousing film.

Thank you, TCM, for showing it.