Silent Heroes

Tom Chatterton is called a coward because he will not enlist in the Home Guard during the Civil War -- his mother is dying and he does not wish to leave while she is still alive. When she dies and the Yankees attack, he seizes command of the Home Guard and leads them to victory, proving himself a hero and dying in the process.

Although Thomas Ince is often compared to D.W. Griffith, he was actually a producer who invented the factory system for Hollywood. While Griffith, for example, allowed his actors to choose their own costumes, Ince assigned a costume supervisor. As a result his productions maintained a higher quality without reaching the heights of other, more idiosyncratic directors. In this one, the actors are not as good as in a D.W. Griffith picture, nor does the battle scene offer a unified sequence of events. Yet the individual scenes are stronger for the detail work that the production staff achieved. Notice the scene in which Tom is dying: the clearly differentiated costumes make clear each role in the tableau.

While not entirely original in plot, this two-reel number rouses one's blood and proves very entertaining. Tom stays at home with his dying mother when the war breaks out and is considered a coward. After her death, which was too long and painful in coming, he goes out to fight in earnest. He heads the Home Guards in time of battle and brings victory at the cost of his own life, but his name has been cleared of the charge of cowardice. Our preference would have been for a happier ending. A good lesson in patriotism. - The Moving Picture World, September 27, 1913