Sold at Auction

The troubles of the heroine in "Sold at Auction," a five-reel photoplay produced for Pathé by the Horkheimers, are sufficient to crush an ordinary woman completely. Her father discovers the infidelity of the child's mother and gives the little girl over to the care of others. She is brought up as a servant, told at eighteen that she has mulatto blood in her veins, and falls into the hands of a female white slaver who puts her up at auction, her own father outbidding the rest of the men. He learns the truth in time, and the unfortunate girl sees a prospect of happiness with a young reporter that has fallen in love with her. There is very little that is uplifting in such a story. The auction episode has not been made unduly offensive, and the producers have treated the entire drama with restraint, but the subject is unpleasant in spite of its dramatic value. Lois Meredith is appealing as the badly treated Nan, and William Conklin carries out the author's conception of her contemptible father. Frank Mayo, Marguerite Nichols, Charles Dudley and Lucy Blake round out a competent cast. – The Moving Picture World, February 10, 1917