Jack

Villeneuve is the illegitimate child of Olga Demidoff. She sends him to a boarding school, then falls in love with one of his teachers, Phillippe Damores, a failed and self-involved poet. Eventually he insists on apprenticing Jack to a steel mill, but false accusations and low wages force him away; he becomes a stoker on a ship that is sunk. He returns home, weak and debilitated by drink, but friends of his childhood succor him. But Damores in his jealousy, wrecks even that.

It's derived from one of Alphonse Daudet's novels, and turns into just shy of an hour of suffering under the direction of Andre Liabel. Unfortunately, there's little in the performances to draw one into the movie. Villeneuve is not an expressive actor for the screen, and the constant barrage of details in an illustrated text format may serve to show the descriptive details of Daudet's story, but fail to reveal any of the subtext. If your idea of a good movie is to watch an innocent man suffer for others' sin, you may find this worthwhile; likewise, as an early French feature film, it has its place in the evolution of the form. But it has aged very poorly.

This is a four-part picture made by the Paris Eiclair Company, from the novel of Alphonse Daudet. The production does not make good entertainment for the average house. It will, of course, have greater interest for the comparative few who have read the book. The whole story is submerged in gloom; there is not a light, a sprightly touch throughout the length of the picture. There is a good cast, among the players being Mr. Liable and Miss Sylvaire. The death of Jack was painfully prolonged. - The Moving Picture World, December 20, 1913