The Awakening

The skillful playing and the personality of Lillian Leighton, who is both author and leading player of this picture, are the chief factors in making it what it undoubtedly is, an interesting and substantially human offering. The situation has been pictured many times. The husband and wife have brought up a family in poverty. They suddenly grow rich. The husband finds more attractive companions than his motherly wife, who remains a stay-at-home. A friend advises her to get some pretty dresses and the husband awakens to the fact that she is herself very attractive. The attentions paid to her by other men show him this. The backgrounds chosen are interesting, but without the deep human interest that comes almost wholly from the role of Lillian Leighton, as she plays it. It would have been merely a sermon-like discussion of the situation. It is a human picture that will move many hearts and will, we feel sure, please widely. Frank Weed plays the father; the dancer is Francis Mason. - The Moving Picture World, November 9, 1912