User reviews

Fortunately for "The Man Who Took a Chance," a five-reel Bluebird photoplay, in which Franklyn Farnum is the central figure, the story need not be taken seriously. It relates the adventures of a young chap who falls in love with a girl's photograph, meets the original and is made the subject of a scheme to test his courage. The heroine's mother has a weakness for titles and the hero passes himself off as an English nobleman; hence the girl's reason for testing his fighting blood. Ranch life and glimpses of the better grade of western society are mingled throughout the picture. During the test the action becomes strenuous, but, for the most part, more attention has been paid to developing bits of quiet humor than to keeping the story moving ahead with any noticeable degree of speed. William Worthington, the director in charge, has been consistent to the material at hand, and a number of the scenes have much pictorial merit. Many screen patrons will find the picture fairly entertaining. Franklyn Farnum enters into the spirit of his part as if he enjoyed playing it, and makes the young fellow who wins the heiress an ingenuous mortal who is easily excused for not suspecting that his fight with the cowboys is a put-up job. Agnes Vernon offers sufficient reason for her admirer's infatuation, and Lloyd Whitlock, Countess du Cello, Marc Fenton, Charles Perley and Arthur Hoyt give a good account of their several allotments. – The Moving Picture World, February 17, 1917