Back of the Shadows (1915)

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Fritzi Brunette | Edward Alexander | William Robert Daly (Director | Scenario)

Rest of cast:

Jack Prescott

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”Back of the Shadows”

Santa Barbara two-reel production which has something to say on the evils of the opium habit.

Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald.

In the search for subjects suitable for melodramatic development in film the evil of the dope habit evolves itself into one which is possible in the matter of obtaining startling effects. And if handled properly it serves more than a merely commercial purpose, for rarely, if ever, has a picture treating of this subject failed to present it in a revolting form, thereby serving as a warning against possible temptation.

William Robert Daly has produced this picture with Fritzi Brunette. Edward Alexander and Jack Prescott playing the principal roles. The story which is partly in dream form, a fact which has been very cleverly kept from the audience until close to the finish of the picture, is a good one; and it is somewhat of a relief to find that the unpleasant and rather gruesome facts presented are in most part the conception of a dream. In the production Fritzi Brunette has ample opportunity for the display of her gifts of dramatic interpretation, portraying, as she does, three distinct periods of a woman’s life.

At the opening of the story Doctor Alexander and his wife, with their child of four or five years, are living happily. One day a dope-fiend entering the house finds his way to the room of the Chinese cook, and left alone with some opium and a pipe, he falls asleep and the bed takes fire. Here a timely criticism might be offered, for the doctor and his wife, rushing to the scene, carry the man downstairs to safety before making any attempt to extinguish the flames, after which the fire is easily dampened and smothered out.

In the Chinaman’s room the doctor, of course, discovers the drug, and carrying it downstairs places it carelessly on his library table, where it attracts the attention of his wife, who smells it, tastes it, and finally eats it, with the result that later she is found lying unconscious on the floor.

Just where reality ends and the dream commences is somewhat of a problem, but, however, the wife forgiven by her husband and started off on the right road again, evidently dreams of the vengeance of the Chinaman through which she is lured by means of the drug to an opium den prescribed to be exclusively for women.

Here, of course, she enters the clutches of an evil gang of Chinamen, and closely following the happening in the den, she is pictured to be, years later, an outcast from the place, finally ending in prison scarcely recognizable as her former self.

Then the dream merges again into reality, after being accidentally located in prison by a grown-up edition of her little daughter, and we are glad, indeed, to come suddenly face to face with the fact that it was all a dream.

The production is not by any means without its faults, but unlike many others that could be named, it at least lives up to its title, and is not easily forgotten. It will be released through the Kriterion Service.

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Scene from Back of the Shadows (Kriterion).

Collection: Moving Picture World, March 1915