Barriers Swept Aside (1915)

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Harry F. Millarde | Anna Q. Nilsson | Robert G. Vignola (Director)

Rest of cast:

Henry Hallam | John Mackin | Hamilton Smith (Writer)

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“Barriers Swept Aside”

Optimistic, pleasant story of divorce and remarriage — human adjustments are its theme (Kalem, two reels).

Reviewed by Hanford C. Judson.

There is no doubt at all that among pictures, the one that is human and pleasant and especially the one in which the spectator can find material for thought helping him in judging others and himself, is always the preferred one. Such an offering is this — ”Barriers Swept Aside,” a two-reel Kalem picture, written by Hamilton Smith and directed by Robert G. Vignola. Its theme is human adjustments. It opens with the divorce of two young people and shows how they found themselves and each other. A kindly old butler adds to the human value of the picture, although this character doesn’t enter prominently into the strictly dramatic action of the piece.

The producer of it is one who turns out remarkably even workmanship of high quality and, taken as a whole, this is amply noticeable in his latest picture. Yet one sees now and then a bit of typical, “picturey” over-registering of a point. The most apparent place is when Harry Millarde, who plays the young husband just divorced is reminded of former happiness by an old song lying on his piano. He had just had a party of rather riotous friends at the house and now has visions of his wife, and himself courting her. His passiveness during the visions and his clutch of feeling at its close do not, taken together, pull strongly as they ought at the heart strings; because the whole incident is “picturey.” Then the situation in the picture would have been made more convincing, if it had been stated why the woman who had divorced him on account of his drunkenness did not ask and get alimony. He is still rich while she has to make her living as a stenographer and for (a subtitle tells us) a pittance.

The story told is excellent and abundantly interesting. The story is the heart of the picture and makes it a good offering to the public. It is a picture that gets one interested and keeps him, not excited, but distinctly sympathetic till the close. Pretty Anna Nilsson [Anna Q. Nilsson], delicate and spirituelle, fits the role of the badly disappointed, but still loving wife. In her poverty-stricken hall bedroom in a boarding house, she prays for the good of her one-time husband who is living in luxury and selfishness. John E. Makin [John Mackin] plays the butler who tries to keep his employer as straight as possible and is full of joy when the wife comes back to the home. Henry Hallam has the role of a rude and vulgar employer of the girl. There are many perfectly staged and beautiful scenes in the picture and from the very first one is delighted with the life-like, perfect photography.

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Scene from Barriers Swept Aside (Kalem).

Collection: Moving Picture World, February 1915