The Better Man (1914) 🇫🇷

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Laurent Morléas | Georges-André Lacroix (Director) | Maurice Mariaud (Director)

Rest of cast:

Paul Manson | Yvonne Mario | Jeanne Marie-Laurent | René Kessler

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“The Better Man”

Gaumont three-part subject.

Reviewed by George Blaisdell.

It is the work of Mr. Manson, in the role of Paul Loisel, the president of a rubber company, that gives the chief charm to this picture. It is a story made interesting more by the art of the actors than through any great strength in the story. There are times when the dialogue seems prolonged, and we wish we could hear what the persons on the screen are saying. It is at these times that Mr. Manson carries over and sustains the interest where in the hands of a less skillful actor it would flag. He is measurably assisted by Mr. Morlas, a player with individuality, who sustains the role of the ex-soldier turned burglar, and who is given a chance to make good when he is detected by Loisel.

Loisel is president of a rubber company holding concessions in the Congo country. The board of directors has called for a statement of accounts. Loisel feels that he is responsible for the desperate financial condition of the company, which is due to a small yield from a limited number of trees. About to commit suicide, he discovers a burglar entering the room. The intruder, trapped, tells his story. An ex-soldier, he knows the rubber country. He informs Loisel that a short distance above his present property there is an abundance of rubber. Loisel compels Stevenson to sign a declaration confessing his attempted theft. Stevenson quietly puts in his pocket Loisel’s suicide note. Stevenson is taken before the board of directors and given a chance to go to the rubber country, where he is successful.

On his return he meets the daughter of Loisel. The two fall in love. This unexpected outcome of the introduction of Stevenson into his employer’s home upsets the plans of Loisel, who had intended another husband for his daughter. Loisel, when Ford, the man to whom the father had promised his daughter, becomes insistent for a public declaration of the engagement, demands that Stevenson cease his attentions. Upon his refusal, he flashes the confession of theft. Stevenson, with great deliberation, calls to the attention of Loisel the suicide note, the existence of which had been forgotten. Then the younger man, apparently out of gratitude to his employer for the chance he had given him, destroys the paper which placed Loisel in his power. Loisel, humbled, admits Stevenson the better man; he destroys the confession and publicly puts the hand of his daughter into that of Stevenson.

There are strong situations. One of these is of the entrance of the burglar into the home of Loisel, and the long colloquy between the two men. Another is where the two men confront each other with their incriminating papers. There are good ensembles, as, for instance, at the reception. The board of directors look their parts. The interior sets, of which, by the way, the picture is nearly all composed, are carefully, and at times elaborately designed.

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Scene from The Better Man (Gaumont)

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Collection: Moving Picture World, March 1914