The Bond of Friendship (1915)
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Dorothy Davenport | Lee Hill | Donald MacDonald (Director)
Rest of cast:
Ben Horning | Rupert Julian | Anthony Coldeway (Writer)
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“The Bond of Friendship”
Two-part Alhambra in which a dream opens the door to realization and prevents a broken friendship.
Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald
In spite of the fact that one or two points of this production may be open to criticism, it is an exceedingly attractive one, and revels in the joys of careful staging. Donald MacDonald has directed the making of the picture, which, along with others from the hand of this competent producer, tends to emphasize the fact that an evenness of quality from him may be depended upon. In the whole production there is but one missing link, and that is a rather insignificant one. This occurs in the dream portion of the picture when a telephone message is received by the husband telling him of the intended elopement of his wife with his friend, previous to apprising the audience of the fact, or signifying the location of the couple.
Dorothy Davenport and Rupert Julian play opposite one another, with Lee Hill and Benjamin Horning [Ben Horning] closely associated. The opening of the story is placed amid western surroundings, and contains a thrilling incident, where the young woman of the story falls over a cliff, and in the attempt of her two admirers to rescue her, one of them seeing that the rope to which they both cling is about to break, sacrificially allows himself to drop a great height in order to exclude the other from an even worse fate. He is picked up unconscious, and during the convalescence of the woman and the man, placed always near one another, the way is paved for a matrimonial union, which afterwards proves unhappy through the neglectful attitude of the husband. At this point of the story, and during a visit from the unsuccessful suitor, a dream which takes place, while his wife and friend are at the theater, where he has lazily refused to accompany them, awakens him to the danger in which he has placed his matrimonial craft, and tends to strengthen the bond of friendship between the two men.
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Scene from The Bond of Friendship (Alhambra).
Collection: Moving Picture World, March 1915