Her Menacing Past (1915)
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Mignon Anderson | J. Morris Foster | Philip Lonergan (Story)
Rest of cast:
Jane Fairbanks
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“Her Menacing Past”
A two-reel Thanhouser which presents an interesting psychological problem with a melodramatic development.
Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald.
It has been frequently asserted that subjects of psychological interest are unsuited to screen production, for the reason that they are difficult to demonstrate clearly. Time has proved the reverse, however, and the ambitious director turns today with considerable ardor to this class of play as a vehicle in which to display his ability to secure startling effects.
Her Menacing Past, a two-reel melodrama of the class referred to, was written by Philip Lonergan, and produced in splendid style at the Thanhouser studio. Mignon Anderson as the young woman who, as an accomplice of her father in burglary, meets with an accident which obliterates her memory of the past, recovering to become an interesting and interested member of polite society, acquits herself more than ordinarily well. The role is a difficult one to play, presenting as it does at least four distinct psychological stages, all of which have been handled intelligently by her.
To the ordinary observer the handling of the burglary scenes will afford considerable pleasure. The production is brimful of action, and has been handled in fine melodramatic style without being lurid or inconsistent.
The picture has a big appeal at the point where the girl, who after her accident in a run from the police, is cared for by a young doctor and his mother, meets with another accident through a fall from a horse, is restored to a memory of her former life, and predominated by a desire to return to former associations, steals away from the home of the young doctor, now her husband. The close of the picture seeks to prove the power of good environment, in presenting the young woman again face to face with the influences of the past, yielding to the power of the new environment with which she has been surrounded since her separation from her father, and the love of her husband, and returning to brighten his life and to continue the second and best chapter of her own life.
Morris Foster also appears to good advantage in this picture which was released on Jan. 5th.
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Scene from Her Menacing Past (Thanhouser)
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Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915