The Stain (1914)

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Edward José | Thurlow Bergen | Frank Powell (Director)

Rest of cast:

Virginia Pearson | Eleanor Woodruff | Sam J. Ryan | Theda Bara | Creighton Hale | Robert Hobart Davis (Author) | Forrest Halsey (Author)

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“The Stain”

A six-part Eclectic subject dealing with love, law and politics in modern America.

Reviewed by W. Stephen Bush.

This feature represents a most ambitious effort to film a story of contemporaneous American life. It is American-made. On the whole, it is an acceptable offering. There are many very powerful and affecting scenes; there is much masterly acting; great skill has been shown in the selection of the types; there are flashes of the best art in directing. The method of spicing the drama with trivial comic incidents is taking a leaf from the book of life itself, in which the comic and the serious chapters are always mixed. These deft touches of humor are not only amusing in themselves, but they serve to relieve the tragic intensity and the overflowing pathos of many a scene which would otherwise prove too severe a strain on the ever-sympathetic heart.

The story is uncommonly strong and sustains the interest of the spectator from first to last. A man of parts and with high ambitions chafes at the pettiness of his employment, and at the limits it imposes on his desire to rise. He is a clerical drudge at a bank. He is tempted to steal a large sum of money. He makes himself believe that with the money he can realize his social and political aspirations. He reveals his plan to his wife. The wife implores him for his own sake and for the sake of their little child to give up his criminal plan. He ignores the pleadings of the wife and runs away with the money. In a distant city he is admitted to the bar and then rises to great heights in political life, partly through his own talents and partly through his subservience to the dominant political boss. This political boss is one of the striking figures in the play, a veritable type of our politics, rich, uncouth, unscrupulous, masterful and somewhat cynical. The part was taken by Mr. Samuel Ryan, and it may be set down as a most creditable performance. The part of the fugitive from justice, who, under a new name, becomes one of the prominent figures in his new home, was deserving of praise, as taken by Mr. Edward Jose. In his character as a judge and a candidate for governor he gave true and powerful renderings.

To continue the story. The judge is opposed in political life by a public-spirited young attorney named Norris, splendidly impersonated by Thurlow Bergen. The wife of the fugitive has been reported dead in the newspapers, and the judge, thinking himself free, marries the daughter of the boss. The daughter of the fugitive has been raised by sisters in charge of an orphanage and has become separated from her mother. She becomes the secretary of the reforming lawyer. It is shown in the films that she inherits the thieving instincts of her father. She resists these instincts bravely, but seeing a shining jewel in a store where she had gone to buy a present for her employer she is overpowered by temptation and steals it. She is arrested and released on bail. At the trial her mother appears, the daughter having, by a fortunate accident, found her mother again. The mother is called to testify that her husband and the girl’s father had stolen a large sum of money and that the girl inherited her disposition to steal from her father. The climax comes when the mother recognizes in the man on the bench her runaway husband and denounces him in open court. The man is stricken with heart failure and dies. The happy ending may be guessed.

The parts of mother and daughter were taken respectively by Eleanor Woodruff and Virginia Person and unstinted praise must be given to the two of them. Each was most acceptable in her own part. Miss Person showed flashes of a high order of acting in the scene when she sought to resist the temptation to steal her employer’s money.

It is a pity that with so much high quality running all through the films there are some crudities and incongruities which could easily have been avoided. It was never explained how the wife of the fugitive came to be in the distant city to which the latter had fled. Plain probability was offended in the scene where the police sergeant is shown telephoning to the boss and assuring him of his zeal on behalf of his schemes right in the presence of a crowd, including a reporter. Hereditary influence is no defense to the crime of larceny. Besides no habitual crime is sought to be shown — the father committed only one act of larceny. There are other slighter imperfections which might also have been avoided.

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Scene from The Stain (Eclectic)

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Collection: Moving Picture World, June 1914