His Mother's Hope

A picture that manages to make clear the subtle methods of mental activity, and most dramatically. The first few scenes lacked plausibility; they were conventional and poor. They show how a mother and father lost their only son. The mother dies, but asks to have the boy's room kept just as it was. When the actual story opens the boy, not knowing who he is, has grown up, is married, has a son of his own, and is out of work and in despair. He burglarizes his father's house and is caught. From this point the action leads to a mutual recognition. It is not done suddenly or crudely, but step by step, through mental association, faint impressions at first grow naturally, and by what they are fed on into convincing memories. In making the development from misty ideas to palpable fact real to the audience, the producer deserves high commendation. We don't think it could be made clear to the gallery; we are sure it was over the heads of some in the audience, but to the imaginative it was like food and drink. George Lessey, as the father, and Barry O'Moore, as the son, bear the burden of the work, but Bessie Learn helps a good deal. Gertrude McCoy plays the mother; Louise Sydmth, a governess; Marty Fuller and William Porter play the two boys. - The Moving Picture World, December 21, 1912