Something to Think About

If you love classic movies, there's a very high likelihood you've seen Humphrey Bogart's classic film "High Sierra". In this story, a criminal falls for a disabled lady and he decides to use his ill-gotten gain to pay for some expensive operation which will make her better. So, that means even more robberies until one day he has enough. She gets the surgery...and soon falls for some other man!

I mentioned this plot because the plot to "Something to Think About" is very similar and came out two decades earlier. A disabled rich man takes an interest in the blacksmith's daughter, Ruth (Gloria Swanson), and agrees to pay for her to get a proper education. Three years later, she returns and her father assumes the two will be married. However, despite being very grateful, she falls for another guy and runs off...leaving a note to explain her decision to her father and the rich guy. How he handles this is the subject of much of the story.

Because it is a DeMille film, naturally religion is thrown into the mix. I doubt if DeMille was a particularly religious man, as his films often mixed religion with sex, but having a character telling the rich guy that God will take care of him is just the sort of message you'd expect from one of his films. And, like DeMille, the path the guy chooses is a nasty one!

In addition to the religious message, the film also has some very heavy-handed intertitle cards. This wasn't too unusual for the day. However, despite my complaints, I actually did like the film...much more than most DeMille films I've seen. The acting is amazingly restrained, the cinematography very lovely and the film ages much better than many of his other silents.