The Vow

In "The Vow," S.B.V. Taylor has made a picture dealing with a Kentucky feud that has much to recommend it. Marion Leonard does very well as the woman of the mountains, there is continuous action and the plot offers occasional surprises. The Broadway Film Company will release the film in four parts. Mr. Taylor's construction of the story is rather odd after the exposition in the first reel, which ends with a tragedy. The husband of the young woman is shot by a rejected suitor and sh« is left with an infant boy, who is to be spared until he reaches man's estate. Standing over the dead body of her husband she vows vengeance. There is nothing at all unusual in this, but with a lapse of years and the placing of the widow in fashionable New York society, director Taylor makes a sharp change in the method of developing his story. The grown boy's inquiries about the place of his birth, his request to visit the Kentucky mountains and his unconscious handling of a gun, stir a chain of thoughts in the mind of the mother, who visualizes with quite extraordinary detail what might happen were they to return. The visions of the feud continued, and the life of her son jeopardized, alternate with scenes of revelry at the entertainment being given in her home. For a climax, we learn that one of the professional dancers is none other than the man who shot her husband. Granting this coincidence it is not unlikely that the vow of vengeance should be accidentally fulfilled. A gun is dropped on the floor, the trigger catches on the fender and the discharged bullet ends the career of the murderer. In holding the attention, the picture serves its purpose. Settings are attractive and photographically the film is very good. - The Moving Picture World, April 10, 1915