Sawdust and Salome

This is a very crudely written and edited one reeler - continuity is extremely abrupt and often confusing as to motivations. The hero, if you can call him that, is tired of his mother and sister trying to marry him into society. So tired is he that he induces his father to send him west to one of his mines. There he meets a young circus entertainer, falls in love, marries and brings his bride home, where she is immediately shunned by his family as "a woman who once wore tights." How that society world proves itself two-faced with double standards is the narrative of the film. Norma does well as the young bride. This was one of 25 films she made in 1914. The film lasts a little longer than the conventional 10 minutes of a one reeler - 12 minutes in fact. The DVD print is a little fuzzy, but otherwise in good condition.

A love story of well defined type that will please. Its heroine (Norma Talmadge) is a clean-hearted circus performer who, as bride of the son of social climbers (Leo Delaney, too old for this part), is not acceptable to her "in-laws." It is shown that the girl, whom the man's parents wanted him to marry, dances a Salome whirl at a ball. The man finds his young wife, who has been snubbed, about to run away to the clean sawdust and, looking back at Salome, decides to go with her. Of its situations, half are fresh and half are old. It is well made, clear and will be counted a good entertainment. - The Moving Picture World, February 28, 1914