This 1918 feature tells the story of a minister (Crane Wilbur, a name well known to exploitation and b-movie fans for his later writing and directing jobs) who has vowed to fight the influence of THE WEB, a nightclub that seems tame to today's eyes, but that is seen as a den of vice and a corrupter of young women. The first five minutes of the film introduce the major characters and we learn that Wilbur lost his true love long ago while in college, where he was a star football player. We then are given some flashback scenes of the girl posing for the camera and then of Wilbur's college days and how he lost her. The film then connects back to the present and tells the story of The Web's owner, a rich patriarch who lives outside the city and outside the influence of the reach of "the web" of vice he has created. One or two cards during the film mention financial and political influence of The Web, but these points are never developed (in the print I have, which is 35 minutes long. I have a feeling that the original film was longer, but have no way of knowing). Two thoughts came to my mind while watching this. First, how it resembles the classic exploitation films of the 1930s, but with less emphasis on the actual sleaze, more on the moral-ism and lectures (one sermon is given, and large chunks of it are provided to us on cards). Second, I'm reminded of two Spencer Williams films of the early 1940s: the use of superimposed images of devils and angels (and other visuals) reminds me of THE BLOOD OF Jesus, and the way the showgirls are brought to the reverend reminds me of GO DOWN DEATH (although, unlike the "fly girls" in that film, the girls working for The Web do not try to seduce the Reverend, they just disrupt his service). As Crane Wilbur himself, star of this film, later made a number of exploitation films as writer and/or director, he obviously remembered a bit about this film, although to its credit, THE FINGER OF JUSTICE provides absolutely NO titillation or depiction of any sleaze the way later exploitation films did. Overall, a film of some historic interest and one that will satisfy followers of old-time melodrama. Also, as this was made right around the period when Prohibition became law, it might give some insight into the world-view of the forces that supported Prohibition (it was produced by an actual minister!).
