As a feature film this is a bust. As a vignette showing the ugly and vicious pointlessness and waste of war, this is excellent.
"Their One Love" is another little gem from Thanhouser, populated by good actors and, for its brevity, a remarkable battle scene worthy of a big studio and big budget.
To repeat, there is not really a story, just a brief side-light of what can happen to people who get caught up in the stupidity and viciousness of governments and their wars.
Otherwise decent people somehow get fooled into thinking that dying or, far worse, killing for a government, though often called "my country," is a moral and rational act.
Here two young girls -- actually about 15 when "Their One Love" was made -- are in love with the same young man, who is going off as an officer to invade the South, and how they deal with being competitors for his love is part of the premise.
The Fairbanks Twins were very lovely and talented young women. Madeline had about 47 credits and Marion 50 by 1929 when their film careers apparently ended.
They and Thanhouser studios have almost faded from knowledge but bits and pieces of that wonderful motion picture history is slowly being recovered.
"Their One Love" is available in a very good-looking print at YouTube but with a really lousy, terrible, stinking sound track added by someone who had no idea what a score for a silent film should sound like.
I muted the sound so I could pay attention to this otherwise excellent, though brief, vignette. I do highly recommend it.
