A Romance of the Ice Fields

A picture that seems to have reached far for a terribly thrilling climax, so far indeed that the effect is almost as though it had failed to get it. The hero actor had to jump into icy waters of a swift- flowing river that is carrying thick ice and to do this at the very lip of what seems to be a dangerous fall. There was a rope strung across; but he ran some danger of missing this. As far as we can discover there is no great demand for such risks. In this case, the attention is taken away from the story, as a story, and given wholly to the actor's real action at the making of the picture. The highest art would not permit our minds to lose the story thus; it would shun doing so. This was the more marked because the incident that set the hero on a cake of ice was not at all convincing. If a thrill alone is wanted, this climax gives it. The story is not fresh or strong. As a picture of the ice harvesting, it is very good; for the photographs are excellent. - The Moving Picture World, June 1, 1912