The Curious Conduct of Judge Legarde

The picture is unusual in the treatment of the dual personality theme, and still more out of the ordinary in its physical aspects. Street scenes at night were made in a studio for the purpose of getting novel effects in which the light values are correct, and in other respects the cameraman displayed a quite daring ingenuity rewarded by success, for photographically the film is notable. Time and again the dramatic worth of incidents in the story is appreciably strengthened by the artistic quality of the scenes, toned and tinted with evident care. The story opens with a capitally realistic court trial, serving to bring out the argument on which the drama is based, or rather showing how Judge Legrande refuses to countenance the plea of a dual personality, one good the other evil, offered in defense of a young woman accused of crime. Knocked down by an automobile, the judge is so deranged that he leads a double life, remaining an upright citizen by day and becoming a thief and a gangster at night. His unconscious shifting from good to evil, the dovetailing of the life of the judge and the gang leader, with its limitless possibilities for dramatic complications, is made interesting. Needless to say, there is an abundance of action in a story of this description, the better for the scientific foundation explained in the sub-titles, some of them direct quotations from a treatise on dual personality. In both phases of Legrande's character, Mr. Barrymore acts with authority and power, delightfully free from unnecessary exaggerations. - The Moving Picture World, April 10, 1915