The Photograph and the Blotter

A very well-made picture of a rather weak story. It uses expedients a bit too old to be truly effective, but its weakest link is the unwarranted suspicion of the boss who finds his business secrets betrayed. The first question a normal mind is likely to ask when a crime has been committed is concerning the motive. The boss suspects the clerk who is going to be his son-in-law, and who could hardly have had a motive, since it was plain that the secret plans were not offered for money. The spectator is apt to be out of sympathy with so baseless a suspicion. The acting gives now and then many delightful things, but is at all times comfortably natural and intelligent. Edna Flugrath plays the heroine; Robert Brower, her father; Mrs. Wallace Erskine, her mother, and Harry Beaumont, her fiancé. On the other side of the picture is Barry O'Moore, a clerk in her father's office, who photographs a plan (this is one of the picture's good scenes) and sends it to the firm's competitor. It was produced by George Lessey. The photography is perfect. - The Moving Picture World, March 15, 1913