For the Son of the House

Mae Marsh refuses to submit to the caresses of her boss, so he throws her out of her job in the sweatshop. She's sitting in the park, looking through the Help Wanted ads, when a young man tries to pick her up. Fortunately a man of the cloth steps in and gets Miss Marsh a job as a maid. There, charming young Charles West excites her imagination. When she spots him breaking into her mother's safe to steal money to pay his gambling debts, she decides to take the blame.

I had spent the day looking at rather turgidly and stridently offered social dramas from Edison, so looking at this well acted, well shot, well edited little drama, as standard as it might be in basis was a great pleasure. Dell Henderson was not, of course, D.W. Griffith, but he clearly knew how to let his staff do their jobs, and to allow some humor to penetrate a ridiculous situation.

Sometimes you can get a very good movie just just by avoiding any clangers. Especially if your audience has been looking at bad prints of poor movies, as I was before this one.