The fine cast is what makes this simple drama of romantic relationships worth seeing. Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Harry Carey (looking quite young and skinny) would make any movie worth seeing, but here it is actually Henry B. Walthall who grabs the spotlight with a charismatic and interesting performance.
The story has Pickford as an orphan, now a young woman, who has grown up as the darling of a gold mining town. As her beau, Walthall has a role a little less one-dimensional than many of his roles from the era. As his character's name implies, Dandy Jack is an attention-getting, slightly self-absorbed figure. Walthall fleshes out the character quite well, making him much more than a mere caricature of the type, solely through small gestures and expressions.
The rest of the fine cast also does well. There's actually very little to the story, and so the characters really have to carry the movie, along with a slight boost from the setting in and around mining settlements, which is interesting but not particularly detailed.
The story has Pickford as an orphan, now a young woman, who has grown up as the darling of a gold mining town. As her beau, Walthall has a role a little less one-dimensional than many of his roles from the era. As his character's name implies, Dandy Jack is an attention-getting, slightly self-absorbed figure. Walthall fleshes out the character quite well, making him much more than a mere caricature of the type, solely through small gestures and expressions.
The rest of the fine cast also does well. There's actually very little to the story, and so the characters really have to carry the movie, along with a slight boost from the setting in and around mining settlements, which is interesting but not particularly detailed.