One or two pretty scenes, one or two passages where the acting of the heroine is charming, will hardly keep this picture from being a failure. With the exception of the heroine, her mother and perhaps her girlfriend, the characters are not very well chosen. The rural characters, the girl's father and men of the village, are with no exception plainly artificial. The story is commonplace. The country hero in the city forgets his first love; but when the city girl, who was engaged to him, scorns him, he comes back to his first love, comes to her in the attitude of a real hero bark from the wars. The song that reminded him of this first love isn't worth putting into a picture play. This song, when the man sings it again to the heroine, recalls to her senses, for she had gone mad. When she realizes things again, she falls into his arms. - The Moving Picture World, August 19, 1911
2 Reviews
Mary Pickford and King Baggot Lost Silent Film
PamelaShort28 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
The Call of the Song was produced by the Independent Moving Pictures Company and featured Mary Pickford. As with many of Pickford's films from the IMP company, this 1911 drama is presumed lost. The only information I could find is from an original advertisement for this film.
A very pretty Imp Picture, "The Call of the Song," is to released on August 3rd. The story itself deals with the old theme of the lure of the city and the more subtle and eventually triumphant charm of the homestead in the country, where the slighted sweetheart, trembling on the verge of despair and insanity, still cherishes the memory of her first lover and fondly waits for his return. A song, that they often sang together amid the fragrance of the roses, wakes the slumbering love and conscience of the indifferent lover and leads him back into the arms of his old sweetheart. The acting is good throughout and the settings are strikingly beautiful. What deserves especial praise is the accurate portrayal of American country life, the scenes in the school and in and about the post office and the grocery store are charming in their naturalness and reflect great credit on the stage director.
Starring Mary Pickford as Amy Gordon and King Baggot as Hugh Norton, directed by Thomas H. Ince, it would have been interesting to view and study the composition and direction of this film compared to the popular Biograph and Vitagraph films during this period in silent film history.
A very pretty Imp Picture, "The Call of the Song," is to released on August 3rd. The story itself deals with the old theme of the lure of the city and the more subtle and eventually triumphant charm of the homestead in the country, where the slighted sweetheart, trembling on the verge of despair and insanity, still cherishes the memory of her first lover and fondly waits for his return. A song, that they often sang together amid the fragrance of the roses, wakes the slumbering love and conscience of the indifferent lover and leads him back into the arms of his old sweetheart. The acting is good throughout and the settings are strikingly beautiful. What deserves especial praise is the accurate portrayal of American country life, the scenes in the school and in and about the post office and the grocery store are charming in their naturalness and reflect great credit on the stage director.
Starring Mary Pickford as Amy Gordon and King Baggot as Hugh Norton, directed by Thomas H. Ince, it would have been interesting to view and study the composition and direction of this film compared to the popular Biograph and Vitagraph films during this period in silent film history.
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