I was interested in seeing this film, in part because John Collins directed it. I don't know how many films of his survive and he only made so many because he died in the awful flu pandemic. The overall film was summarized very well by another reviewer, so I'll just touch on a few things. A fella falls for the charms of a girl in the follies (standards were much lower back then, apparently). She doesn't think she'll marry him, but she does have his baby. She dies on a door threshhold and apparently knew she was about to because a picture of her is on the baby's person. Around the same time, the fella's friend dies, so he agrees to look after his son, who considers him an uncle. Both grow up. The fella has become a hardened businessman while his nephew is interested in helping his fellow man. His nephew and his daughter cross paths and he gets her to his way of thinking. Eventually, she is assigned to check conditions at a cannery owned by the original fella. A fire breaks out and she's badly injured. One thing I liked about the film is as his daughter is dying and the fella finds out she's his daughter, he approaches the doctor and says "She's my daughter. Now can you save her?" The doctor informs him that money had nothing to do about what can be done. I liked that. I heard a long time ago that doctors will actually let some people die. Worth watching, I would say.
5 Reviews
Of the many films inspired by the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.
Larry41OnEbay-223 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Children of Eve (1915) SPOILERS: Henry Clay Madison (Robert Conness), a student and clerk, falls in love with neighbor Flossy Wilson (Nellie Grant), an actress from "The Follies." Although she reforms under his influence, Flossy believes that she is unworthy of Madison and rejects his marriage proposal. She ends up alone in the tenements, dies and her child Mamie is raised by another woman. Seventeen years later, we see Fifty-Fifty Mamie McGuire, "Pride of the alley" (Viola Dana) going out with slang spewing Bennie, the Gyp (Thomas F. Blake), Mamie's "steady." Meanwhile Madison is now a capitalist and a calloused business man reading newspaper articles about child labor investigations at a factory he owns. At The Bucket of Blood dance hall & saloon Bennie & Mamie win a dance contest. Later Mamie steals a feather off a street vendor's push cart and is chased into a school building where she meets a handsome young man, Bert.
Madison's nephew Bert (Robert Walker) now 25 years old has become a social worker and soon falls in love with the worldly Mamie.After reading some of a bible he gave her she reforms and he elicits her help in his work. But soon Bert falls ill, and when Mamie tries to visit him, Madison, who now is concerned only with money, convinces her to give up the idea of marrying Bert. Mamie now wants to do good, and make it stick goes to work in Madison's canning factory to investigate conditions In addition to employing children, Madison's factory has no fire escape an only one staircase. When it catches fire, many children die and Mamie is seriously injured. Madison visits Mamie, who cries Bert's name in delirium. When Madison brings Bert, now recovered, Madison notices a photograph of Flossy, Mamie's mother and realizes that Mamie is his daughter.
She dies in Bert's arms, her father realizes all his money cannot save her and pleads for her to live but it is too late.
Madison's nephew Bert (Robert Walker) now 25 years old has become a social worker and soon falls in love with the worldly Mamie.After reading some of a bible he gave her she reforms and he elicits her help in his work. But soon Bert falls ill, and when Mamie tries to visit him, Madison, who now is concerned only with money, convinces her to give up the idea of marrying Bert. Mamie now wants to do good, and make it stick goes to work in Madison's canning factory to investigate conditions In addition to employing children, Madison's factory has no fire escape an only one staircase. When it catches fire, many children die and Mamie is seriously injured. Madison visits Mamie, who cries Bert's name in delirium. When Madison brings Bert, now recovered, Madison notices a photograph of Flossy, Mamie's mother and realizes that Mamie is his daughter.
She dies in Bert's arms, her father realizes all his money cannot save her and pleads for her to live but it is too late.
An undistinguished social message melodrama
MissSimonetta1 October 2020
CHILDREN OF EVE is a rather routine message picture of the variety that Hollywood still likes to burden us with around awards season. Inspired by the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, CHILDREN OF EVE is part-social commentary and part-melodrama, and the two modes don't always mix amiably. The plot feels padded out, hitting the familiar tropes aficionados of 1910s cinema will recognize (long-lost children, miserly men melted by love, "leave him if you really love him you low-born tart!", etc.) and the morals are presented in preachy title cards. Viola Dana is charming in her role, though-- in fact, the acting is solid altogether. However, this is definitely of historical interest only.
Not A Question Of Money
boblipton20 February 2023
Robert Conness is a young seminarian who falls in love with a good-time girl. To save his future, she walks out on him; a friend dies, leaving him a ward to raise. Fast forward a while, and Conness is now an industrialist with child laborers in unsafe condition. His ward is Robert Walker, a socially progressive minister, who attempts to save good-time girl Viola Dana.
It's a set-up for melodrama, and melodramatic is it indeed. However, this is one of the movies that John H. Collins directed his wife, Miss Dana in, and while the melodrama is there, and the camera set-ups are simple, the editing is amazing, and the way the characters behave and evolve is absolutely believable. Miss Dana may reform, but she reforms over the course of several incidents, and she still feels the old urges to go out dancing. Walker is well meaning, but he is also a bit of a prig who is not clear on his own motivations. With these two in the foreground, Conness' evolution from budding theologian to seemingly heartless capitalist seems possible, as well as the big finale, a deadly fire at his factory.
That's based on the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, and it's here that Collins shows his special magic, by the editing. The camera set-ups are simple, but he is willing to edit them for speed and excitement in a way that none of his contemporaries did. Griffith's looks slow; the Russian Academicians look like burlesques. Collins cuts and cuts, and cuts again, and shows you an image of the dead children laid out on the ground for just long enough to register.... and then cuts away.
It's no wonder that the two of them, working in tandem, easily survived the collapse of the Edison Film Company. Alas, the Spanish Influenza epidemic killed Collins in 1918. Miss Dana's screen career extended through the end of the silent era, and she passed on in 1987 at the age of 90.
It's a set-up for melodrama, and melodramatic is it indeed. However, this is one of the movies that John H. Collins directed his wife, Miss Dana in, and while the melodrama is there, and the camera set-ups are simple, the editing is amazing, and the way the characters behave and evolve is absolutely believable. Miss Dana may reform, but she reforms over the course of several incidents, and she still feels the old urges to go out dancing. Walker is well meaning, but he is also a bit of a prig who is not clear on his own motivations. With these two in the foreground, Conness' evolution from budding theologian to seemingly heartless capitalist seems possible, as well as the big finale, a deadly fire at his factory.
That's based on the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, and it's here that Collins shows his special magic, by the editing. The camera set-ups are simple, but he is willing to edit them for speed and excitement in a way that none of his contemporaries did. Griffith's looks slow; the Russian Academicians look like burlesques. Collins cuts and cuts, and cuts again, and shows you an image of the dead children laid out on the ground for just long enough to register.... and then cuts away.
It's no wonder that the two of them, working in tandem, easily survived the collapse of the Edison Film Company. Alas, the Spanish Influenza epidemic killed Collins in 1918. Miss Dana's screen career extended through the end of the silent era, and she passed on in 1987 at the age of 90.
Stylish and fascinating
carliphilip21 September 2021
John Collins was a brilliant director whose rapidly rising career was cut short when he died within three days at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York of "Spanish influenza" on 23 October 1918, while his wife Viola Dana (who stars here) was on a train to California expecting her husband to follow her. Edison had just begun releasing full-length features in earnest in 1915, and this is an especially elaborate production. Dana is very appealing and credible in her role, and the horrific fire finale (which was staged by filling an abandoned factory with waste nitrate film and setting it ablaze) still impresses - it almost reached cameraman Ned van Buren's platform and the fumes nearly overwhelmed him. Collins's narrative technique isn't as smooth as it would become, but the story is compellingly told with no punches pulled and is superior to many extant 1915 features. This is not an "ordinary moralistic melodrama", but a film with substantial life to it, especially when screened with a live audience.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
