Curious early sound movie surviving in its silent version.
At Xmas, Ralston flees the wild party into the snow and is taken in by Fairbanks, who lives with his coal miner buddies, jolly drinkers - no demon drink here. After a bit of low comedy about dames being soppy, the stars pair off and she gets to wait at the pit head to find if he's survive the inevitable mine accident.
Best elements are her appealing performance and the effects work in the mine disaster, impressive with burning gas engulfing tunnels and men in trolleys, as the gang build barricades against it and write notes to leave the rescuers.
The weepy element is trite, though the cast is good and there are echoes of Barker's Ince films, as with Fairbanks thrashing the store clerk, who gets the wrong idea about Vera, or the arrival of the rescue party coming down the ladder from the roof in respirators, edging on for an old style vision of Biblical deliverance.
At Xmas, Ralston flees the wild party into the snow and is taken in by Fairbanks, who lives with his coal miner buddies, jolly drinkers - no demon drink here. After a bit of low comedy about dames being soppy, the stars pair off and she gets to wait at the pit head to find if he's survive the inevitable mine accident.
Best elements are her appealing performance and the effects work in the mine disaster, impressive with burning gas engulfing tunnels and men in trolleys, as the gang build barricades against it and write notes to leave the rescuers.
The weepy element is trite, though the cast is good and there are echoes of Barker's Ince films, as with Fairbanks thrashing the store clerk, who gets the wrong idea about Vera, or the arrival of the rescue party coming down the ladder from the roof in respirators, edging on for an old style vision of Biblical deliverance.
