Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1914)

1080 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD "The Call of the North" Five Parts. Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co. Reviewed by W. Stephen Bush. SUCH pictures as these amply confirm my faith in the approaching kingdom of quality. The dominant characteristic of the play is lavishness. A lofty ambition to attain the highest ideals in the motion picture art gave birth to this feature, which I am tempted to describe as one of the greatest classics ever produced on American soil. The theme is classic, its treatment is classic, the atmosphere is classic. Best of all the theme is distinctly of the New World; it deals with one of the strangest and most romantic phases of life in the Far North. In the days when the Hudson Bay Trading Company exercised a sovereign and undisputed sway over the great furbearing country of the North the word of the factor was law. Indeed there was no other law. No hunting or trading was permitted in all the vast domain without the permission of this most daring and most grasping of all monopolies. An humble retainer of the great corporation has a beautiful daughter, whose hand is sought by one of her own station. The man does not please her and she repels him. A few days after the rejection the factor, seeking a friendly shelter after an accident on his journey, visits the cabin of the father. The factor has a commanding personality, his very appearance and movements speak of the conscious possession of great power. The girl is fascinated by the strength £7 ..Jl Scene from "The Call of the North" (Lasky). and the personality of the man and agrees to marry him. It is the old story of the oak and the ivy. The frail beauty of the girl, her absolute devotion and submission to the stronger will, her clinging tenderness are most charmingly portrayed on the screen. The rejected suitor comes to the factor in search of employment. He meets with a curt refusal and is about to turn away when the woman, who had repelled him to become the factor's wife, appears and recognizes him. She bears him no malice; herself supremely happy she wants others to be happy too. At her solicitations then Rand, the rejected wooer, is taken into the employ of the factor. From that moment forth Rand plots to wreck and ruin. He plots like lago himself, blindly, out of an evil heart, naturally impervious to every good and wholesome influence. Graehme Stewart, a widower and the factor's trusted lieutenant, lives at the trading post with his five year old son. The young wife of the factor, herself about to become a mother, has grown very fond of the little boy and delights to watch him at his childish play. Upon one such occasion the father of the little chap is present and the three make a very pretty group as they sit on a carpet of snow with the brown trees for a background. Rand sees them and his black heart swells with envy and bitterness. He calls the factor and points to the group remarking with a sneer, that it looked fine. Thus was sown the seed of suspicion, which was destined to bear such bloody and tragic fruit. The young wife sends a pretty token, a small pouch ornamented with beads in the form of a cross to her aged father for a Christmas present and writes a little note bearing the words: with kindest love. The note she puts in the token. Rand is chosen as the messenger to bring the token and much wine and food to the father. He delivers the wine and the food, but keeps the token. When he returns from his errand he happens upon Stewart and his little boy, trying out a small bow and arrow before the cabin ol an Indian. The wife of the factor has joined the group and mingles her laughter with the shouts of the father and the cries of the child. Rand, a demon of mischief, rushes into Stewart's cabin and secretes the token and message meant for the young wife's father on Stewart's table. Then he hastens to the factor's office. Again he leads him out to look at the young wife and Stewart as they stand full of exuberant joy at the door of the Indian's cabin. The spark of jealousy kindles into a blaze. While the factor is still suffering with doubt and distrust Rand rushes him into Stewart's cabin and "discovers" the token with the message. " i'rifles light as air" confirm the suspicions of the jealous; the factor is convinced that Stewart, younger than himself has sought to tamper with the affections of his wife. He even suspects his wife, but one look into her clear, unflinching eyes convince him that the guilt is all Stewart's and he plans a terrible punishment. He has Stewart brought before him and despite all his protests sentences him to "la longue traverse," the long journey, which is a polite phrase for the voyage of death. This was a favorite punishment dealt out by the Hudson Trading Company to men whom it chosed to regard as trespassers upon its domain and the factor vengefully inflicts it upon Stewart. He who is to enter upon the fatal journey must go without food and without weapons. An Indian called "the shadow of death" is sent with him to follow close upon his trail to make sure of the journey's tragic end. For five days Stewart wanders through the wilderness Scene from "The Call of the North" (Lasky). until outraged nature succumbs and he dies miserably in the trackless forest. Twenty years pass away. Stewart's boy who wears the token which cost his father's life about his neck, has grown to manhood. The factor's wife has died leaving him a charming image of her own youth. Young Stewart is caught trading in defiance of the factor and is like his father sent on the "long journey." The factor's daughter, however, touched with pity at the young man's plight befriends him. She supplies him with a rifle and with food. Before he can get away with these precious life savers he is surprised by the factor's Indians and brought back to the post. Refusing to tell who gave him the rifle he is sentenced to be hung when the daughter confesses that she gave him rifle and food. The old factor, in no way softened, abides by his determination to put the young man to death. Rand has been repulsed by a young Indian woman, on whom he sought to force his attentions. The girl is in love with a half-breed employed at the post. Rand tells her that he knows how the half-breed had given young Stewart a knife in defiance of the factor's decree. Rand goes into a boat to give the knife to the factor across the lake to make sure that the lover of the girl would be hanged. In her despair the girl shoots and mortally wounds the blackmailing devil just as he is nearing the shore. He is brought to land by the factor and with death impending over him tells the true story of the token and his own fiendish work. The factor sends messengers after young Stewart who are just in the nick of time to save him from destruction. A magnificent climax follows called "The Atonement," a title, which I think might safely have been adopted as the main title. It is a scene of overpowering spectacular and dramatic force. Robert Edeson, in the dual role of Graehme and Ned