Silence

We open on lawyer Jack Mulhall trying to convince H. B. Warner to speak out to save his life. Warner is about to be hanged, and his only chance is to break his silence and let his confederates go hang. But Warner remains obdurately silent. We then go into a long flashback, more than 20 years earlier, in which Warner , escaped from prison, convinces his paramour, Vera Reynolds, to bring their daughter and flee the country. But maters intervene, and this never happens. Instead, she marries Rockcliffe Fellowes, who raises the daughter his own. Miss Reynolds dies, but is reborn to play her own daughter, who is about to marry Jack Mulhall.

I had the pleasure of looking at the lovely restored copy that played in San Francisco in 2017, with the fine score by the Monte Alto Picture Orchestra. The opening and closing sequences are interestingly shot, with a strong expressionist camera and good cutting speed. The cast is excellent, with Warner, as always, a strong and interesting performer, and a shout-out should be offered to Raymond Hatton as the slimy Harry Silvers as we follow the whys and wherefores of the melodramatic story. I found the tacked-on happy ending a bit annoying, but that's the wont of film making in the era; it was a truism that the audiences wanted that. Still, remove that, and you have a very satisfying tragedy.