The Girl at the Cupola

The cupola is a technical term and refers to a kind of blast furnace. Probably not one in a thousand who see the picture will know what the title means. The story deals with a "business doctor," a man who can bring a business up-to-date. He is turned loose in a foundry and makes a bad mess of affairs, because the old, inefficient hands object to giving up their jobs to better, more skillful men. There is a girl, daughter of the old master, who loves the business doctor, but doesn't like his methods. The situation, as developed, makes an irritating story, because it handles unpleasant things with a self-realism that is not true, yet not wholly false. The picture's best part is the foundry scenes; we see the shop where they are pouring molten iron and carrying it to the molds. There is a lively running scrap at the arrival of the new hands. L.J. Commerford plays the old iron master; Kathlyn Williams plays the girl, his daughter; Charles Clary is the new superintendent. Frank Weed, Vera Hamilton, Evelyn Allen and many others have roles in the picture. It will make an interesting number on the program. - The Moving Picture World, August 24, 1912