User Reviews

The subject matter of "The Social Leper" has considerable dramatic strength; its effectiveness is weakened by telling part of the story in narrative form. This five-reel photoplay, from a story by Florence Bolles, was produced by Peerless. A young man who has married a worthless woman and divorced her discovers that a friend of his has fallen in love with his ex-wife; he thereupon sits down at a restaurant table with his friend and tells him about it, the action being several times flashed ahead to this restaurant scene in order to remind the spectator that what he is seeing has already taken place. This narration corresponds to the old-fashioned prologue of the spoken drama, and will, eventually, become as obsolete. The remaining reels follow the career of the divorced woman, who manages to hold her position in society. Finding that her former husband is in love with another woman, she blackmails him. She also plays the friend false and is choked to death by him, the unlucky ex-husband arriving on the scene in time to be arrested for the murder. Matters are cleared up by the finding of a tell-tale button torn from the coat of the real murderer, during the struggle. With skillful handling, the material employed might have been constructed into a fair quality of middle class drama. The difference between the narrative and the dramatic form of playwriting is the same as the difference between being told of some moving phase of life and being a beholder of the event. Why disturb the illusion by continually reminding the spectator that what he is looking at is not the actual occurrence, but something that is being told to him? The directing of the scenario has been well done by Harley Knoles, and the entire production meets the demands of the script. Carlyle Blackwell and June Elvidge are starred but the strongest acting part falls to Arthur Ashley. His scenes as the fear-crazed murderer are realistic to a startling degree. Carlyle Blackwell makes the most of rather negative opportunities and June Elvidge plays a vampire, and permits one to believe that such a woman existed in real life. Evelyn Freeley, Mrs Eugenie Woodward, George MacQuarrie, Isabelle Berwin and Edna Whistler are to be commended for their work. - The Moving Picture World, March 24, 1917