User Reviews

With better production than it has received, and with more forceful interpretations of the participating characters, "Crime and Punishment," a five-reel drama to be released by Pathé, might have been one of the most powerful five-reelers. As the production stands, it is its story value alone that makes it at all acceptable. By that it is not meant that the acting is poor, but there are dramatic depths to the story that are unplumbed in its screen presentation. It is indeed a powerful story from which the picture was made; a story with an unusual and radical philosophy that cannot fail to make the spectator think. The story tells of the ultra-socialistic belief of a young Russian student that it is right that one useless life should be sacrificed for the greater good of the many who suffer through the one's acts. The student is forced to flee from Russia because of his writings. He comes to America, takes upon himself (at least his mind does) the burden of the poor that surround him. Finally he kills a merciless landlord pawnbroker, with the idea that the latter's spoils can be distributed among the poor from which the spoils were wrung. The student allows an innocent man to be accused of the murder. The accused man, tortured by the third degree, confesses. The student's mental struggles are interrupted by the arrival of his mother and sister from Russia, and by a girl who has been forced to the streets. The latter, whose father was the cause of her vocation, reforms at his death. She reads the Bible to the student. He fights his own mind, but is finally overcome by the Scripture, and gives himself up as the murderer of the pawnbroker. Derwent Hall Caine is seen in the role of the young Russian student. On him most of the work devolves. Marguerite Courtot is cast as Sonia, the girl. Others in the cast are Cherrie Coleman, Lydia Knott, Carl Gerard, Sidney Bracy and Robert Cummings. The film was produced by the Arrow Film Corporation. – The Moving Picture World, February 24, 1917