User Reviews

This picture, by means of very skillful handling, makes the temptation of this saint, who had left his luxurious home and his feasts and fled to the desert in repentance, very effective, and yet maintains the high religious atmosphere that the story demands. The beautiful women who surrounded St. Anthony in his cave are not shown at once. We see first ugly creatures with long filthy claws and these are changed into the lascivious, soft, white arms. But we cannot forget the claws underneath and look upon them with a full realization of the horror in the truth of the scene. The picture in all its parts isn't handled so wisely. For one instance, in the picture of the conversion both of the St. Anthony and, later, of the woman who had been his mistress, the repentant one throws away his or her jewelry and the people grab it with seeming greed. Now these people are dressed and act as though they were Christians, except in this particular. The picture is well worthwhile. - The Moving Picture World, October 28, 1911