THE DANGER SIGNAL. Columbia, 1925; Erie C. Kenton, director; Jane Novak (shown below), Dorothy Revier, Robert Edeson, Gaston Glass. Shown at Cinecon 41, September 2005.

   An incomplete print of this film only turned up in 2002 and even with careful piecing-together and restoration, shows signs of nitrate decomposition and narrative gaps. However, what remains (and is, in fact, only about 900′ short of the original footage listed in the American Film Institute Catalog) proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend.

   It’s the melodramatic story of a an unwed mother who gives up one of her twin sons to a successful father, signing away all rights without telling him there were two boys. Years later, she’s running a small dress shop while the son she raised is working for the railroad his father owns, with his brother being groomed to succeed his father.

   The one son is poor but honest and a genuinely sterling character, while his brother is a lazy good-for-nothing. The plot finds the good son falling in love with his brother’s girlfriend, a love that’s returned. The plot has echoes of classic drama (both French and English/American), with a good dollop of novelistic high-jinks that climax in a thrilling runaway train chase that had the audience literally cheering.

   The resolution reunites all the long-separated parties, rewards the good and provides a way toward redemption for the wayward.

   A moral tale whose charm, coupled with first-rate acting, directing, and scripting, carried the day.