THE GIRL WITHOUT A SOUL. Metro Pictures, 1917. Viola Dana, Robert Walker, Fred C. Jones, Henry Hallam, Margaret Seddon. Director: John Collins. Shown at Cinesation 1993, Saginaw MI.

   Another Viola Dana rural melodrama, directed by her husband, John Collins. She plays sisters, one a talented musician in love with a bounder, the other a rambunctious, untamed young girl loved (discreetly) by a carpenter, who resembles a young Abe Lincoln.

   Dana plays the two roles superbly, and the film climaxes with a taut trial (presided over by future Lord of Mongo, Charles Middleton). This plot probably played well on the stage in the 19th century, and the skill of the treatment of the material makes it possible to understand the appeal of East Lynne for a supposedly unsophisticated audience.

   At any rate, a charming film that doesn’t deserve to be buried as a footnote in film history. (The print was a bit rough, but it has been maintained, if not restored. Some of the longer intertitles flash by too quickly for reading, and there is one major continuity lapse, where a portion of the film could not be saved.)

Editorial Comment:   It’s not relevant to Walter’s review, I grant you, except that an article by Dave Kehr in today’s New York Times is about silent films, and if you are a fan of silent films, it is Big News indeed.

   The piece begins thusly:

    “A late silent feature directed by John Ford, a short comedy directed by Mabel Normand, a period drama starring Clara Bow and a group of early one-reel westerns are among a trove of long-lost American films recently found in the New Zealand Film Archive.

    “Some 75 of these movies, chosen for their historical and cultural importance, are in the process of being returned to the United States under the auspices of the National Film Preservation Foundation…”