An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by King Vidor and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it must be one of the most obscure movies I have seen so far (only around 100 people have seen it on IMDb) and, to be honest, I thought it was rather difficult to judge the damned thing. Indeed, for starters, the version I saw on YouTube was pretty bad, especially during the night scenes which were barely watchable. On top of that, the only version available, as far as I know, is missing at least 20 mins, probably even more. However, even if it would have been complete, I’m not sure if the whole thing would then completely make sense though. I mean, you had the main character whose mother was (apparently?) a prostitute but she wasn’t actually his mother and, at some point, he got married but his wife never met or even knew who is mother was all this time? Basically, it turned out to be a rather cheesy old fashioned melodrama and you have to really dig the genre. At least, there was a very spectacular train crash occurring half way through which was something terribly ambitious for a movie made more than 100 years ago. The funny thing is that, even though this scene was definitely really cool, in my opinion, it didn’t really have much added value narratively speaking and I think it could have been removed without impacting the story at all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was really obscure, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in King Vidor’s work.