This D.W. Griffith film is a comedy that makes fun of blue-nosed reformers that were common in the early 20th century. It's pretty funny stuff from a director not usually associated with comedy.
The film starts in a home where two young people are looking at what I assume is a dirty magazine (by 1913 standards). The strict and old fashioned looking father catches them and rebukes them for their evil ways. Soon, a group of community minded folk come to the house to ask him to run for office. After a tiny bit of campaigning, you assume he won, as in the next scene the man and his posse of reformers are walking about town--outlawing anything that looks like fun! First, the bars are shut down, second dancing is forbidden and finally the theater is closed for showing immoral stuff (Shakespeare's "Othello" and a bit of innocent dancing).
In the meantime, because this nosy reformer is so busy telling everyone in town how to live their lives, his own kids run amok because they have no guidance. When the man returns home, he finds one of his kids drunk and the other hiding in the closet with a member of the opposite sex! While this is far from subtle, it was nice to see this film as a counterpoint to the man anti-liquor shorts I have seen that were made in the same era. While you also don't associate Griffith with fun, he was making a point about how we all need to relax and have fun in life. Well acted and made by the standards of the day.
The film starts in a home where two young people are looking at what I assume is a dirty magazine (by 1913 standards). The strict and old fashioned looking father catches them and rebukes them for their evil ways. Soon, a group of community minded folk come to the house to ask him to run for office. After a tiny bit of campaigning, you assume he won, as in the next scene the man and his posse of reformers are walking about town--outlawing anything that looks like fun! First, the bars are shut down, second dancing is forbidden and finally the theater is closed for showing immoral stuff (Shakespeare's "Othello" and a bit of innocent dancing).
In the meantime, because this nosy reformer is so busy telling everyone in town how to live their lives, his own kids run amok because they have no guidance. When the man returns home, he finds one of his kids drunk and the other hiding in the closet with a member of the opposite sex! While this is far from subtle, it was nice to see this film as a counterpoint to the man anti-liquor shorts I have seen that were made in the same era. While you also don't associate Griffith with fun, he was making a point about how we all need to relax and have fun in life. Well acted and made by the standards of the day.