Seven stars. A silent film about music therapy! That's a big quirky plus,
right there. This works because Charles Mailes sells his character so well. Silent film was all about expression, and Mailes nailed it at a level that made
title cards irrelevent. And it was good fun to watch this middle-aged guy
beating the crap out of the young orderlies that he caught off-guard. I'm
going through the Years of Discovery discs, and that's led me to notice what a
great actress Claire McDowell was as well. She's prominent in a lot of these
films, including this one. And she does a splendid job of playing out a really
tense and troubling scene with Mailes. That's what makes the picture worth
watching. Barrymore and Gish, for all that I love them, and for all their
general greatness, really don't do much here. Something else worth note is
that Griffith was really maturing as an editor by this point. The snap cuts
are sharp, and keep the tension building all the way to the resolution. This
is worth watching for any fan of the movies. 8 February 2024.
Review of The House of Darkness
