Having been brought to America by the Fox Film Corporation, Betty Nansen, hailed as the "Sarah Bernhardt of Denmark," was shuttled from one romantic melodrama to another. In this 5-reel adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection, Nansen is cast as Katusha, an impressionable Russian lass led astray by love-'em-and-leave-'em Prince Dmitri (William J. Kelly). Reduced to prostitution, Katusha is ultimately arrested on a murder charge. One of the jurymen is none other than Prince Dmitri, who, not entirely repentant, suggests that Katusha seek redemption in the Bible. She angrily tells him to take a hike, is found guilty, and shipped off to Siberia. Katusha's resurrection finally comes about when Dmitri makes a sobbing public pronouncement, blaming himself for all the tragedies that have befallen the much-maligned heroine. Previously filmed by D.W.Griffith in 1909, the Tolstoy original would be remade several times in the future, notably as the 1934 Anna Sten vehicle We Live Again.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
