by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Set in Paris, this Essanay three-reeler concentrates on a young man who becomes disillusioned when his father remarries "too soon" after his mothers' death. Blaming his dad for his troubles, the young man becomes a dissolute ne'er-do-well, keeping company with a scarlet woman. It is the boy's new stepmother who steps in and save him from himself, even unto rescuing him from a smuggling charge. Considering the callous behavior of his father, who disinherits the hero when he complains about the second marriage, it was difficult to blame the young protagonist for going to Hell in a handbasket. The "Parisian" backdrops in His Crucible were so patently phony that they reportedly elicited laughter from American audiences.
