AllMovie

Out of all of Griffith's films about the Great War, this one impressed the least. Perhaps Carol Dempster should share part of the blame for this -- it was her first starring vehicle and her hyperactive performance was soundly upstaged by her charismatic co-star Clarine Seymour. In brief, the plot concerns two brothers, Ralph (Richard Barthelmess) and James Grey (Robert Harron), and the girls who love them (Dempster and Seymour, respectively). Ralph is the good boy who hurries to enlist and winds up in France, where he meets up with Dempster. James, meanwhile, is a lazy reprobate who stays at home and is reformed by cabaret girl Seymour. Griffith's directing style, at this point in his career, was already starting to fall behind the times. Nevertheless, Harron's performance, along with Seymour's, shines. Tragically, both young actors would die in 1920.