User Reviews

The second in the series dramatized by the Edison Company from Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." The first one saw Jean Valjean bought for good by the bishop. This one takes up the event in his life after he has become mayor and the head of an immense factory. He has promised Fantine that he will care for Cosette, and this leads him, or it exerts an influence upon him, to reveal his true identity when an innocent man is arrested under suspicion that he is Jean Valjean, the ex-convict. The dramatic power exhibited when the struggle is going on with himself, as to whether he shall come forward and announce his identity, thus clearing an innocent man, or whether he shall allow him to suffer, is a marvelous production of the silent drama. Remembering the bishop's assertion that his soul has been bought for good, he gives himself up to the inexorable Javert. inspector of police, and submits to arrest, losing, apparently, all he has gained in twenty years of extraordinary effort. To go into details regarding this film is unnecessary. It is quite as good as the first scene and the dramatic power in some parts is even more pronounced. One requires a fair knowledge of the book to understand the pictures, but if the pictures are stimulating a desire to read the book they are performing more good than shows on the surface. No one can read the great work without being benefited, and in the same proportion no one can see the pictures without being benefited. The pictures are such faithful reproductions of the novel itself that one comes to feel acquainted with the characters and to look forward to other pictures which shall tell more of their history. The experiment of dramatizing this novel is proving successful, and it is hoped that other leading producers will undertake the same kind of work for other great stories. It will amuse and instruct, and awaken an interest in the great literary works which could be accomplished in no more direct way. - The Moving Picture World, October 9, 1909