SMOULDERING FIRES
Starring Pauline Frederick, Laura LaPlante and Malcolm MacGregor
MOVIE WEEKLY
May 2, 1925.

"Smouldering Fires" is not only a triumph for Pauline Frederick, who is tarred, but it is a real picture. It has the greatest emotional appeal if anything the critic has seen in months, and the pathos is relieved now and then by extremely deft bits of comedy. A woman who has reached middle age without love is always pathetic; in this case, it is a woman who has filled her life with the management of the factory inherited form her father, until she falls in love with one of her young employees and marries him. It is when her charming young sister enters the situation that tragedy begins, for on course the two youngsters fall in love. The story is beautifully directed, except that it is a little too long. It requires deft handling to enlist one's sympathy for each of the three parties to the triangle, but so well is the story managed that the young sister and the husband are never made to seem disloyal to the older woman. Pauline Frederick's performance is a masterpiece of realism. Her emotion seems sop genuine that it tears at one's heart-strings. Laura La Plante, as the younger sister, looks beautiful and plays with great sincerity. Malcolm MacGregor, one of the screen's handsomest men, does excellent work as the young husband.

The cast includes: Pauline Frederick, Laura La Plante, Malcolm McGregor, Tully Marshall, Wanda Hawley, Helen Lynch and George Cooper.
The picture was directed by Clarence Brown.

Review contributed by Erwyn Merwart


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