Even though Norma Talmadge's signing with National Pictures in 1915 was a fiasco and her popularity, which she had striven so hard for, plummeted, D.W. Griffith saw something in her and signed her to a lucrative deal with the newly formed Fine Arts-Triangle film company. Her roles were diverse and her public popularity soon recovered. "Going Straight" paired her with Ralph Lewis and gave her a role as a respectable married woman and the brains behind a criminal gang.
When underworld character Briggs (Eugene Palette) makes the front pages for a series of robberies it causes the respectable Remingtons to remember a past they are trying to forget. John (Ralph Lewis) was once involved in a desperate gang of crooks and his sweet wife Grace was the ringleader!! When police get wind of a robbery that Grace, as a maid in the household, has helped to plan out, the gang is ambushed but gallant John helps Grace escape through a closet door!!
Years later the Remingtons have "gone straight" and prospered but when John goes to look at a warehouse for a client he runs into Briggs. The years haven't been kind to Briggs mainly because he hasn't mended his ways and when John responds to a plea for money, Briggs decides to up the ante and go in for a bit of blackmail and is not above using a little paper boy (George Stone) as a decoy!! Once John stops the payments the brazen Briggs comes to the house and threatens to expose Grace for her earlier crimes unless John comes in on a robbery he is planning. Of course the house of the planned break-in just happens to be the one where Grace and the children are visiting for an overnight stay.
Just some stunning camera work. Norma found in the Franklyn brothers, directors who harnessed in her sometimes over emotional performances. The close ups here were so effective, when Briggs breaks into Grace's bedroom and realises he wants more from her than just revenge, only their eyes are highlighted - her's fearful, his knowing and cunning. Just a terrific scene.
John, downstairs, tinkering with the safe is able to come up, knock Briggs down and fortunately explain to the family that he had come for Grace and the kids. All is not over for Briggs yet...... he has one more chance!!
Eugene Palette looking trim (he can certainly climb those drains) and light years away from his podgy detective roles plays Briggs with daring and desperation!!
Very Recommended.
When underworld character Briggs (Eugene Palette) makes the front pages for a series of robberies it causes the respectable Remingtons to remember a past they are trying to forget. John (Ralph Lewis) was once involved in a desperate gang of crooks and his sweet wife Grace was the ringleader!! When police get wind of a robbery that Grace, as a maid in the household, has helped to plan out, the gang is ambushed but gallant John helps Grace escape through a closet door!!
Years later the Remingtons have "gone straight" and prospered but when John goes to look at a warehouse for a client he runs into Briggs. The years haven't been kind to Briggs mainly because he hasn't mended his ways and when John responds to a plea for money, Briggs decides to up the ante and go in for a bit of blackmail and is not above using a little paper boy (George Stone) as a decoy!! Once John stops the payments the brazen Briggs comes to the house and threatens to expose Grace for her earlier crimes unless John comes in on a robbery he is planning. Of course the house of the planned break-in just happens to be the one where Grace and the children are visiting for an overnight stay.
Just some stunning camera work. Norma found in the Franklyn brothers, directors who harnessed in her sometimes over emotional performances. The close ups here were so effective, when Briggs breaks into Grace's bedroom and realises he wants more from her than just revenge, only their eyes are highlighted - her's fearful, his knowing and cunning. Just a terrific scene.
John, downstairs, tinkering with the safe is able to come up, knock Briggs down and fortunately explain to the family that he had come for Grace and the kids. All is not over for Briggs yet...... he has one more chance!!
Eugene Palette looking trim (he can certainly climb those drains) and light years away from his podgy detective roles plays Briggs with daring and desperation!!
Very Recommended.