This was a pretty boring silent film short, one which the simple story moved slowly. It's hard to imagine a 15-18 minute movie dragging on, but that was the case here.
It's a story of a "weakling" brother, as described in the title cards, who thinks he killed his big brother. As he leaves the room in a mild panic state, a burglar comes into the house and the weakling hides. Soon, he locks the crook in the room and races to get the police, blaming the supposed death of his brother on him!
In the end, however, justice prevails and the sappy brothers is rehabilitated by his brother's forgiveness.
I appreciate the nice story of forgiveness, but the ridiculous part of the story is that the brother - along with four cops later on - doesn't know the man is alive? He takes his pulse and listens to his heart...and still thinks he's dead?? The cops, too?? Come on! Surely, one of the five could hear a heartbeat or hear the man breathing.
Lionel Barrymore plays the older brother (the forgiving one) and Henry B. Walthall is the "weakling." It's always kind of neat to see a younger Barrymore but overall, this D.W. Griffith picture was a bit of a disappointment.
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