Scarlet Days (1919)

Richard Barthelmess is the sort of "Zorro" character in this rather weak romantic drama from D.W. Griffith. The story is quite complex but basically involves him ("Don Maria") and his newly found pal "Sir Whitehead" (a very dashing young Ralph Graves) trying to thwart the ambitions of "King Bagley" (Walter Long) who has eyes for the gal "Rosy" (Eugenie Besserer) who has recently been robbed of her meagre poke by the greedy "Spasm Sal" (Rhea Haines). Now, it doesn't hang about this film - that's quite a lot of story to pack into 80 minutes, and though the photography of the Californian scenery is well shot, the performances are just a bit too flat to keep up with the, hectic, pell mell pace of the plot.. The hero is, frankly, anything but. Too many damsels in distress and though Besserer is on decent form, her's is the only performance that really stands out. The characters are all there, all right, but we haven't time to allow them to flourish and I found the inter-titles way too complex in their language for easy (and speedy) comprehension too. It does look good, but I think it falls quite a bit short.