Fireside Reminiscences (1908)
Article 5655 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-21-2019
Directed by J. Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter
Featuring Miss Abbot, Miss Acton, Edward Boulden
Country: USA
What it is: Marital melodrama

A husband throws out his wife when he sees her embracing another man, unaware that the man she’s embracing is her brother. Three years later, the husband reminisces about his wife at the fireside.

This was apparently based on a popular song of the day. Originally, it looked like the fantastic content would consist of nothing more than of having seen visions of things in a fireplace (which would make it pretty marginal), but one of the visions does not appear to be a reminiscence, but a mystical revelation showing the husband where his wife is now, a circumstance which leads to a happy ending. Evaluating this one is tough, as the print is very badly damaged, and some of the scenes are in poor condition. Overall, though, the story is a little hard to swallow and is fairly slow-moving on occasion. It’s so-so, but nothing essential.