Going Straight (1916)

A Disappointing Continuation

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Fortunately, Norma Talmadge partly rejuvenated the reputation of the Sisters for me in Grapevine Video's Going Straight (1916), directed by the Franklin Brothers, Chester and Sidney. Take no notice of the duped black-and-white opening (which fortunately is only a half-reel). With reel two, we are back in the genuine, original, tinted Kodascope footage. Produced on a marvelously generous budget, this movie is splendidly acted by Talmadge, Ralph Lewis (as her husband), Eugene Pallette (a really sinister blackmailer) and Georgie Stone (as Pallette's child-of-the-streets accomplice). Going Straight is a silent thriller that holds up particularly well over more than a whole century after it was made.

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.

In this early Norma Talmadge picture, "Going Straight", her and her husband are former criminals blackmailed by their old partner in crime to be accessories for one last job. It's a melodramatic, generic and morally flimsy narrative, but it's at least competently made. An exciting flashback sequence early on introduces our couple's shady past; narratively, I appreciate the flashback here instead of a completely chronological plot. The three leads: Talmadge, Ralph Lewis and Eugene Palette do well in their parts, especially making good use of their close-ups to flesh out their characters. That alone is a significant improvement over the earlier Talmadge feature "Children in the House" (1916) included on the same Grapevine DVD. Talmadge has a nice wide-eyed, distressed look on her face through much of the film. "The Social Secretary", though, is the gem of Talmadge's few Fine Arts/Triangle vehicles in circulation today.(Note: The print had many, continuous scratches, but is, overall, clear and of relatively good quality and much better than the dark print of "Children in the House".)

This story of a family trying to escape its criminal past is highlighted by a fine, expressive performance by Norma Talmadge. Ralph Lewis is solid in his performance of a locksmith, turned safe cracker, turned ex-convict turned successful businessman. But if you have never seen Eugene Palette in a film of this vintage, you will be most surprised by his performance as a career criminal. Palette is slim and trim, and only his eyes are recognizable to fans of his later films. His performance as the career criminal who tries to drag the family back into a life of crime is riveting. The actor usually known for his genial performances as a doting father racks up theft, assault, blackmail, breaking and entering, Faginism, attempted rape, attempted murder and the near murder of a child along the way. There are several good fight scenes, including a brawl and shootout between a criminal gang and the police that would do credit to a small war. This is a fine film for its vintage and well-worth watching for Talmadge's and Palette's performances alone.