The Scarlet Letter (1913)

• 66%
• 1913
• Drama
• David Miles
• Linda Arvidson
• Charles Perley
• Murdock MacQuarrie

The opening, with Hester condemned to wear the blazing scarlet A, is back in England. It shows Hester in the garden of her home, with her father; and then the introduction of the old medico Roger Chillingworth, who asks for and receives from the father the hand of Hester. There is realism when the Indians rescue the shipwrecked Chillingsworth. He is washed ashore lashed to a mast, the waves driving over him. Again where Hester tells Dimmesdale "Fear not, I'll not betray thee;" where the old man confronts Hester, with babe in arms, and in the secrecy of a cell warns her to tell no one she had ever called him husband; where the minister appeals to Hester, "Give us the man's name and thou shalt go free;" where the minister, conscience-stricken, stands in the pillory and bares his seared breast, not knowing that old Roger is looking on; and where the minister, after Hester had made all plans for their escape, plans which the old man had upset, falls by the pillory and dies in Hester's arms. There are some beautiful scenes in these three short reels.. One that stands out is of Hester, her troubles behind her, standing by the rail of a ship outward bound. Little Pearl is by her side. The photography throughout is excellent. There are two scenes that particularly will stir the emotions. These are where the pastor, attracted to the young wife on sight, reproaches her for avoiding him, '"when thou knowest thy husband was lost at sea;" and Hester, hesitating, responds to the desire of her heart and flies to his arms. Again, years later, when Hester sees the minister dying slowly under the torturing of his conscience and the evil influence of old Chillingworth, she entreats him to go with her and begin life over again, away from the scarlet letter, away from Chillingworth, away from the shame and suffering of the past seven years; as Dimmesdale takes Hester in his arms after all the penance they have undergone one feels that this couple have been more sinned against than sinning, that they have earned the right to have peace, to be by themselves.