The Tight Rein (1916)

• 66%
• 1916
• Drama
• Howell Hansel

This picture tells the story of two wealthy mill owners, one with a high-strung son and the other with a high-minded daughter, who wish to perpetuate the union of their factories through the mating of their children. Now the son of the one man respects the daughter of the other, but there his interest in her ceases; he loves one of his father's mill-hands, and she one of the minor employees in her father's place. When the son marries as his father wishes him to, he is to become a partner in the joint factories. The girl, however, has no escape from the deadly struggle for existence except marriage, and her ideals of marriage forbid this step for selfish purposes. When the fathers discover that their plans are likely to be thwarted the girl not only is discharged but she is black-listed in the town. Yet she and her mother are dependent solely on her meager earnings. The son is tied even more closely to dependence on his father by having even his small allowance stopped. Here is fertile ground for rebellion, and rebellion there is. The girl goes to a nearby city where she becomes one of many of a kind. The son searches for her, finds her, and is alone with her but a moment when the man she is dependent on rushes in, and misinterpreting their meeting, shoots both. Who's Guilty?