Bridges Burned (1917) User Reviews

Rather slow moving but fairly interesting drama

[deickemeyer · 2 February 2015]

The story of "Bridges Burned," a five-reel production by Popular Play and Players, is the work of Mme. Petrova, the Russian actress, who appears in the leading role. The scenes of the play are laid in Ireland, and the heroine is a girl of advanced ideas who falls in love with a young Englishman, and, after her lover leaves for London, finds her good name in danger unless there is a speedy marriage. This takes place, but a misunderstanding makes the girl leave her husband immediately following the ceremony and seek to earn her own living. The Englishman, now a surgeon, goes to the front and wins honors in the Great War. Mary O'Brien's child is born, and, eventually, the family are reunited. Viewed merely as a piece of photoplay writing, "Bridges Burned" is a rather slow moving but fairly interesting drama. It contains but little emotional appeal for the reason that the heroine is such a self-contained mortal that she does not let the affairs of life ruffle her mind any more than she permits the winds of heaven to rumple her hair. Her indiscretion does not throw her off her mental balance in the slightest degree. The popular notion of the consequences of loving too well are great mental distress and an almost helpless battle against sorrows and adverse circumstances. Mary O'Brien rises superior to all such conditions, takes her fate into her own hands and calmly steers it past the rocks and shoals of convention and brings it safely to anchor in the right harbor. The fact of the matter is, it's Mary's name that's Irish, not her nature. There is nothing of the emotional, impulsive Celt in Mme. Petrova's conception of a daughter of Ireland; her creation is an intellectual Russian woman that has the touch of fatalism and freedom of thought, which makes the heroine of one of St. John Hankin's plays remark: "Women had children thousands of years before marriage was invented. I dare say they will go on doing so thousands of years after it has ceased to exist." It is hardly necessary to state that Mme. Petrova's performance of such a character is a fine exhibition of the art of acting. She never departs from her ideal for an instant, and awakens admiration for her histrionic method, even if she neglects to stir the springs of emotion in the soul of the spectator. The production has many points of excellence, and was directed by Perry Vekroff. The supporting company aid materially in the amount of success achieved by the play, and include Mahlon Hamilton, Arthur Hoops, Maury Stuart, Robert Broderick, Mathilda Brundage, Louis Stern and Thomas Cameron. – The Moving Picture World, February 10, 1917