Report from Cinesation 2003: THE STONING (****) Viola Dana in a 1914 Edison/Charles Brabin production about a girl who comes to a bad end; strikingly realistic, especially in contrast to the Griffith films (The Greatest Question and The Tiger Girl) to follow with similar themes. For instance, although the boy (Harry Beaumont) is the proximate cause of her troubles, it's not because he's black-dyed evil, just immature and dissolute, and it's clear that it's her own naiveté about him (and love) that's as much to blame for her downfall. Very nicely done (and a great print for 1914), a perfect example of the kind of non-Victorian realistic silent Brownlow talks about in Behind the Mask of Innocence.
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