The Lady in the Library

Vola Vale is a charitable young woman who is engaged to John Vosper. He thinks of nothing but sports. She breaks off their engagement, and he gets drunk. Meanwhile, Barney Furey is a bad man who beats his wife, Jane Pepperell, and corrupts his brother, W. N. Carter, who gets killed. This causes Carter's wife to give up the ghost. Since her sister-in-law works as a nurse in the charity hospital Miss Vale sponsors, she dies asking Miss Vale who will take care of the baby. The baby promptly shows up in Vosper's library, and he falls in love with the helpless infant. But Furey decides to kidnap the child, because he is, after all, a villain.

This rare four-reel feature from the Balboa Amusement Producing Company is in very good shape. This raises some interesting questions, particularly about the editing. It's very good in the beginning, establishing the relationship among all these people. However, as soon as the baby shows up in the library, things start to get very confused. The mental didoes, and people in the right place at the right instant seem rather perplexing. Doubtless the film makers thought the audience would never notice these things. Still, at four reels, it moves along pretty well.

Miss Vale was a beautiful woman who could play make her eyes as large as platters when the story called for it. She made more than 90 movies, but by 1927, she was out of the movies. She died in 1970 at the age of 73.