The Children in the House

Interesting melodrama with Norma Talmadge unhappily married. Her husband (Eugene Palette) is in the grasp of a nightclub dancer (Jewel Carmen) who has ties to bank robbers. Talmadge pines for her former boy friend (William Hinckley) but is stoic about dealing with her unhappy life. But then the bank robbers use Palette to gain entry to the bank owned by his father. The blame falls on Hinckley (a bank clerk) who refuses to say he was with Talmadge when the bank was robbed. Having no alibi he is condemned.

But then some children stumble on the bank thieves in an old shack. One escapes and brings help but he too is subdued by the robbers. As they make their getaway, one thug sets fire to the shack. The child is able to summon help just as the escaping robbers (and duped husband) go over a cliff in a wild police chase.

Maybe the most interesting segment of this otherwise standard melodrama is a dream sequence with Hinckly as a "mortal" and Talmadge as a "fairy" and how they are able to cement their love. This was likely the color-tinted scene in the original version and has Talmadge flying over a pond to meet the mortal. Pretty good for 1916, and worth a look to see Norma Talmadge.