Two to One

In 1925, Vitagraph, the last surviving Patents Trust company issued eight movies, and then owner Albert Smith sold out to the Warner Brothers. One of their movies was PAMPERED YOUTH, from Booth Tarkington's Oedipal novel, "The Magnificent Ambersons." A couple of years later it was cut down to about thirty-five minutes and reissued as TWO TO ONE. The long version has vanished. The abridged version can be seen on the Harpodeon.com site.

How is the short version? Almost all of the narrative complexity of the novel has been lost. Little remains but a well-shot harness race and a magnificent fire sequence. Both were the subjects of many short actualities when Vitagraph was a brand new company. Vitagraph was still a fine company, able to turn out successful features. Yet, perhaps Mr. Smith look at the full edited version and decided that, like the characters in this piece, it was time to move on.