In 1916, Fred J. Balshofer left Quality Pictures and convinced the young couple May Allison and Harold Lockwood, two ambitious actors under contract with American Film Manufacturing Co., to become the stars for the Yorke Film Corp., a new company made strong by its distribution contract with Metro. The Promise is built on a rather banal story that casually mixes together bourgeois drama, sentimental complications and pioneering adventures. The director does not seem particularly troubled by this however, as he passes just as casually from one theme to the next, taking full advantage of the versatility and meticulousness of his habitual director of photography, Antonio Gaudio. We would have enjoyed seeing how the Native Americans were portrayed. Unfortunately though, the parts where they appear were for the most part eliminated from the copy we found, which was subjected to major changes by the distribution. Gibson Gowland, the lead actor in Greed, appears here in a secondary role.

Jean-Marie Buchet, Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique