The Hero, directed by Louis J. Glasnier, starred Gaston Glass as Oswald Lane, Barbara La Marr as Hester Lane, John Sainpolis as Andrew Lane, and Doris Pawn as Martha. The film was released in December of 1922 at seven reels, and is presumed lost.
Plot: Oswald Lane returns home, from World War I, a decorated soldier, handsome, and admired by his townspeople.
His older brother Andrew, an insurance salesman, has a wife, Hester, and a son, Andy.
Andrew was kept out of the war by family obligations, and broken arches. Andrew is a colorless individual, and also walks with a limp. Still, Andrew welcomes home his brother, as does his mother and Martha, a lovely Belgian refugee who works as a maid in the Oswald home.
Martha remains bashful before Oswald’s admiring eyes, but he finally wins her heart. Andrew insists that Oswald share their home until he settles in. Andrew even gets his brother a job at his office, and buys a new suit for him. Oswald gladly accepts the suit, but isn’t so interested in the job. He spends the day with Martha and Andrew’s little son, while Andrew and his boss wait for him to keep an appointment he had made. At a rally held at Leavitt’s Grove, Oswald proves so entertaining with his tales of heroism overseas that the spectators gladly donate over $500 for a church building fund. That evening, Andrew, who serves as church treasurer, worries about the cash he is holding in his desk. Oswald offers to sleep in the parlor and guard the money, much to Andrew’s relief. Hester, Andrew’s wife, decides to make Oswald more comfortable on the couch by retrieving a blanket. Before she can perform the errand, Oswald tells her of his loneliness and lack of understanding from his family. He implies his life might have been different had he met a woman like Hester. He begins to put his arm around her, but Hester slips away. A short time later, clad in a negligee, she returns to the parlor with a blanket. Martha, jealous and worried, sees Hester and follows her. Hester enters the parlor just as Oswald is lifting the cover of the desk and taking the church funds. Heather gasps. Martha arrives and casts an accusing look at Hester.
Oswald, irritated by the interruption, brushes them both aside and rushes upstairs. All night, Hester keeps watch on Oswald to make sure he does not leave with the money. In the morning, she pleads with him, then threatens him.
He dares her to call the police and have it be known that the brother of the church treasurer is a thief. Hester steps aside, and lets him leave. Andrew arrives, ignorant of what has transpired. Andrew goes to open the cover of the desk to retrieve the money. Hester is about to tell him the truth about his brother. At that moment, a fire alarm is heard. A neighbor rushes in to say that kindergarten is burning – and Andrew’s son is inside. Oswald, passing the school, see the flames and immediately dashes into the blazing structure. He rescues most of the children.
Then he rushes back in to save the last. The floor collapses and he is seriously burned. Semi-conscious, he is taken back to Andrew’s house. A doctor says that Oswald will need a skin graft to survive. Oswald, stroking the hand of an admiring Martha, whispers to Hester to take the money from his pocket and return it to the desk. Andrew, oblivious to the fact that his brother had taken the money, offers to give up his skin for the operation. Andrew’s mother and Hester now realize that there are two heroes in their family.
For the climactic fire scene, an abandoned school house was brought to the studio, where it was safely burned down with the Los Angeles fire department supervising. Unbeknownst to the film crew, some rattlesnakes had taken up residence in the structure. While Glass was still inside the building, he was bitten by a rattlesnake trying to escape from the heat. With the cameras still rolling, Glass continued the scene until he was out of camera range. Then he was treated by a doctor, without any complications.
Motion Picture News praised the film, writing “a human interest picture this – one which tugs at finer sensibilities because of its lifelike figures who work out their destinies as they are being worked out every day … the picture is splendidly staged.” Screenland wrote “this picture gives you food for thought, a couple of heroes of entirely different ilk – take your choice – and two lovely ladies for heroines. … John Sainpolis … walks away with the acting honors, in his marvelously real characterization of the insurance agent, loving, but commonplace husband and father – an every day life’s real hero.” The Film Daily gave a mixed review, noting “the opening scenes promise a better picture than you really get … but it suddenly lapses and nothing happens except the regular routine of the household in which the characters are congregated. … Cutting would be a decided benefit for the picture as entertainment.”
