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“The Woman Who Knew” – The scene is begins at 7 pm in the office of a criminal lawyer handling his first divorce case. He takes the wife's side having been friends with her late father. He had had the co-respondent on the witness stand that morning and was unable to extract any incriminating evidence. The lawyer places the abused wife, child and nurse in an adjoining room with instructions to enter when he presses the buzzer. The co-respondent had been sent for by the lawyer and told that she would hear of something to her advantage if calling on him at that hour. The woman (Mme. Besson) enters. There ensues a clash of wits, with the shrewd old attorney absolutely unable to shake her down either by threats or cajolery. He finally appeals to her to give up the man "for the sake of the child." The woman is dumbfounded at the revelation that the husband is also a father, and turns to find the wife and nurse standing there, the nurse holding an infant in her arms. Overcome with remorse, she signs an already prepared affidavit incriminating herself and leaves. The sketch up to this point is straight drama. The moment the woman departs the lawyer turns to the "nurse" and says: "My good woman here's ten dollars for the loan of your baby." The act should finish here, even if the star doesn't participate in the final picture, but the woman returns for a glove she dropped and hears how she has been tricked. This gives her an opportunity to have the "tag" speech, to the effect that the lawyer really knew women after all.
It is a wonder as to why Violet Fulton, an English actress, finds it necessary to appear inter the French name, Mme. Besson. Perhaps she desires to surround herself with the glamour attached to foreign theatrical importations, but this is not necessary. She and her company have registered a strong success with this sketch with an excellent surprise finish. Barring a tendency to declamation Miss Fulton—or "Mme. Besson"—effectively carries her part through to a successful climax. The lawyer, played by Charles Dodsworth (also an Englishman, who first appeared in "Scrooge") is also Capably portrayed.
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Variety 22:8 (04/29/1911)