The story
“In the three-reel Than-O-Play Ambition, screened by Thanhouser for release on the regular Mutual Program, December 21st, the drama of the unscrupulous candidate for fame is strikingly presented. Howard M. Mitchell creates the leading role of William MacAlpin, with Morris Foster in the part of Wallace Holmes, in effective contrast. Gladys Hulette is Carolyn Bartlett, and Morgan Jones impersonates aristocracy in the person of Walter Bartlett, Carolyn’s father. These four players have joined their exceptional talents in one of the strongest dramas seen on the screen in a long time.
“William MacAlpin, we learn from this stirring story, is a young Westerner whose powers in tracking down a notorious bandit and, single-handed, hurling him to his death down a steep cliff, has put him in the sheriff’s office. MacAlpin believes in self-advertising. He writes the thrilling story of the bandit incident for a New York newspaper. On the strength of the hit he makes, he later is given an influential position on the paper. Here he develops into an unscrupulous office-seeker who uses his position to push his own interests. He meets Carolyn Bartlett, the daughter of an eminent financier, and by sheer force of personality wins her promise to become his wife.
“Carolyn’s father’s bank falls into difficulties. Bartlett is convinced that in a short time he can restore it to a firm footing. While he is engaged, however, in preserving the savings of hundreds of poor people, his future son-in-law learns of the state of affairs. MacAlpin deliberately publishes the story, causing Bartlett’s ruin, but winning for himself the position he has coveted at the head of his paper. Bartlett is saved from taking his life by Wallace Holmes. Holmes loves Carolyn, but she has rejected him for MacAlpin. Now she learns the real character of each of the young men. She breaks her engagement to MacAlpin and gives her promise to Holmes. ‘The Man of Ambition’ is going up higher every day. He has lost love, and to all the finer things of life, his nature has become completely calloused. But he is still climbing.”
Summary from Reel Life · 18 December 1915
