The story
“A ruggedly beautiful love drama of unpolished hearts and of primitive passions, is Brothers Equal, a two-part Thanhouser-Mutual feature. It is a story of infinite variety ranging from the heart of the metropolis to a tropical South Seas Island, embodying the tang of the sea and the voice of the city. Robert Vaughn’s characterization of the socialist, an intensely dramatic role, stamps him as a finished actor. Dainty Barbara Gilroy, as the heroine, is afforded a romantic background amid the grandeur and immensity of the tropics. Heartbroken at the death of his wife, a retired trader, according to the story, left his infant son in the care of relatives and returned to the sea. The son grew to manhood and took up the cause of socialism. To practice his theories he bought an island in the tropics, and accompanied by his fiancée and her family, visited the beautiful spot. Meanwhile the sister of his fiancée was rescued from drowning by a half-breed fisherman. It is discovered that the fisherman is a half-brother of the socialist. The fisherman is no mate for the Northern girl, but in the tropics love is elementary. They are about to elope, when the socialist forgets his theories of all races being created equal, and tells the girl the truth about her lover’s birth. She is horror-stricken. The fisherman gives his life in exchange for that of his mother, whom he snatches from the flames. Dying, he turns his eyes to the socialist.”
Summary from Reel Life · 10 June 1916
