The first full-length gangster picture ever made according to its director, Raoul Walsh, who would later make "The Roaring Twenties," "High Sierra," "The Bowery" and "White Heat." "Regeneration" (72 min.) is a powerful slum melodrama produced in 1915 on location in the lower east side of New York City, with a gaggle of authentic low-life types performing alongside professional actors. "Young Romance" (58 min.), also released in 1915, is a recent rediscovery that forever silences the claim that refined comedy cannot be conveyed via the screen. This disguise plot, worthy of an Elizabethan drama, was written by William deMille (brother of Cecil, father of Agnes), and directed by George Melford ("The Sheik," the Spanish "Dracula"). "Regeneration" is in the Library of Congress National Registry of essential American films.
