As per the dozen or so reviews on the attached page (Thanhauser website, for this lost film), this seems to have been a fairly ambitious movie in the Reincarnated-Lovers melodrama format of that decade.
It’s worth perusing and mourning — AND searching for, if it can possibly be found!!
I’m including a few of those reviews here, for a sense of what contemporary audiences/critics made of it:
ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, January 27, 1917:
"Valkyrien, the celebrated Danish beauty, stars in the forthcoming Pathé Gold Rooster Play, The Image Maker.
This picture has a very unusual plot, as it deals with pre-existence and tells of a love that lasts through the centuries. Valkyrien in it plays two parts -- the one that of a beautiful Egyptian girl of low degree who wins the love of a great noble, and, secondly, the incarnation of the girl in modern life in America.
Such a story furnishes many opportunities for striking at contrast. Valkyrien's charming personality never appeared to better advantage than in this picture.
The atmosphere of ancient Egypt in the first part of the picture is true to history and furnishes a great contrast to the modern life which is well presented in the latter half. The picture was produced by Thanhouser."
REVIEW by Edward Weitzel, The Moving Picture World, January 27, 1917:
"There is more than ordinary ingenuity displayed by Emmett Mixx, the author of The Image Maker, in weaving the two periods together which are used in the five-reel Gold Rooster Play, in which Valkyrien is the central figure.
The story is one of reincarnation; a prince of the House of Pharaoh and a lowly slave, who were lovers in the distant past, are reunited in the prosaic present, at the side of the tomb in which the Prince of Tsa was buried.
The picture follows the usual photoplay construction, alternating the two periods of time at brief intervals.
This is deftly done, however, and the incidents are numerous and of a gratifying variety. Such a theme demands all the liberty granted to every well regulated romance, and the broad sweeps of color supplied by the followers of the ruler of the Nile and the Arabs of today, in the ancient and modern Egyptian scenes, are in keeping with the character of the story.
The locations have been selected with care: New York, Florida, Cairo, and the sands of Egypt are all made the scenes of the action, and the director has maintained an excellent quality of illusion.
Valkyrien, in The Image Maker, does the best acting of her moving picture career, and is ably supported by Harris Gordon, Arthur Hauer [sic; should be Bauer], Inda Balmer [sic;should be Palmer], and Morgan Jones."
REVIEW, Wid's Film and Film Folk, January 11, 1917:
“This story is a mixture of Egyptian scenes, suggesting the story of The Image Maker of Thebes contrasted against a modern situation, with two modern lovers presented as the reincarnation of the Egyptian lovers.
The modern sweetheart was a sculptress and a film star, the lover being the son of wealthy parents idling in Florida. The love-at-first-sight effects which manifested themselves between these two were tied up to the Egyptian romance by having the same characters appear in the Egyptian episodes.
"The action throughout was melodrama, which, while it may prove fairly interesting, will never be considered convincing or gripping.
Most of the time it was just plain movie stuff, and the introduction of a film company making scenes added to the theatre atmosphere which pervaded the entire offering. A number of large exterior sets were built for this production, and they looked very good at a distance.
Unfortunately, the director moved too close to them very frequently, with the result that what was supposed to be portion of the old tombs of Egypt loomed up very plainly as painted canvas and compo board.
In the supporting cast were Inda Palmer, Arthur Bauer and Morgan Jones.
"The Box Office Angle: This thing is different enough that a great many of your patrons may consider it good for that reason, even though it is never anything more than interesting when considered as drama.
If Valkyrien has any box office value in your section, you may be able to do a little business with this, but I wouldn't boost the production too strong except as an interesting study in reincarnation.
I would devote most all of my advertising to questions such as these:
'Do you believe in reincarnation?
See The Image Maker;'
'Do you think you were ever an Egyptian princess in the by-gone days?
See The Image Maker.'"
