To the extent that the films of early American director John Collins are known at all, it is the result of a recent one-man crusade by James Card, former director of the Film Department of the George Eastman House. For a PFA retrospective in February 1978, Card noted: “Collins' film debut has not yet been established. But the features he made for Edison that have thus far been restored are all extraordinary, beginning with the harsh, uncompromising Children of Eve (1915) and The Cossack Whip (1916), parts of which look as though it could have been made by one of the Russian revolutionary directors.” Collins left Edison for Metro in California, where he made at least eight films in 1917-1918 before one of the most promising careers in American silent films was cut short by the deadly flu epidemic of 1918, which took the life of this 28-year-old filmmaker.

Both Children of Eve and The Cossack Whip star Collins' wife, Viola Dana.