D. W. Griffith's nightmarish account of an aristocrat who is saved from a savage mob by another aristocrat of democratic opinions; alas, the ungrateful wretch is no sooner saved than he tries to seduce the wife of his kind rescuer. What more appropriate punishment than to toss him back to the rioting mob? "Nursing a Viper puts a chill down our spine with its well-ordered symbolism of grotesque violence...a kind of brutal gaiety reigns in scenes of the crowds...An extraordinarily violent and terrifying cinematic memory of the Terror." (Robert Maniquis)