Based on a Fannie Hurst story, The Nth Commandment portrays the self-sacrificing maternal image of love in an urban melodrama starring jazz-age symbol Colleen Moore, cast very much against that type. Her department store clerk Sara Juke marries an unglamorous sweetheart after learning that he has consumption, and plays off a wealthier suitor for money to cure him. Both Dumont and Gunning write of the everyday realism of simple urban lives-from bargain basement to the top of a double decker and dinner in a Chinese restaurant-that gives The Nth Commandment not only its charm but an added thematic layer, looking forward to the lonely lovers of King Vidor's The Crowd. The film survives only in a partial print (three reels are missing), but this is enough for us to follow the narrative and appreciate the Borzage touch.