Educational film magazine; (19-)

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LITERATURE "OUR MUTUAL FRIEND" AN OLD MASTER OF THE SCREEN The Immortal Humor and Characterizations of Charles Dickens' Classic Live Again in This Movie Gem ' By Dolph Eastman A young writer in the staid, ultra conservative Atlantic Monthly recently affirmed that the motion picture was an industry, not an art; that per se it could never be an art. That caustic yet ill-considered article was written and published before the photoplay Our Mutual Friend was exhibited in New York City at one of the leading theaters. I wonder whether Mr. Rascoe has yet seen this picture. Even a mind as immature and a critical judgment as little informed as his might yield to the charm of this film—a veritable old master of the screen. Whether or not you like Charles Dickens—whether, with Arnold Bennett, you regard him as a second-rater in literature or you place him among the great—you cannot deny the place which Dickens holds in the hearts of the multitude. The novel on which this picture is based was extremely popular for years, and is still widely-read, its popularity being due not only to the complex construction of the double plot in which in- terest is sustained to the end but to its unfailing hunior and delightful characterizations. The finest tribute I can pay to the author and director of this film is to say that the spirit and the substance of the original tale have been marvelously preserved; the theme gains rather than suffers from being translated into pictures; and the verboseness and prosiness which is the chief fault of most Victorian novelists is not there to plague the spectator. If Charles Dickens himself had written the scenario and continuity, cast the players, selected the interiors and exteriors, directed, assembled, and cut the film, it would probably have been no better and might have been worse than this production. Both theatrical and non- theatrical exhibitors in this country owe a debt of grati- tude to the producers. and distributors of this movie gem. Pray let us have more like it—and soon. Those who know their Dickens will of course recall the theme—that the possession of money may be a liability instead of an asset; that money frequently brings to its owners meanness and unhappiness; and that love, friend- ship, self-forgetfulness, and helpfulness to others are worth all the gold in the world. This lesson, needed even more now than in the period of 1860, is well emphasized and sustained in the picture. The comedy sc'enes, "like those of the book, are rich in Dickensian humor. The characters are admirably portrayed and on the screen seem to have stepped from the very pages of the novel. The costuming, the settings, the lighting and the photography for the most part all contribute to a harmonious piece of work which is rare in the filming of a literary classic. Do yola remember John Rokesmith and pretty Bella Wilfer, old Silas Wegg and "Pa" Wilier, Mr. Venus and the Boffins? How Gafl'er Hexam found the dead body of a man, a certain John Harmon, according to the papers in his clothing—the body was floating in the Thames. Hexam knew, or thought he knew, that the dead man was the son of an old miser, Harmon, and that the boy was to inherit a great fortune if he married Bella Wilfer, who was a child of four when the will was made. In the event that the marriage was not fulfilled, the fortune was to go to Boffin, Harmon's old faithful servant. •^^\j- ^ i;