Exhibitor's Trade Review (Nov 1925 - Feb 1926)

November 21, 1925 Page 27 BOX OFFICE REVIEWS STELLA DALLAS United Artists Release. Produced by Samuel Goldrvyn. From the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Directed by Henry King. Length, I 0 reels. . CAST AND SYNOPSIS .Stephen Dallas Ronald Colman Stella Dallas Belle Bennett Helen Morrison Alice Joyce -Ed Munn Jean Hersholt Laurel Dallas Lois Moran Richard Grovesnor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Miss Philiburn Vera .Lewis Mrs. Grovesnor Beatrice Prior The suicide of his father leads Stephen Dallas to .break his engagement to Helen Morrison, and retire to a strange town. There he meets Stella Martin, of low family background and vulgar habits. In a susceptible moment he marries her. A baby is born to them. Dallas, unable to lift his wife to his own level, leaves her to reside in the city. He meets his old sweetheart, now a widow. Meanwhile Stella has centered her affection on Laurel, the daughter, who often visits her father and becomes friendly with her father's friend. Wishing to sacrifice her own happiness for her daughter's good, Stella agrees to allow her husband to divorce her and marry his former sweetheart, so Laurel may enjoy a cultured life. Laurel retuses to leave her mother. Stella decides on a supreme sacrifice, marrying a sordid companion, so that Laurel will feel free. The plan works and Stella lives to see Laurel married amid the splendors of a high-society wedding. By Michael L. Simmons ^HERE'S a lot of language I'd like to spill about this film. High-powered superlatives; a vivid description of its effect on a "hard-boiled" professional audience; my own emotional reaction to it, and so on. That's how it's got me. For straight-forward box-office pertinency, however, I'll shoot, in Film Row's direct lingo: "Boys, here's one for you! Story, acting, cast, direction, heart-interest, a mother-love theme — all primed to bring home the bacon in thick, healthy slices." A film man is taught by many conflicting experiences to be wary of declaring a film the finest he's ever seen. One never knows what may be lurking just around the corner. Then follows the embarrassment of reviving the use of 92 karat adjectives. This thought keeps me from saying this is the finest thing I've seen. And, if I may proceed on the basis that perhaps time has dimmed the vivid moments of past masterpieces, then I will say: "This one has struck the most responsive chord in me." Certainly, it is the finest thing of its kind I've ever seen. With the same reservation, I say, here are character portrayals — Belle Bennett's and Lois Moran's — second to none. Without reservation, I say, here is a motherlove theme that has touched me more deeply than any similar topic. I've learned again that it can be done. Tense gripping drama : without gun-play ; without fist fights; without violence of any kind. An entrancing spectacle: without mob scenes ; without colossal sets ; without trick photography. Love interest — powerfully moving, appealing: without ten-minute kisses; without wrestling or acrobatics of any kind. Can you beat it? STAGE STRUCK Paramount Photoplay. Story by Frank RAdams. Directed by Allen Divan. Length, 6,691 feet. CAST AND SYNOPSIS Jennie H igen Gloria Swanson Orme Wilson Lawrence Gray Lillian Lyons Gertrude Astor Hilda Wagner Marguerite Evans Buck Ford Sterling Mrs. Wagner Carrie Scott Mr. Wagner Emil Hoch Soubrette Margery Whittington Jennie Hagen, a small-town waitress, idolizes the flap-jack artist in her restaurant. He in turn spends his affections on actresses. To him they are at the heights in deserving adulation. Jennie then conceives the idea of winning him by taking a correspondence course in acting. Later, by a chance meeting with the owner of a floating theatre, she gets a chance to appear before the footlights. From that point, matters take a peculiar turn, resulting in her beau's depreciation of the acting profession, and his proposal to her. By Michael L. Simmons QLORIOUS GLORIA had a line of customers a block long and six-ply clamoring for admission. Nor were they disappointed. Miss Swanson rewarded their patience with an entertaining variety of slap-stick capers, delightfully portrayed, and thoroughly enjoyed. To say that Gloria reveals comedy gifts heretofore unsuspected, would not be putting it correctly. "Manhandled" taught us that she can revert to the Mack Sennett motif with credit. Nevertheless, many of her admirers will be surprised at the antics she unfolds in her neat comedy tent. You can visualize the situation by picturing Gloria as a down-at-the-heels waitress, always in trouble, and the target for laughter everywhere. There is a charming sensitiveness in her portrayal that hangs each laugh on the brink of a tear. In other words, a sort of Charlie Chaplin pathos. Picture Gloria as the masked marvel in a female boxing show and you have a further idea of the possibilities for hilarious action. These possibilities are made the most of. That alone should sum up, succinctly, the star's contribution to the film. Of interest is the star's new leading man, Lawrence Gray, who does very well as a flap-jack tosser, idolized by the wistful little waitress, but who on his own part, idolizes actresses. Scenes of a floating theatre on the Ohio River, contribute an element of novelty. Ford Sterling, as the ballyhoo drummer for his own show, adds an appreciable amount of amusement. The opening and closing sequences are in color, well done as such things go. To my mind, color treatment still has many strides to make before a perfect illusion is achieved. Nevertheless, in this film, it does create a certain gorgeous impressiveness. As to exploitation: how does one exploit a Swanson picture if not to throw all the weight of the billing, lobby-lure, advertising, etc., behind the name of the star. That's what the Rivoli did. The first paragraph tells you what happened. SIMON, THE JESTER P. D. C. Photoplay. Directed by George Melford. Frances Marion s adaptation of original story by W m. J. Loc^e. Length, 6,168 feet. CAST AND SYNOPSIS Simon de Gex Eugene O'Brien Lola Brandt , Lillian Rich Dale Kynnersly Edmund Burns Brandt Henry B. Walthall Midget William Piatt Three men are in love with a woman. One, a youth, who was more enamoured by love than by the woman. Another with the jealousy and passion of aj man distracted. The third with all the tenderness and sincerity of a man who was well able to appreciate the real charm and worth of the woman. He, the third one, was called "the Jester," for knowing his days were numbered, he even mocked Death. But that was before he met the woman. Now he must live. And live, he does. Then, in the very sarnie room where not so long ago he drank a toast to ''The greatest 'adventure — Death," he now drinks again to the greatest adventure — Woman ! By Hank Linet ^ BEAUTIFUL picture, this screen version of the beloved novel of the same name, "Simon the Jester." So deftly has Frances Marion handled the situations of the written story that it still remains a function of the imagination to get the full significance of the pictures thrown upon the screen. Just as if some hidden person were reading the story to the audience, and the screen simply the reflection of the mind's reaction. Eugene O'Brien as Simon de Gex, engages in a fist fight — but it is not the fight that the mind sees, but rather his struggle for a beautiful ideal. That ideal is Lola Brandt, a woman of the circus, admirably portrayed by Lillian Rich. The Midget, played by William Piatt, dies from a knife-wound. Yet the depression that a death scene brings about is submerged in his happiness that life had allowed him to bring together two souls that longed for each other. And you, Brandt, arch villain, was it not the burning love for that woman that drove you to commit those dastardly deeds? After all, even you are not to be so easily condemned. One sighs because it is so beautiful a picture— so soft and sincere. And again one sighs at times for another reason — and is tolerant nevertheless. Tolerant when O'Brien forgets here and there that the picture is moving in the romantic 6/8 tempo of the serenade and interposes an operatic ad lib or recltato. But these moments are short, and gives one time to reflect for a moment on scenes that have just passed by. * * * And so it really seems that the stellar honors are really to go to Miss Marion, the scenarist, and to George Melford, the director. In the face of the high standard of acting, that certainly is leaving no doubts about the entertainment value of the film. Play up the circus angle for your ballyhoo exploitation.