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

November 28, 1°25 National Tie-Up and Exploitation Section Page 15 He re 's Th e Tre a sure! MORE specifically, what is the side-splitting nature of the story of "Clothes Make the the Pirate" ? Ah, it's a pleasure to explain. It has brought this viewer more laughs than a centipede has toes. Picture the opening scene in a tiny crooked street of Boston as it was in 1750. Open the door of one of the quaint, colonial shops, and you enter into the private domains of "Tremble-At-Evil" Tidd, who sews patches on men's pants, but can't boast a decent pair tor himself. Furthermore, Tidd is one of the kind that ducks at his own shadow. Add to this that a shrewish wife, with a tongue which cuts deeper than a mule-driver's whip, constantly guilds the domestic scene, and you have Tidd's character pat. But, no. This timid, shrinking Tidd reads stories of Captain Kidd on the sly, and himself aspires to daring deeds on the Spanish Main. Secretly, he expresses himself by donning the complete outfit of a pirate and strutting around with a bold swagger. One day, Tidd's wife walks in on him while he's attired in this fashion, and she rushes Open the Chest of Profits by Booking "Clothes Make the Pirate" Nita Naldi, in her exotic fashion, embellishes this film to the full height of her powers. Won't the women eye her clothes? out to call down the law on the villainous intruder. Thus, circumstance forces Tidd into the very arms of a buccaneer's "existence, abetted by "coincidence when Tidd' hides in the very boat, in which the crew await Dixie Bull, piratical terrov of the seas. Tidd is taken for Bull, and before he knows it, is in command of a ship on foul deeds bent. Circumstance again plays into Tidd's hands, when his ship lowers the colors of a frigate on which his wife is passenger. She becomes his prisoner, but doesn't recognize him because he's shaved off his whiskers. In truth, Tidd doesn't care for this lawless life, but is forced to continue by his crew. Tidd is compelled to head a landing party in an attack on a peaceful town. In the meantime, the pirate ship is overhauled by the returning frigate and defeated. On shore, Tidd finds himself up against the real Dixie Bull, and just as it seems he must bow to a bloody end, the pirate trips, and Tidd makes him prisoner. Conclude then, with Tidd's royal trip back home, a hero .in all people's eyes as well as his wife's, who has returned before him to prepare a comfortable' reception, and bow to -his superior powers with a meekness becoming to the spouse of " a swash-buckling, dare-devil-. '*> • Edna Murphy has that rare thing, dear to the heart of adulating audiences, called "charm". It glows with an iridescent quality in this film. A Most Peculiar Triangle TRIANGLES, as we've come to know them in story, play or song involve, invariably a man tnd two women, or at least two women arid a mail? In "Clothes Make the Pirate," we have the rare occasion of featuring three women who are concerned with two men, concluding with the vampirish one. dropping out beaten, while the two more domestically inclined come into their own. " ,■ Sounds' somewhat complicated, doesn't, though on the screen the situation is unraveled with the simplicity of dividing an apple into four parts. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that a terrific domestic snarl doesn't ensue, one that contributes much of the entertainment to the film. Oh, yes, and one that, pan be capitalized in an exceptionally good exploitation way. For one thing, get the names: Nita Naldi, Dorothy Gish and Edna Murphy. Beautiful in looks ; prettily gowned, and acting, as only artists of such distinction would offer. Costume shops present a fertile angle for window tie-ups, the stills telling the showman's story in a way that should spell profit for him. You've never seen Dorothy Gish in a part like Tidd's shrewish w,i f e. Oh my! Her tongue makes 4 screeching buzzsaw seem like -the cat's purr.