The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, July 14, 1918 ]ftfr«ftt DAILY 13 Old Idea That Fails to Get Over as More Than Just "Movie" Edith Roberts in "THE DECIDING KISS" Bluebird-Universal DIRECTOR Tod Browning AUTHOR Ethel M. Kelly SCENARIO BY Bernard McConville CAMERAMAN John Webster Brown AS A WHOLE Failed to register as anything but ordinary "movie". STORY Adopted waif returns from finishing school a beautiful loidy and wins affections of hero — Formula No. 32. DIRECTION Registered a few good moments but failed to lift this out of routine "movie" rut. PHOTOGRAPHY Just fair LIGHTINGS Varied from good to fair CAMERA WORK Acceptable STAR Acceptable in latter part of offering but failed to get over as child in opening of story. SUPPORT Satisfactory EXTERIORS Ordinary INTERIOR* Will get by DETAIL Passable; cotton "snow" on exterior set very fakey. CHARACTER OF STORY Not objectionable but never convincing. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION. . .Approximately 5,000 ft. THIS was one of those things where a poor girl is adopted by a wealthy New York society woman who is in love with a young man, with the result that when the girl who has been sent away to school returns as a beautiful young lady, the guardian's fiance becomes infatuated with her. Although Edith Roberts has a rather pleasing personality, her attempts to get over the cute tricks of a girl of twelve or less in the opening of the story utterly fail to convince. Probably feeling that audiences wouldn't accept her as a mere che-ild, they pulled the old gag of bringing a lot of toys for her when she came to her new home which will probably get laughs because one flash of Edith will convince anybody that she has quit playin' with dolls for quite some time. It was the attentions of hero that caused his fiance, through jealousy, to send shero away to school. Hal Cooley and Lottie Cruze were the friends of hero and Winifred Greenwood and they spent most of their time at Winifred's apartments. When shero returns from school a beautiful young lady, wearing long dresses and everything, Winifred notes that her grip on hero's affections is rapidly slipping and tells shero to change her gown as she is much too young to be wearing such clothes. At this point. Hal Cooley, who is also somewhat infatuated with shero's beauty, corners her in another room while the others are eating and forces her to kiss him. This is "The Deciding Kiss" which gives the film its title, it making Edith decide that Hal isn't a nice man to have given her that kind of a kiss, although I don't see how this has much connection with the story as Edith's isn't interested in Hal anyway. Hero comes to shero's rescue when she screams and although this clinches her love for -hero, she, feeling that she is in the way, returns to her old home. Hero traces her there but she doesn't reveal herself knowing that she is indebted to Winifred for having adopted and educated her and that her return would break up Winifred's romance with hero. Then we flash to Christmas dinner in Winifred's apartments with a title getting over that all are lonesome for their little girl. Shero arrives at the apartment and here the whole thing flops, as you want to see shero and hero reunited but instead she says she will always be their little girl. This rather unexpected finish was evidently pinned on after the original film was completed as the synopsis and other publicity given it by Universal states that Winifred gives up her sweetheart to shero, knowing that they really love each other. Winifred Greenwood as the society woman who adopted Miss Roberts was rather good although, due to no fault of hers, her role was not convincing because after having registered her jealousy which contrasted her character with that of shero's, you didn't want to see her triumph at the finish. Thornton Church as the hero played with sincerity and was very likable in the role. Hal Cooley and Lottie Cruze were the unmarried friends of Miss Greenwood's. ~. I >:~_^2igS2^t£K5 iA.P.D.A. •Director <xr JVow directing jfSr Ooldwyh^