The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, July 14, 1918 jii'M AIL.Y 15 Just "Fillum" with Star Handicapped by Ordinary Story and Direction William Desmond in "HELL'S END" Triangle DIRECTOR J. W. McLaughlin AUTHOR Steve Richardson SCENARIO BY Chas. J. Wilson, Jr. CAMERAMAN S, S. Norton AS A WHOLE Rather mechanical "movie" with attempted characterization overshadowed by ordinary action. STORY Old junk of conflict between society and rough nugget with ordinary me!o= dramatic incidents. DIRECTION Failed to lift this at any time by either characterization studies, atmosphere or convincing drama. PHOTOGRAPHY Ordinary straight stuff LIGHTINGS A few good but generally ordinary and too uniform. CAMERA WORK Poor composition and no artistry STAR Pleasing hero but fearfully handicapped SUPPORT Some good types but failed to convince as anything except made=up actors. EXTERIORS Acceptable INTERIORS Just passable. Never distinctive DETAIL Acceptable, some of the characters rather Keystoney. CHARACTER OF STORY Girl's desire to belong to boss. May cause some reformer to fuss a bit LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,500 feet WE saw two Triangle pictures together this week and each one started off with the hod-carrier who had just acquired much wealth. The stories so far as underlying theme was concerned were prac tically the same except that in one a girl was having her trouble breaking into society because she was a hodcarrier's daughter, while in the other we found a tough who was considered not good enough to associate with the daughter of the ex-hod-carrier who was now in society. It was pretty hard to figure just where these two attitudes fit. Anyway the characterization thought was lost most of the time because the action was straight mechanical "movie" stuff drifting along to the point where the hero palled the final fight which made him boss of Hell's End again and then of course the recent few months of hard work had convinced him that he didn't want to live in Hell's End anyway. We had the customary hokum of Bill who cannot learn to smoke anything but his pipe and this was contrasted with Bill Desmond as the fighting boss of the very tough district which registered in a cheap bar room a lot of tough characters, who from their make-up seemed to belong in a Keystone Comedy. Early in the offering we saw the hod-carrier's family leaving Dubin's Alley and found that the shero-to-be, as a kid, was in love with the hero-to-be. Then with many years passed, Desmond was introduced as the fighting dictator of Hell's End and to prove that he could fight they staged the regulation rough house in which he put out his competitor for power, but in turn was put out himself by the gink with the bottle. It just happened that the shero was slumming in Hell's End that night and so she of course took Irish Bill to care for him in her own pet hospital. Her brother then put Bill to work, after his recovery, for the purpose of developing his muscles so that he would be able to go back and whip the man who had taken his place as the boss of Hell's End. They fussed around with a little love interest between Bill and the shero and then sent the smiling one back to clean up Hell's End. which he did, only to realize that he didn't care whether it was cleaned up or not. With that finish they pulled the clutch and said "The End." In the cast were: Josie Sedgwick. Louis Durham, Dorothy Hagar and Chas. Dorian. Keep It on The Shelf if You Can, or Let It Ride Softly The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Poor old Bill Desmond is certainly having it hung on him when they shoot out stuff like this with him as the star. Bill is good; Bill is well liked and with the right kind of direction and story material he would be stepping.on the heels of some of our very lady killers. It doesn't take many of these things however to kick a hole in a fellow's following and if Bill doesn't watch his step they'll have him shifted into the discard. If your gang expects you to hang something on them about once or twice a week, you may get this by because it isn't terrible, it just isn't anything. Most of your fans will know it by heart and because there are a couple of fights, they may let it ride without too loud a wail as they do the exit. You can't afford to make much noise about this and of course if you can, you should side-step it. If you have to present it, I would talk about Bill Desmond appearing as the boss of the toughest street in the country and let it go at that. You migh be safe in shooting one or two ads with the question: "Can a tough be made into a gentleman? What do you think?" "Did you ever hear of a hard »uy who was willing to work six months to get strong enough to whip another fellow? See Bill Desmond as the boss in 'Hell's End' ".