The Film Daily (1918)

18 ttM DAILY Sunday, July 21, 1918. Players and Treatment Make Frail Plot Acceptable Entertainment Bessie Barriscale in "MAID O' THE STORM" Brunton=Paralta DIRECTOR Raymond B. West SCENARIO BY J. Grubb Alexander and Fred Myton CAMERAMAN Clyde DeVinna AS A WHOLE Rather sIow=moving story lifted by players and fairly good twist at finish. STORY Convenient and incoherent in spots but artistic production and players save it. DIRECTION Provided good atmosphere and developed characterizations rather than action. Allowed several slips in detail. Aeroplane fall was well handled. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally pleasing; some effective coast bits. LIGHTINGS Generally artistic but at times too harsh. CAMERA WORK Very good STAR Very appealing personality; lifted production. SUPPORT Very good EXTERIORS Well chosen INTERIORS Artistic; some lavish settings DETAIL Several slips. American telephones in London bad. Main titles obscured by action backgrounds. CHARACTER OF STORY Is not big but will please LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 5,700 feet 'fTMIIS is a rather slender, slow-moving story that never hits any dramatic high spots, but barring a few minor slips, the characterizations and artistic atmosphere throughout make it fairly pleasing entertainment. Miss Barriscale is beautiful and appealing in tli^s and registers several effective touches and her work alone should make this acceptable tit the average audi< nee. The opening shots show a baby being picked up on a raft by an old fisherman and she is raised as his child until she reaches maturity. An aviator. George Fisher, falls from his areoplarie near the village and Shero falls in love with him while he is convalescing at her home. He leaves for London when his injured leg is healed and Shero determines to go to London and study, that she may be able to approach Hero on his own social plane. She becomes a famous dancer through the influence of Herschel Mayall, a producer, whom she has promised to marry if Hero does not ask to marry her after she has gained fame. Hero meets Shero at a banquet the night of her successful debut and they are introduced. Shero recognizes Hero as her aviator-lover but he registers no surprise upon seeing her. This is very unconvincing as her features have not changed since their first meeting and hero would certainly note the resemblance to the girl he had wooed so recently. At the banquet he announces his coming marriage to Lois Wilson and Shero swoons. Mayall calls upon Shero later and says. '"I win." but she tells him that she will not fulfill her agreement until Hero is married. After their meeting at the banquet Hero is frequently with Shero. unmindful of his approaching marriage and still not recognizing her as the girl he met in the fishing village. It happens that Hero's fiancee has had a previous romance with another man. and learning of Hero's affair with Shero. she elopes with him. Being free. Hero goes to Shero's apartment to ask her to marry him but finds that she has left for Mayall's office to fulfill her agreement. Hero arrives at Mayall's office ahead of Shero and makes plain his intentions of marrying Shero. Mayall proves a man of his word and quietly withdraws. Shero enters, and they finish with the clutch. The story was laid in London and yet we had unmistakable American style telephones conspicuously in evidence in several scenes. Another inconsistency was the prominent display of the flags of the allied nations as a part of the table decorations at the banquet. Hero was not established as an army aviator and had this been a present-day story, surely he would have been in the service, being able-bodied and an adept at flying-. If this is intended as a pre-war story, as the production indicates, the allied flags and the spectacle at the banquet showing a figure holding the flags of America and England certainly don't belong. Others in the cast were: J. J. Dowling. Mvra Davis. Nick Coedev. Hownrd Hickman. Jack Abrams. Ida Lewis. Helen Dunbar. Pietro Duzzi. Clifford Alexander and Nona Thomas. Concentrate on Miss Barriscale's Presence and Artistic Atmosphere The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Folks who enjoy seeing Miss Barriscale, and I think You might hit this angle in your ads: "Lovers have there are very many of such, will probably be enter been brought together in strange ways in the past but tained by this offering because of her presence. The did you ever hear of a man meeting his ideal by fallin -lory is very slender and inconsistent in spots but it has been given a rather artistic production and should slide by satisfactorily with the average audience although it isn't big enough and doesn't hit enough dramatic high spots to warrant your making any undue fuss about it. 1 would concentrate most of my advertising upon the star, mentioning some of her recent offerings, and you might also mention the fact that Raymond B. West directed this, as he has been responsible for many real successes in the past. out of an aeroplane? That's the way Bessie Barriscale's romance started in 'Maid o' the Storm' ". "Do you think that a little waif with whom you fell in love could become so famous and beautiful in a year that you would fail to recognize her after you had wooed her for the second time in a different environment? SfV Bessie Barriscale in 'Maid 0' the Storm' ". "If you had agreed to marry a man in return for certain favors, would you keep to your promise even though you loved another man? See Bessie Barriscale in 'Maid o' the Storm' ".