The Film Daily (1919)

Sunday, July 6, 1919 iM^ DAILY 17 Good Production Doesn't Camouflage Thin Story Bessie Love in "GupiD Forecloses" Vitagraph DIRF:CTOR David Smith AUTHOR Florence Morse Kingsley SCENARIO BY Stanley Olmstead and Edward J. Montagne. CAMERAMAN Not credited AS A WHOLE SIow=nioving and obvious for the most part; not enough story to hold up for five reels. STORY Adapted from the novel circulated under the title "Hurrying Fate and Geraldine." DIRECTION Struggles to hold up suspense and tries to cover cheap article by fine attire. PHOTOGRAPHY Excellent LIGHTINGS Proper on interiors and exteriors CAMERA WORK Unusually good; some novel camera tricks introduced. STAR Her winsomeness gets her by for the greater part of picture; has little real work to do. SUPPORT Wallace McDonald a conventional hero; others up to mark. EXTERIORS Some very pretty stuff, photo= graphed under best conditions. INTERIORS. . . .Help keep up atmosphere of broken= down aristocracy. DETAIL Shows especial care even in very minor things; wasted on poor story. CHARACTER OF STORY Cheap debt=must=be= paid=to=save=the=home stuff. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,279 feet EVERYBODY concerned seems to liave struggled niiinfully to make something of "Cupid Forecloses." but the finished product shapes up as a quite poor bit of motion picture entertainment. Tlie picture is another example of where a story not worth very much for screen purposes has been dressed up in production and otherwise painstakingly camouflaged to make it look like a regular picture. But it is not; it is just a well-produced film that becomes tiresome and obvious to the viewer soon after the first two reels. From then on it is just a case of waiting patiently until the end. with an occasional appeal to the eye and with very infrequent appeals to the intellect. Detail lias been watched carefully, and there are incidental bits of business in a school room that have a fair auKunt of interest. Suspense is almost entirely lacking, llowe^ er. and in an effort to hold it up an attempt has been made to force the issue of withholding an identity until the last reel, which results very often in triteness and abrupt shifts from one line of action to another. This often causes confusion instead of interest. Some rather unusual camera work has been done in this one. Particularly is this true of that footage showing on the screen at the same time the girl walking along a road and the herb in an automobile rushing along another to overtake her. Also worthy of commendation is the iris work, in which emphasis is placed on a figure thronsh the usual iris method, but which allows the remainder of the scene to be seen dimly, instead of being entirely bla(d<. But all the good production in the wf)rld could not make the film good entertainment. The story is simply not "there." There is not one really big situation O! any unusual trend. For the most part it is a lot of uninteresting stuff about how the girl endeavors to save the old family home from being sold for debt. Bessie Love is the girl — the winsome breadwinner of a household which once was the most aristocratic in the village. The atmosphere of broken-down aristocracy is carried throughout the footage, and the fineness of these folk is contrasted with the crassness of a newly-rich pair who afl'ord a slight bit of comedy relief. Also the small-town locale of the story permits of the use of several good types and the registering of some rural philosophy. Bessie is a school-marm whose life becomes darkened when a lawyer from the city says the old family house must be sold to satisfy a debt contracted by Bessie's grandfather before his death. Bessie writes to the man to whom the money is said to be due, and tells him how mean she thinks he is. Here enters the action with \^'allace ^McDonald, whom Bessie believes to be the crabby lawyer's partner. Mutual interest is aroused. Then through many lightly glossed over ends the picture reaches the point where Bessie believes McDonald to be married — to have eloped with the grocery keeper's daughter. However, it later proves that McDonald is none other than the man to whom Bessie's grandfather was supposed to owe the money. The financial part was fixed up. anyway, when Bessie found a receipt. Of course, things turn out right for Bessie and ]\IcDonald. Included in the cast are Anne Schaefer. Dorothea AVolbert, Frank Hayes, Jim Donnelly, Aggie Herring. Jake Abram, Gordon Griffith and Otto Lederer. iWii ini^lMiMMfliiMiiiunaMiiiDnojiiDi Established 19 W QUALITY SERVICE PERFECT DEVELOPING AND PRINTING Tinting — Toning — Titles MOTION PICTURES MADE TO ORDER Industrial — Photoplaylets — Educational MDLTIPLE-SET STUDIO FOR RENT 1339-51 Diversey Pky. CHICAGO