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Sunday, December 7, 1919
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AILV
27
Wild and Woolly Western Overacted
Beatriz Michelena in
"THE HEART OF JUANITA"
Robertson-Cole
DIRECTOR George E. Middleton
AUTHORS Captain Leslie Peacocke and
Earle Snell.
SCENARIO BY Not credited
CAMERAMAN Not credited
AS A WHOLE Wild and woolly melodrama of
the old West.
STORY Typical western dance hall type
DIRECTION Satisfactory
PHOTOGRAPHY Mostly good but spoiled in
spots by poor lighting.
LIGHTING Poor
CAMERA WORK Averaged good
STAR. . . .Over acts and smokes too many cigarettes
SUPPORT Satisfactory
EXTERIORS. . . .Well selected; some of great beauty INTERIORS .... Consistent with demands of picture
DETAIL Main characters change affections too
readily and audience laughs in wrong places.
CHARACTER OF STORY Nothing to offend
LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,850 feet
This is a wild and woolly western melodrama of the typical dance hall type, and because it is a western you can undoubtedly get by with it as an average program offering.
Owing to the fact that the main characters in the story change their affections for each other more or less rapidly causing the audience to laugh in the wrong places the quality of the picture is appreciably lessened. It is unfortunate that this mistake should have been made as otherwise it would have been an ecceptable picture of its kind.
Beatriz Michelena has done much better work than she shows in this one. She over-acted all the way through and the cost of production must have been affected by the countless number of cigarettes she
smoked. It seemed as if she was forever lighting a new one. Constant repetition of this kind always palls.
The picture was very poorly tinted in parts and much of the photography would have been excellent if it had not been spoiled by extremely poor lighting.
Juanita is supposed to be a high cast Mexican girl of Castilian blood. She falls in love with Jim Ross, gambler and owner of the dance hall. She dances there and is a prime favorite with all the boys believing that Jim is going to marry her.
Then Blondie, a regular dance hall girl, blows in from Frisco and Jim casts off Juanita for the blond. In a fit of jealousy Juanita stabs him and then flees. She takes refuge with Calvert, a hermit trapper, and falls in love with him. But Calvert is in love with Irene, the parson's daughter, who, while dallying with him has become engaged to the Sheriff. There's complication enough for any struggling moving picture play.
In the end of course these complications are satisfactorily straightened out. Calvert as soon as his eyes are properly opened to Irene's deceitfulness disdainfully hands her the mitten and transfers his affections to Juanita.
There are two corking good fights in the picture, one between Calvert and Jim and the other immediately afterwards between Calvert and the Sheriff. While these fights are going on Juanita is standing off the entire sheriff's posse with a gun.
In the end she is banished because she had tried twice to kill Jim. She leaves in company with the sheriff and is escorted to the border but is almost immediately joined by Calvert who finds that he cannot live without her. The closing scenes of the picture were very beautifully done and somewhat compensate for the things that have gone before.
Others in the cast not previously mentioned were Albert Morrison, Andrew Robson, Clarence Arpar, Irene Outtrim and William Pike.
Western Dance Hall Meller Will Do As a Program Offering
Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor
Because this is a western you can get by with it as hall stuff has been done over and over again but it
an ordinary program picture but do not expect to do ,•,, ^ , ,
, , , ^ still seems to get by. any more than that unless you have a crowd that is
easily pleased and will take anything you hand them. ^'^e the name of the star prominently. Although
Play up the fact that it is a western dealing with the she is not widely known in pictures still she has done
days of the old romantic west. Of course, this dance some very good work in the past.