Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

January 12, 1918. MOTOGRAPHY 87 ment it will appeal to many who seek diversion. Its players are likeable, its scenes varied and amusing. The photography and lighting effects are especially commendable. Elmer Clifton directed the picture from a story by J. Grubb and Waldemar Young. The supporting cast of players includes Hayward Mack, Nellie Allen, Ed Brady, Marc Fenton, Harry Mann, Frank McQuarrie and Al. McQuarrie. The Story: Donald Bruce has trouble keeping up with the v if fly , « m *k *** . jft ^k ■■H: 'r^ W""""^ 1 J '4% ! ''i #* r d^jj'yi 1H tear § ~> w 11 «» * /« /Ar court of the king. curriculum of his college course but little difficulty in winningmembership in one of the exclusive societies. He is initiated into this secret order by their usual elaborate rites, which make a great impression on him. Donald is in love with Hulda Maroff, whose father is supposed to be a nobleman in disguise. Donald Bruce's room-mate declares himself the missing heir to a foreign kingdom. He asks Donald to take his place when a message arrives commanding him to take his place on the throne. Donald goes in his friend's place and is accepted as the real prince. By means of the secret signals of his society, he is able to gain admittance to a conference of anarchists and learns that the prince is to be killed. Donald decides to go back on his bargain, until he learns that Hulda is the princess he is to wed. He marries her and foils the plot against their lives. Then he wakes up and finds it all a dream. He is still in college and Hulda still lives on the next street. 'The Cinderella Man" Goldwyn Picture with Mae Marsh. Reviewed Helen Rockwell by THIS is the sort of picture which helps to raise the movies to a higher plane and it is undoubtedly the best picture which Goldwyn has yet produced. It is brimful of delightful touches ' and human characterizations, is clean and sweet and wholesome to a degree, pleasurable to the eye, and topped by Mae Marsh's charm is veritably a picture to be remembered and remarked upon. As a play "The Cinderella Man" met with considerable success on the stage two winters ago, and as a picture it should prove even more popular. The Cinderella theme is one which never grows stale no matter how often it is presented or in what disguise. It is the basis of almost every play or bit of fiction which has ever known popularity. In this instance the one who needs must sit at home while others frolic is a young poet who quits his father's palatial mansion to make his way unaided in the world, and who isn't very successful until a wealthy young girl comes along and plays good fairy to him. She finds him in his cold attic room and transforms it into fairy-land. The love story written around these two characters is particularly charming and will please young and old. The picture is one which will endure, a delightful change from the commonplace pictures which one meets on all sides. Mae Marsh wins the affections of the spectators from the start and plays with an ingenuousness which is captivating. One of the features of the picture which stands out in memory is the wonderful portrayal of the father by George Fawcett. His performance is truly the work of an artist. Others in the cast who do excellent work are Tom Moore, Alec Francis, Dean Ray mond, Harry Scarborough, Louis Grisel and Elizabeth Ariaans. George Loane Tucker directed the picture which is thoroughly satisfying from every point of view. The story: Marjorie Caner arrives at her father's home after having been reared abroad. The father is a soured old individual who isn't at all pleased to have his daughter break in upon his peace and quiet and upset his routine. His one thought is to have his daughter married quickly, to any fortune huntingperson who might happen to come along, just as long as he doesn't have to be bothered with her. Margy is very lonely in her huge, cheerless mansion and has only for companions her father's three old cronies, a lawyer, a musician and a doctor. These men have succumbed to Margie's charms and resenting her father's attitude they plan to give her the romance and joys for which her nature craves. Next door, in the attic of an apartment house, lives a poor poet, vainly hoping to some day have his beautiful poems recognized, and in the meantime nearly starving and freezing from the cold. Margie and her three confederates, at Christmas time, sneak over the snowy roofs to the poet's attic room and transform it into a gorgeous fairy-land. At least the poet thinks a fairy must have wrought the change until he spies Margie who didn't get away in time, and then he denounces her as the rich, spying Miss Caner from next door. Margie insists, however, that she is Miss Caner's companion, and a charming friendship springs up which ripens into love. The father, in the meantime, has been made aware of Margie's presence and through her loving devotion his heart has undergone a change. He discovers Margie's love for the poet, saves her from an affair with a fortune-hunting scoundrel and gives her her heart's desire. The poet wins a prize in a contest for his poetry, and all ends happily. 'The Man Above the Law Triangle Picture with Claire McDowell. Released January 6. Reviewed by Helen Rockwell PICTURESQUE scenes and interesting characters, worked into a plot of more than average interest, are three important factors which will insure this offering of popularity. There is portrayed a certain vivid realism of an uncivilized community which is accentuated by the appearance of a timid little teacher, arrived to teach to the natives the beauties of the Holy Gospel. She finds her chief obstacle in Duke Chalmers, a man disillusioned by life who has made his home amongst the Indians and taught them to fear him more than anything on earth. He bears a horrible and unjust grudge against religion, law and women, but the teacher points out to him the error of his ways and when he falls in love with her and she with him sends him back to his Indian wife, as a good missionary should. One becomes a wee bit bored by the saccharine goodness of the Boston missionary person and heartily glad when Duke returns to his jealous squaw. The squaw as portrayed by Claire McDowell is a most picturesque and desirable life companion for the most fastidious individual, and one particularly to be admired by picture fans. An adorably natural child, May Giracia, plays the part of a little Indian girl in such a winning manner that she captivates the spectators from the start and walks away with half the honors of the picture. Jack Richardson is well cast as Duke Chalmers and Josie Sedgwick is seen as the offensively sweet teacher. The picture is fully entertaining and many of the scenes are very beautiful, notably the ones of a sand storm at night. The lighting effects deserve special praise. The picture was directed by Raymond Wells and photographed by Pliny Horn. The story: Duke Chalmers is known as Man-Above-theLaw in an uncivilized Indian settlement near the Mexican border, where he lives with his Indian squaw Natchah and child Tonah. The Indians fear him terribly and he binds them to him by sailing them whiskey. Chalmers is terribly embittered against law, religion and women and takes his keenest pleasure in reading the false philosophy, of Omar Khayam. When Esther Browns arrives at the post to conduct a mission school for the native children, his anger is great because she represents to him that civilized world which he has left behind him and which he thinks he loathes. He refuses to allow Tonah to attend the mission school and so the other children of the settlement are kept away also. Esther pleads with Duke to allow Tonah to go to school and also to stop selling whiskey to the natives. Duke finally concedes to the former request but refuses the latter. After this the two spend man) pleasant evenings together with their books. Natchah, feeling the barrier of breed, hates the white girl