Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1921)

28 MOVING PICTURE AGE February, 1921 All Will Enjoy "Edgar Camps Out" Grown-ups enjoy the Edgar Series because they bring back reminiscences of "kid" days. Children like them because they take childhood seriously instead of being satire Reviewed by Moving Picture Age A Johnny Jones as Edgar LTHOUGH it is difficult to get an adult to confess that he enjoys "kid" shows he nevertheless is usually very much interested in them. An example of this is in the annual pilgrimage of father to the circus "To take the children." To a grown-up who has seen one of the Edgar Series written by Booth Tarkington and produced by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, the lure is much the same as that of the circus. Johnny Jones, who takes the leading part and is just past 12, seems to have that happy faculty of just acting natural and makes himself a true boy through and through. Edgar's two playmates, Alice and Freddie, get into the action and are full of fun, too. Several other children take part and make the series one in which the grown-ups take the minor parts. The entire series covers twelve two reel productions, and while they may lack some of Booth Tarkington's humor they carry through in acting practically as much as could be expected to be brought from the written word to the acted drama. The series has been accepted so well by the public that steps are under way to add several more productions to the series of twelve originally planned. Ten of the original twelve have been released, and may be obtained from the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, New York City, or write the exchange nearest you as listed in "1001 Films," the nontheatrical film directory issued by Moving Picture Age. In "Edgar Camps Out," Edgar's playmates had received a present of a new tent and, like many children, selfishly had refused to allow Edgar to play in their tent. In his desire to play Edgar gets into a number of humorous "kid" incidents. Edgar, however, is not to be outdone and makes a tent of his own and advertises a circus. Edgar gets the children to fix up as parts of his circus and has a wild man, talking zebra, and all the other freaks. The circus is quite humorous and completely outrivals the neighbor's tent. The mothers, however, do not appreciate the joke and each child has his own reckoning. Edgar then decides to sleep out in his tent. Edgar induced one of his playmates to spend the night with him in the tent, but the latter's parents caught him as he was slipping out of the house, so Edgar had to sneak out of his room and camp out alone. This was no fun at all, for the wind began to blow, cats scampered over the tent, frogs croaked and hopped inside — and, worse than all, Edgar's imagination began to work ! He saw monstrous shapes, Indians in war paint, masked burglars, a bat large as a man, and a huge giant. Finally a real white horse sticks his head into the tent. Edgar can stand it no longer. Edgar's parents jumped out of bed and rushed into the yard to rescue their son from his imaginary fears. They carried him into the house and showed him that he had seen nothing but a gentle old white horse. Thus reassured, Edgar said : "I wasn't afraid. I only thought I might ketch cold or somep'm." In this film there are some real good scenes, which although not exactly models for action, show how children can and do behave and still not be "terrible." In all, the series is a fairly good set of clean comedies, and is well worth investigation for those who like to have a short comedy. In Chicago one of the loop theaters arranged to give a free showing between 11 a. m. and 3 p. m. to members of the Peter Rabbit Club. It was arranged to have those holding club numbers within certain ranges to go on definite dates. This club has about three thousand members and is made up of children who read the Peter Rabbit stories by Thornton W. Burgess, which are appearing in one of the evening papers. Edgar fixes up a carpenter shop in the barn, but because the neighbor children have a tent his shop is deserted Finally Edgar set up a tent of his own and put on a circus. The mothers of the "wild an.mals," however, did not appreciate it