The Moving Picture Weekly (1920-1921)

THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY 31 Service Page tor "The Road to Divorce" AT A GLANCE SUBJECT— "The Road to Divorce." LENGTH— Five Reels. STAR — Mary MacLaren. PREVIOUS HITS— "A Petal on the Current," "The Unpainted Woman," "The Weaker Vessel," "Bonnie, Bonnie Lassie," "Rouge and Riches," etc. CAST— Edward Peil, Bonnie Hill, Eugenie Forde, Helen Davidge, Roy Stecker. DIRECTED BY— Philip Rosen. STORY BYW. Grubb Alexander. SCENARIO BY— J. Grubb Alexander. LOCALE— A New England Village and the Coast of Maine. TIME— The Present. THUMB-NAIL THEME— The story of a New England doctor who thinks he has outgrown his wife just because she is so occupied with domestic affairs that she fails to cultivate her natural charm. The "other woman" happens along and the married pair are nearing a crisis when a threatened tragedy brings the physician to his senses and to a realization that his wife means all the world to him. ADVERTISING PUNCHES. 1 — The popularity of the star. 2 — The fact that the feature was directed by Philip Rosen, the man who filmed "The Miracle Man." 3 — The unusual excellence of the supporting cast, including Ed waid Peil, Eugenie Forde and Bonnie Hill. 4 — The presence in the cast of three of the cleverest youngsters on the screen — Arthur Redden, Gloria Holt and Roy Stecker. 5 — The great lesson brought home by the appealing story. 6 — One of the most remarkable storms at sea ever produced. 7 — The many laughable and tender effects gained by the use of clever birds, animals and children. 8 — Beautiful moonlight, marine and stereoscopic photography. 9 — The many humorous episodes incident to a small town wedding. 10 — A story which faithfully mirrors everyday life. CAST Mary Bird Mary MacLaren Nathan Bird William Ellingford Mrs. Bird Alberta Lee Dr. Shaw Edward Peil Aunt Mehitable Eugenie Forde Little Jane Gloria Holt Little Johnny Arthur Redden Pauline Dallas Bonnie Hill Little Son Roy Stecker N»ra Helen Davidge yHE wedding of Mary Bird and Dr. Myron Shaw was a wonderful event for the farming colony on the stern New England coast. All the family relatives were on hand, and Pauline Dallas, Mary's fashionable friend from Boston, was maid of honor. After the wedding Dr. Shaw established his young bride in a pretty cottage by the sea. All Mary's dreams were coming true. It was just like playing house. A few years passed. The stork has visited the Shaw family on two occasions and Mary finds so much to occupy her mind and time in the care of the babies that she begins to neglect herself and her husband. The husband is often compelled to eat alone because Mary must look after the children. She is too busy dressing the infant to think of adorning herself in her former pretty frocks. Unconsciously the two are drifting apart. The husband thinks he has outgrown his wife and Mary is worried over Myron's growing indifference. At this time Pauline Dallas comes to visit them. Pauline is dressed in the height of .fashion. She is interested in politics, in the latest feminist movements — while Mary scarcely has time to read the papers. No wonder the husband makes a mental comparison of the women, and Mary suffers by contrast. On the final day of Pauline's visit the doctor takes her for a sail. Their proximity tempts Myron to unburden his thoughts, and he tells the Boston girl that he cannot find in his wife the sympathy his higher intellectual nature requires. Just as their conversation is about to reach the danger point, the doctor's attention is called to the storm which is fast approaching. By hard work he manages to make a landing in the semi-darkness. Arriving home, exhausted and drenched, he is informed that Mary had gone for a swim in his absence and had not yet returned. Forgetting all but his wife in his anxiety, he rushes out in the storm to search for Mary. In the raging surf, with the furious storm about him. he realizes what his wife means to him and what life would be without her. When she is finally rescued he carries her tenderly home, and the few unhappy years are forgotten in the hour of their reunion. ADVERTISING DISPLAY LINES It was not until he thought he had lost his wife that he realized what she meant to him. Then — was it too late? See the powerful story told in "The Road to Divorce." They failed to heed the danger signal on the sea of matrimony. It was not until the breakers were just ahead that the husband sensed the danger in "The Road to Divorce." They were moving steadily along "The Road to Divorce." He didn't realize it until his wife was gone. See Mary MacLaren's latest Universal picture. It took a violent upheaval in the life of the young husband to bring him to his senses. He felt that he had outgrown the mother of his children. A family tragedy is narrowly averted in "The Road to Divorce." "A man's best friend in this world is his wife." But it required an impending domestic disaster to make this clear to the young husband in "The Road to Divorce." "Why can't I be beautiful?" Many a wife has said that to herself, struggling to hold back the tears, as she saw life's greatest drama fading away. But the wife in "The Road to Divorce" had saintly beauty of motherhood and her husband finally saw it.