The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

24 THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY Harry Carter as the Gray Ghost. D AKE a look at the tool chest of the Gray Ghost, now that it is open, and the instruments with which he works laid out for your inspection. These are the tools by the use of which he carries out his plans, and puts through the nefarious schemes which form the plot of the newest Universal serial, named after him, and adapted by its director, Stuart Paton, from the Saturday Evening Post success, "Loot," by Arthur Somers Roche. A glance at these men will convince you that all the adjectives which are fittingly applied to "tools" may be used to describe them. "Sharp as a razor," "tough as steel," "hard as nails" — don't these expressions suit the men whose sinister countenances decorate the head of this page? -There is Dan Leighton, in the character of "Brant" who is introduced AS a tool who only follows instructions. There is Wilton Taylor, as ^'Ashby," the Gray Ghost's lieutenant. There is the master's valet, Frank Tokonaga, and Francis MacDonald, who made such an impression in the role of "Red" Warren in the "Voice on the Wire," and who plays Williams, secretary to Arabin, the great Fifth Avenue jeweler, who is making the necklace which Hildreth, the hero, has been sent to America to obtain. Williams in reality is in the pay of the mysterious general. There is Burton Law as a strong-armed crook, and John Cook, who will be remembered for his excellent work as Bob Ci-atchitt in Julian's version of "The Christmas Carol" of Dickens, which was a New Year's Bluebird. He plays the part of the bank watchman, John Rees, who enables the Gray Ghost's lieutenants to engineer the robbery with which the story opens. The victim in this case is the weakest tool of all, a man of quite different type, the son of the banker who has lost money to the Gray Ghost and is completely in his power. His name in the serial is Fred Olmstead and he is played by J. Morris Foster. The daintiest tool in the whole collection is the musical comedy star. Morn Light, played by Priscilla Dean, and much too delicate to be included with the others. She has to have a box to herself. And what of the master mind who The Gray Ghost is By controls these instruments and makes them do his will, take his orders, and submit to his faultfinding when they fail? The Gray Ghost is one of the most impressive personalities of the screen, and is played in the most satisfactory manner by Harry Carter, the Universal's villain par excellence, who has an enviable reputation as a ruffian. "To play villains consistently well is surely an achievement to be proud of," he says, and he ought to know, for he is one of the most persistent ruffians in pictures. Whenever you see a tall, powerful, blonde brute in a Universal feature, whose heart is as black as his looks are fair, and who is giving an exhibition of consummate devilishness of the strong-arm variety; you may be reasonably sure that you are looking upon the excessively Igood-natured and popular Harry [Carter, who has to belie his character for a living. There are different grades and species of villainy of course, just as there are grades of respectability, or blondeness, or anjrthing else. Motion picture villains, roughly speaking, (and how else should one speak of I