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October 30, 1926
Universal Wekklv
19
her Of Them All
"The Fourth Conimandement" was not designed to make people weep — but it ivill make them weep. It will move them as they have never been moved by a picture. And it will make them see. It is sincere.
Mary Carr, famous for her mother portrayal in "Over the Hill" and other big pictures, is the mother in "The Fourth Commanchnent." She plays a simple role — unadorned by tearful, maudlin sentimentality.
Throughout the entire action of the picture, which records the highlights of three generations, during which cities are laid waste and families dismembered, not one self-pitying tear is shed by the screen's greatest mother. Her performance is quiet and restrained. But because of her simple and unemotional portrayal audiences will be carried away in the overpowering drift of the epic of motherhood.
The earth trembles and a city crumbles into dust. Thousands are left homeless. Millionaires are brought low. Paupers exalted. The struggle for place and power begins anew.
The picture opens with these melotlramatic scenes which tell in terms of swiftness, violence and grandeur, the tabloid talo of the "big quake." And then comes the gripping, heart rending human sequel that follows after the swarming hordes have scattered to new shelter.
The Mother With the "Face of an Angel"
Never has a more gasping spectacle than the opening scenes of "The Fourth Commandment" been presented on the screen. But these colossal disturbances pale into insignificance when compared to the dramatic power of the mother of screen mothers. Quiet, unassuming and smiling always, this white haired woman who has "the face of an angel" can, with a gentle gesture, sway an audience that sits unmoved through blood and fire — sway them to laughter as well as tears, for "The Fourth Commandment" strikes chords at both ends of the scale.
Belle Bennett, in the leading role, pyramids the glory that she won in "Stella Dallas," for in "The Fourth Commandment" she is absorbed in a subject 1 bigger than the world and portrays a character that
will stand as a unique and marvelous achievement.
Both mothers knoiv the crueltii of a jealous Toman — their sons' wives — in this dra ma.