The Bioscope (May-Jun 1915)

[HE BIOSCOPE, JUNE 3, 1915. Q4I “A Woman At Bay,’ and “As Men are Made.’ TWO EXCLUSIVES FROM MESSRS. BISHOP, PESSERS. At the Shaftesbury Pavilion on the 25th ult. Muassrs. Bishop, Pessers and Co. showed two powerful American dramas, each in three recls, by the Balboa and Life Photo Film Companies. The first, “A Woman at Bay.” dealing with the lower state of life in New York, and the second, “As Men are Made,” being a story of the American Civil War. Each belongs to a type of which the American producers has made a particular study and it is not too much to say that no one can equal the American producer in this class of work. Each has all the advantagcs of careful and painstaking production which pays equal attention to the broad effect and the most trivial detail of thoroughly adequate representation and of techmeal quality of a very high order. “A Woman at Bay ois perhaps kely to make the wider popular appeal by virtue of the human clement in its) story, being concerned with the trials of a young girl who finds hersclf compelled by circumstances to seck a living in a vreat city without friends to whom she can appeal for protection or advice. Clara’s parents have an orange farm in Cahforma, but the season has been bad and she determines to find cmployment ino New York. Here she falls into the hands of Ienry Svorm, a waster who is attracted by her beauty, and shows her attentions for which, in her friendless condition, she is grateful. PLE soon secures her affecuon, which renders it casy for him to vet possession of her savings, the real object of his desire. It is not long before she is disillusioned for, passing the window of a fashionable cafe, she sees him spending her hard earned wages in the company of another woman. She has a revolver with her and she is only saved from a desperate act by Carl Knight, a young man who happens to be passing at the time. ITHler expertence in the city having ended in disaster, she returns home to her parents. She keeps up a correspondence with Carl, who eventually takes a ranch near Clare's home, and the two become engaged. = Storm, however, finds her out. and on one occasion, when she is alone, he makes a forcible catrance and compels her to leave with him, reminding her that she is his promised wife, and forcing her to leave a note expluning that she has gone away to be married. = During her absence her father discovers that a large sum of money, entrusted to him by Carl, his disappeared, and he jumps to the conclusion that Clare and her lover hav: taken it. Clare manages to escape from her captors, but when she arrives home late at night Google nation and saving his father’s her father sternly refuses her admittance. On Carl's return he finds her in a fainung condition on the threshold. Ile explains that he himself took the moncy at the last moment and the reconcihation is complete. This is a somewhat artless expedient on the part of the author in order to jusufy the harshness of Clare’s father, who might well have been expected to listen to her explanation before refusing to receive her back. In every other respect it 1S a powerful and well constructed story, admirably played and produced with realistic detail, which carries conviction and will ensure its verv favourable reception. The part of Clare is particularly ctfcctive, and she early sccures the sympathies of the spectators and retains them to the end. ‘As Men Arc Made’ as) described as a psychological problem = play, the hero beme a youth who, through premature influences, is a coward, but who, being the soa of a distinguished officer, is destined for a mnilitary career. The story of aiman by sheer moral strength overcomes his physical cowardice has been treated very ettectively by Mr. aA. FE. W. Mason in his fine novel, “ The Four Feathers,” but the story of Wallace Grey is hardly so logical and imposes a somewhat severe strain on one’s credulity, for the causc of his cowardice appears to be more physical than mental, and it is not casy to believe that a Red Indian's chance bullet could perform an Operation requiring the glelicacy of a skilled surgeon and by removing an obstruction on the brain instantly transform a coward into a veritable hero. In this case, however, the psychological problem may be accepted as the licence of romance and the film will be welcomed as a thrilling and extremely picturesque war story. Wallace Grey, who is a timid and frightened child from his birth, is brought up with two ttle wards of his father, a strong affection growing between him and the elder girl, Florence. An Indian raid inspires Wallace with such terror that he deserts the two girls ina moment of great danger, and to redeem this action he enlists under an assumed name. He deserts from his regtment While it is in action, and it is while he is in hiding that a chance shot works such a remarkable change in his character. Ile gives himself up and while he is undergoing punishment he gets the chance of delivering a message In a part of the country which ‘is invested by the enemy. Ife succeeds in reaching his desticommand from defeat and is acclaimed as a veritable hero by