The Bioscope (May-Jun 1915)

1156 MAY IRWIN “MRS. BLACK IS BACK.” A Comedy by FAMOUS PLAYERS. THE STORY. Me BLACK, formerly a plump and good-natured widow, tells Professor Black, her newly-made husband, whom she adores and fears, that .she is twenty-nine, instead of thirty-six—her real age. To further convince him of her youth, she tells him also that her son John, whom he has never seen, is aged ten, when “Little Johnny” is, “in reality, a husky young fellow of seventeen, in School in England. He is fully 6 ft. tall, and quite up to date, even to his lrish valet. Not being able to tell the , Professor this, Mrs. Black invents a mythical “Aunt Prue,” living in New England, with whom Johnny ‘S supposed to be staying. The Professor has to curb his impatience to see his new son, and meanwhile vents his fondness in buying toys for “the child.” ‘n order to regain the slimness of her youth, Mrs. Black takes reducing exercises from a physical culture teacher. 7 om Larkey, but loses more money and patience than flesh. As Son Johnny writes he is in need of money, and wants to come home, she takes the four hundred dollars due to Larkey, which she sends to her beloved offspring, telling him he must stay in England. The Professor decides he needs building ub, and sends for an instructor, who proves to be Larkey. Meanwhile her son has promptly lost the money sent him in poker, and gives a Spaniard an | OU for four hundred dollars on the back of an envelope addressed to his mother, Mrs. Black. The Staniard coming to America, looks up Mrs. Black, and, finding her, demands the four hundred owed him by her son: so all her mgenuity is taxed to dodge the two creditors. But the worstis yet to come! Son John falls in love with a pretty girl in England and follows her to America, telegraphing his mother on his arrival in New Vorb that he will soon be wth her. And Mrs. Black has just learned from her dignified husband that he never forgives a liar! Then things begin to happen, with Mrs. Black as the prime factor. Jack and his valet arrive, the valet is presented as © Aunt Prue's” husband, and Jack masquerades first as the gas-man and finally as Lizzie, the new cook. Of course the fatal truth at last comes out, and the penitent Vrs. Black leaps into an auto, about which she understands nothing, and runs away. Her frantic husband sees the machine smash, and when, after believing her gone from him for ever, he learns that she escaped injury, he is so &lad to find “* Mrs. Black is Back. that he readily forfives her deception, welcomes son Jack, and the comedy ends asa comedy should—with a laugh. : Tue Bioscopr, June 17, 19Ts JOHN EMERSON “ CONSPIRACY.’ A Detective Drama by FAMOUS PLAYERS. SYNOPSIS. 7 the delightful detective comedydrama, “The Conspiracy,” by Robert Baker and John Emerson, one of the most thrilling of recent theatrical success, Mr. John Emerson appears in the role originally created by him in the stage production of the drama, that of Winthrop Clavering, the eccentric old author of crime Stories, and solver of mysteries, a@ unique and artistic portrayal that especially deserves screen: immortality. The production also marks the first presentation of Charles Frohman to the motion picture public. Winthrop Clavering’s literary triumphs are embittered by the scoffing of certain rival writers. So when a murder ts committed by an unknown person, Clavering throws himself eagerly into a solution of the mystery, and begins a nex story which is to deal with the present case in hand. The murder was that of a Spaniard, Pedro Alvarez, in his roons at the Beaumont Hotel. Just before dying the victim had the strength to gasp over the telephone that his murderer was a woman, but nothing more had been learned save that a veiled woman had visited him that afternoon, of whom all trace had been lost. Even his stenographer, a young girl, was strangely missing. Clavering, needing the assistance of a stenographer himself, visits the City Refuge for Homeless Girls. He engages a young girl who a young reporter recogmises as a girl he had rescued from a band of crooks, and before she leaves with Clavering gets her confidence and her story. Her real name is Margaret Holt, and she is sister of the assistant to the District Attorney. She was at one time the captive of a band of white slavers, known as the Scarlet Band. and had escaped from the place during the fire. Ever since this terrible experience the girl and her brother had hounded the Scarlet Band, in whose existence Clavering was the only other believer. The young reporter promises to help Margaret, who had killed the Spaniard to save her brother, who was in danger from the miscreants. Thanking him, she goes with Clavering, and to her horror, discovers it is the story of the murder she herself committed that she is to work on. Clavering’s astute discovery of this fact, how he captures the famous Scarlet Band, refuting the sneers of his incredulous enemies, and helps along the romance of his young stenographer and the cub reporter, is amusingly and excitingly told in one of the most stirring of film dramas. J. D. WALKER’S World’s Films, Ltd., 166-170, WARDOUR STREET, W. TELE PHONE—Regent 1596. GRAPH—“Exclufilm, Ox, London.’ Buy and Sell “THE FILM Digitized by Google 124, Dale Street, Liverpool. 12, John Bright Street, Birmingham, (Telephone—Midland 227). 12, Cannon Street, Manchester. And at LIFE OF MARY PICKFORD¢}?; ¢)):,3) from NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY