Cinema Art (November 1926)

CINEMA ART zAt the Qinema (Continued from page 34) PAMABISE —First National. Story by Cosmo Hamilton. Directed by Irwin Willat. CAST Milton Sills, Betty Bronson, Noah Beery, Lloyd Whitlock, Kate Price, Charlie Murray, Claude King, Charles Brook, Ashley Cooper. This hodge-podge of random scenes appears to have been assembled for but two purposes. First to show Milton Sills and Betty Bronson in uncounted, ecstatic embraces, and second to allow Milton Sills and Noah Beery to fight it out ferociously like the scowling he- men that they are. Possibly this is all right. Certainly Miss Bronson makes one of the most delectable armfuls we have seen in many a reel, but even kissing, oh my children, becomes weari- some after the first hour and a half. And if he grabs her into his manly arms once, he does it a hundred times in “Paradise.” Well, this may be paradise of a sort. But “Paradise” on the screen is a scrappy, disconnected affair. Its tempo changes ab- ruptly every few minutes and the locale changes often enough for the story to be a Cook’s Tour. Some of the South Sea Island scenes have short flashes of the beauty that is in “Moana,” but they are too short to count. It’s time for Mr. Sills and Miss Bronson to be kissing again, right away quick. The story starts in an airplane, swoops to an Artists’ Ball, steps out to get married, and slides to first base in the poor but happy home of the newly married couple. It then sprints about, warming up, preparatory to a swim to a South Sea Island to dig up a buried treasure. Teddy (Lloyd Whitlock) is so disappointed when the girl marries the other man that he goes crazy, and quietly slips over the side of the yacht and drowns himself. Arrived in the South Seas, Quex (Noah Beery), a white man in charge of the natives, attempts to hold out on the island which belongs to the young couple. He ties Milton Sills to the whipping post, thus starting the great fight which lasts for fully fifteen min- utes, Mr. Sills and Mr. Beery socking each other most realistically the while. Mr. Beery does the best work in the film. In the end Mr. Beery bites bitter dust— and guess what happens then? Why, another terrific, lingering embrace for the loving cou- ple. The subtitles are of the Five and Ten variety—about as bad as possible. Kcat-siTiMiR Kitty Kelly —Film Booking Offices. From the stage play by Leon De Costa. Directed by James Home. CAST Viola Dana, Tom Forman, Vera Gordon, Kathleen Myers, Nat Carr, Stanley Tay- lor, Carroll Nye, Aggie Herring. When Mr. Ford found that his little con- trivance was popular, he immediately made a million more each as nearly like the first as possible. And when Anne Nichols penned her sublime Abie, all the little theatrical and motion picture geniuses immediately set to work to make plays and pictures as nearly like the model masterpiece as possible. The thing is based on a profound law of thermo-dynamics commonly known as the Irish-Jew joke, and according to all the rules it is invariably a wow, a hit, a hummer and a smash. But to be brutal, “Kosher Kitty Kelly” is one of the shabbiest excuses for a photoplay in ever so long. The continuity is infantile and the acting about on a par with the pos- turing on penny arcade postcards. True, there are amusing scenes, but for that matter Mutt and Jeff often pull off some good ones in their own quaint way. Viola Dana is pretty and vivacious and Nat Carr as Moses Ginsburg does the conventional comic-strip Jew well enough. It seems that Officer Sullivan loves Kitty Kelly and that Morris Rosen loves Rosie Feinbaum. After a quarrel the Irish girl makes love to the Jewish boy, and vice versa, just for spite. In the end it’s all "straightened out and you wish you’d gone ski-ing instead. HTt K Campus IFur-T — Para- mount. Story by Louise Long and Lloyd Corrigan. Directed by Clarence Badger. CAST Bebe Daniels, Janies Hall, El Brendel, Charlie Paddock, Joan Standing, Gilbert Roland, Irma Kornelia, Jocelyn Lee. There is, we must admit, interest of a sort in this picture, and the spectacle of a track meet in which the contestants are girls in running panties has its attractive aspects. But on the whole the “Campus Flirt” is simply terrible—particularly the first section in which the girl arrives at college. This picture undoes all the good work ac- complished in “One Minute to Play,” as far as college atmosphere is concerned. If col- lege is like this I’m a trained seal and you’re a polar bear! Just such fun! And all the boys and girls well along in their thirties. You may be amused by Miss Bebe Daniels, however, who has a reasonable sense of comedy when she is not laboring with the ridiculous script. You see, it’s this way. Patricia, daughter of proud aristocrats is sent, without her maids or anything, to college, where of course she is properly ridiculed. Ignored by the leading sorority, she falls in with a crowd of bums and boozers, who all but lead her astray. She even has to swim home from a motor- boat ride. Then one afternoon when she is laughing at the “girl athletes,” a white rat crawls up her leg, so terrifying her that she sprints ahead of all on the team, showing that she is faster than any girl in the college. After this and the motorboat incident, she listens to the handsome undergraduate and goes out for the girls’ track team. Charlie Paddock (himself) coaches her, and after the usual quota of obstacles she gets into the relay race for the last lap and wins the meet for dear old Whatsits-Name. For the man she loves she gives up late hours and hard liquor and smoking and goes into training, and, if you ask me, that’s a lot for a young girl to give up these days. But it just shows what love for a good, clean man will do. The plot centers about a rival school, whose spies imprison Patricia in an observa- tory during the first half of the track meet. “Th k IBu;e Boy— Educational. Writ- ten and directed by Arthur Maude. CAST John Roche, Jane Thomas, Frank Austin, Esther Rhoades, Phillipe De Lacy, Mon- tague Shaw. Sir Thomas Gainsborough’s famous paint- ing has had a little legend made up about it and gotten into the movies—in color. As the story is too slight to matter we suppose you are more interested in the color work than anything else. The technicolor process is marvelous and quite agreeable to the eye, but whether it is the novelty of the thing or some slight discrepancy between real life and the film, some of the scenes seem over-colored. Whites, as in the baby’s dress, throw a glare when exposed to brilliant sun- light. But so do white objects in real sun- shine. The camera has recorded perhaps too accurately. This process is, of course, not new, many colored films have been shown before, but this seems a good chance to review the color photography. RECENTLY REVIEWED DON JUAN —John Barrymore climbing all over the scenery in swashbuckling medieval role. Go, but don't expect drama. SCARLET LETTER —One of the best pic- tures of the year. Lillian Gish gives a beauti- ful performance as the little Puritan seam- stress. BATTLING BUTLER —Buster Keaton is still as funny as anybody in town. BEAU GESTE —A fine fantastic romance of blood and mystery in the Sahara. Good strong stuff, but no love interest, if that’s what you’re thinking of. Noah Beery, Ronald Col- man, Neil Hamilton and Ralph Forbes. ONE MINUTE TO PLAY —Red Grange in a simple, pleasant little college story. SO THIS IS PARIS —An attempt to be deft and amusing about life in, oh, that naughty Paris, which misses fire. DIPLOMACY —Blanche Sweet and Neil Hamilton unfortunately entangled in a com- pletely dizzy yarn about secret service agents. If you can give an account of the plot after- wards you deserve some sort of prize. HOLD THAT LION —Amusing comedy featuring Douglas MacLean, IValter Fliers, Constance Howard, and a large unnamed African Lion. SUBWAY SADIE —A slight comedy about a salesgirl who falls in love with a subway guard. Pretty ivell done in spots. THE STRONG MAN —Apprenticed to a weight lifter, Harry Langdon draws a good brace of laughs in an uneven comedy. TIN GODS —Thomas Meighan, Renee Adoree and Aileen Pringle in an attempt to show that ivives with careers are not nearly so nice as dance hall girls. As wheezy a plot as they make. FINE MANNERS —All about how much better it is to be poor and vulgar than rich and proper. Gloria Swanson is in it. GREAT DECEPTION —A moderately in- teresting spy picture with Ben Lyon, Aileen Pringle, and Basil Rathbon. Page Fifty