Exhibitor's Trade Review (May-Aug 1925)

Page 32 Exhibitors Trade Review SUN-UP Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Photoplay. Adapted from the stage play by Edmund Goulding and Arthur Stattef. Director, Edmund Goulding, Length, 5,819 feet. CAST AND SYNOPSIS The Widow Cagle Lucille La Verne Emmy Todd Pauline Starke Rufe Cagle Conrad Nagel Sheriff Weeks Sam De Grasse The Stranger George K. Arthur Pap Todd Arthur Rankin Bud Edward Connelly Bob Bainard Beckwith The Widow Cag'.e has a deep seated hatred for the government because both her and husband were killed by revenue agents. Her son Rufe goes to the war and is reported dead. She shelters a deserter who proves to be the son of Zeb Turner who shot her husband. Rufe returns alive and she wants him to kill Turnei/s son. He declines, but upon hearing that Emmy, his sweetheart, has been attacked by the Sheriff he sets forth to "get" him. He administers a frightful beating to that worthy but instead of killing him turns him over to the law for vengeance and himself secures the appointment of sheriff. He lines the hill folk up on the side of law and order and teaches them the glory of their country. There is promise of happiness for him and his mother and sweetheart. A FINE photoplay, "Sun-Up" may prove a bit heavy as entertainment for the average picture-goer. It offers excellent acting, real plot, a wealth of dramatic situations, but its entire atmosphere is sombre and brooding. There is but a flash or two of comedy to penetrate the shadows that enshroud the bitterly narrow lives of the hill-people. The tale bears all the earmarks of authenticity, and seems a true to life record of the lives of that peculiarly illiterate class who for generations have hidden themselves away in the Southern mountains to wage feudal warfare against the government and one another. The undying, unreasoning hatred for ali representatives of law and order is vividly depicted, and the pitiful ignorance of the mountaineers is pathetically shown. The Widow Cagle is told that France is about forty miles the other side of Asheville, and sardonically remarks that it seems a long way to go for a fight when there are so many opportunities closer to home. Some of the finest shots show this grimvisaged creature rocking interminably to and fro, puffing on her corn-cob pipe, brooding upon her wrongs, and pondering on matters ihat she is destined never to understand. Other fine sequences are those depicting the return of Rufe from overseas. He departs a real, died-in-the-wool "Hill Billy," and returns a typical, swaggering, self-confident product of the army. He braggingly tells of his exploits with the Huns, and mounts his mother's grizzled locks with a helmet that he has captured from the enemy, after telling in thrilling pantomime how his opponent was bayonetted. After being made sheriff, to the blank astonishment of his clansmen, he tells them that they are to sing the national anthem every sun-up whether or not they know the words. Lucille La Verne in the role of the Widow Cagle contributes one of the most brilliant screen characterizations of the season. Her interpretation of -the part adds new laurels to those already won in her rendition of the role on the speaking stage. Conrade Nagel was never more happilycast than as Rufe. He is always sincere and convincing, doing some of the best work he has performed in some time. Pauline Starke is also excellent as the half-wild creature of the wooded hills. She is never put of. character for an instant, and brings the natural grace and beauty erf ■ the open to her role. . In many sequences her appearance " is reminiscent of Gloria Swanson at her best. Play up the work of the featured players, and make the most of the fact that the picture is an adaptation of the successful play. WINDS OF CHANCE First National Photoplay. Author, . Rex Beach. Adapted by J. G. Hawks. Director, FrankLloyd. Length, 9,554 feet. CAST AND SYNOPSIS Countess Courteau Anna Q. Nilsson Pierce Phillips Ben Lyon Rouletta Kirby yiola Dana Sam Kirby Hobart Bosworth Poleon Doret Victor McLaglen 1-aure Dorothy Sebastian h°^n ,Courteau Philo McCollough McCaskey .. Fred Kohfer Fierce Phillips joins the Alaskan gold stampede and is trimmed clean by a shell game operator. He secures work packing luggage for Countess Courteau, and a mutual love develops. Finally she admits still being wedded to the Count, and Pierce sallies forth prospecting only to go broke again. He returns to Dawson and gets work as a gold weigher in a gambling and dance hall. Here he is made the victim of a frame-up by Courteau and his old enemy McCaskey. The Countess secures the evidence to acquit him, Courteau is killed and McCaskey lynched. Pierce's friend Doret stakes a rich claim, and after marrying Rouletta, shares his prosperity with Pierce and the Countess. C OME day the re may be a film that can sustain interest through ten reels. "Winds of Chance" does not. It can easily be cut to 8,p00 feet or less, and if this is done it will afford excellent entertainment. Rex Beach's novel has been closely followed. Perhaps too closely, for the book itself is inordinately long-winded and Director Lloyd has deemed it necessary to include every bit of the story in his picturization. Thus, much seemingly extraneous matter has been introduced and the action surrounding the lives of the leading characters is somewhat lest in the shuffle. Once again we cross the Chilkoot Pass, stop at Camp Linderman, hurry on to White Horse, and plunge through the Klondike ice tc grub for gold in the eternal silences of Alaskan' granite. We meet lots of Bob Service's sourdoughs — "dog dirty and loaded for bear." 'We again enjoy the ribald hilarity of the dance halls, and the thrill that comes from watching the little ball roll round and round, or the slender fingers of the faro dealer manipulating the box of fate. There are fights, the sort in vogue where gouging, ear biting and hobnailed boots are considered essential parts of the manly art. There are sudden flashes of death from the WUe barrels of Mr. Colt's dread inventions. There are girls with hearts of go! 1 and men with hearts of stone. And over all the rr.ad whirl of' tawdry humanity, tower the -snowtepped hills frowning down in disapproving austerity. The comedy is provided by two old-timers who are eternally battling over trivialities, and yet love one another with the affection that is born of long periods of exil from civilization. There are two other characters who help with a few laughs. The best performance in the production contributed by Victor McLaglen as the huge, colorful Canuck with a smile as broad as his shoulders, and a heart as strong as his arms. He laughs and sings his way through the Arctic horrors, and wins a hill of gold through pure accident. There are lots of big names in the cast and they should help materially at the boxr office if properly featured. Ben Lyon is not too convincing in the role he essays, nor is Anna Q. Nilsson hapily cast. Hobart Bosworth, as the one-armed gambler, is realistic as is Viola Dana in the part of his treasured daughter. Dorothy Sebastian is good as a dance hall vamp, and Fred Kohler is a sinister villain. • Sell this one to your patrons as a gripping drama of the Alaskan gold rush of 1897. Make the most of the big names in the cast. Throwaways of little bags of "gold dust" will attract attention. Tie-ups with sporting goods stores and furriers will get window space. A ballyhoo of a sourdough with pick, shovel anda burro will make them look. A banner may read "Just blown into town by 'Winds of Chance,' meet me at the City Theatre." THE GOLD RUSH United Artists Photoplay. Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Length, 8,700 jfeei. . CAST AND SYNOPSIS The Lone Prospector Charlie Chaplin B ack Jim McKay Mack Swain Black Larsen Tom Murray Georgia, the Girl Georgia Hale Jack Cameron Malcolm Waite Hank Curtis Henry Bergman The Lone Prospector challenges the icy blasts of Alaskan storms in the never-ending search for gold. He endures hunger, devastating lonesomeness, the ignominy of neglect, heart-aches and heartbreaks, but still carries on with unfailing good humor, courtesy and ingenuity. Falling desperately in love with Georgia, a girl of the dance halls, he arranges a New Year's eve celebration at his cabin in her honor. His pathetic efforts at decoration are pitiable, and when all is in readiness, his guests fail to appear. Eventually, however, luck smiles. Black Jim, who is suffering from amnesia, recovers his memory and is able to again locale the mountain of gold with the aid of the lonesome one. The two return to civilization with much purple and fine linen, and the prospector is able to gratify his every wish including that for Georgia's love. has once more brought the utter artistry of true genius to the screen. "The Gold Rush" is not "Shoulder Arms." Nor yet is it "The Woman from Paris." It is not like anything else. The story is a gossamer thing, fine and colorful as a butterfly's wing, and as delicately fragile. There is a wealth of good comedy material, mixed with pathos by the hand of a master. Some of the humor is utterly impossible. Some of it is Chaplinesque slap-stick. But all of it will reap a reward of laughter — the sort of laughter that is a little louder than usual in order to stop a sob or a sigh. Consider that sequence which shows the little cabin of the pathetic prospector swept unknown to him to the very edge of a precipice. As he walks from one side of the room to the other the whole edifice teeters back and forth like a balanced rock. And finally it crashes headlong over the canyon's edge just as the derbied figure, debonair in misfit clothes and bamboo stick, steps from the rear door to safety. You will not soon forget the futile efforts of the ridiculous little man to decorate with tawdry tinsel the shabby interior of his shanty-like home. And all for the sake of a dance-hall girl whose love is as light as a snowflake, and as lasting. The appointed time arrives. The guests do not. The melody of ribald songsters rises Rabelasian from the dance hall rendezvous where Georgia and her horde hold high revel. The echoes of their hilarity pierce the prospector's heart. But with a courage that would do credit to a better cause, he declines to be deprived of his festival. In imagination he entertains, and is indeed the life of a sombre party where he planned such gaiety. Then triumph. Poverty passes forever with the rediscovery of the golden mountain by the prospector and his friend. They are shown in gorgeous luxury, and "Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like one of these." The cigar-snipping millionaire is a second Monte Cristo. The world, indeed, is his, and with the homage that may be won with gold, comes the affection of Georgia. Chaplin is superb. He is a comedian, true yet he is also a great dramatic artist, and in this production he has so well mixed the elements, that the world of celluloid must bend the knee. Georgia Hale is ideal as the feminine lead. Pleasing in appearance, she lends her characterization a certain wisttumess that is in perfect keeping with the tempo of ihe film. The support is excellent. There are a few crudities in the production. Judicious cutting would help by speeding it up, but these are minor faults, and critics must not carp. Exploit Charles Spencer Chaplin first, last and always.