The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

28 The Educational Screen LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY The story beloved of children and those grownups who still retain a capacity for warming to. the debonair courage and honest tenderness of the wee Lord is cer- tainly the most delightful film of this or any other year. And this despite two handicaps it had, which could easily have defeated its success. A casual observer would judge, pos- sibly, that a continuity person had things all his own way with a story of this sort. Not at all! While he is sure of the eager sympathy of his audience he is at the same time aware of the ruthless compara- tive study they are going to make of his work against the book. He must so arrange his continuity that he leaves all the exposition of the book to the skillful playing of his characters in action; he must reduce essential text t'o a few subtitles. In a new medium he must achieve the same ele- ment of "touching the spot" that Frances Hodgson Burnett achieved in several hun- dred pages. Miss Pickford was fortunate in having the same scenario-man who made the Mark Twain picture a success. Mr. McConville did his job! The second handicap is not as evident to the general public as to occasional individuals. The tyranny of the "middle line," so to speak, when Miss Pickford confronts herself, is visibly a restraint upon the actress. Yet if ever the camera could conquer the difficulties of such doubling up, it has been done in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Therefore, with its two handicaps minimized by clever cinema- tography and perfect continuity, the film's success was practically guaranteed. For Miss Pickford herself we need to say little. She has weathered the juries of criticism enough times to give us every right to full confidence in her. The gentle tenderness of the mother, and the straight-eyed glory of the little chap shone through her every glance and gesture. We realize, of course, that Mary Pickford's Little Lord Fauntleroy was not the boy of the book. No boy, how- ever sturdy and chivalrous, could have had the grace of the film laddie. When His Lordship pitched from the stairs in his headlong attack on the pseudo heir, it was largely Miss Pickford who leaped into the warmth of your chuckle of de- light. Someone behind us remarked that Mary Pickford could "just stalk around in those clothes and be adorable." We do not agree. Adorable she was, in fight, in swaggering stride down the street, or with legs apart, arms folded and eyes lifted to the heavy look of the old Earl! But it was more than clothes and petite- ness that put it over. Miss Pickford is one of the few stars who has climbed steadily, from being merely a very clever and charming film star, to the undeniable status of an artist in a medium sadly unfrequented by sus- tained and earnest acting. We think Little Lord Fauntleroy and Dearest gained something when they stepped from the pages of fiction to the lights and shadows of the celluloid. The entire cast was magnificent support. The Earl fur- nished a bit of screen characterization to be praised without reservation; so, too, the gentle lawyer of the English peer. We might go on indefinitely in detail praising the picture. Suffice it to say that excellent continuity, careful (if difficult) cinematography, combined with the ex- cellence of a truly supporting cast (its most incidental extra chosen with care), Little Lord Fauntleroy comes to us with all the dear charm of the lad of the book, enhanced by the beautifully sincere work of Mary Pickford. THE SIGN OF THE ROSE We viewed this sentimental picture in the midst of the gauche presentation stuff that seems to spell art to the movie public. There was, too, the added handi- cap of violent novelty—the sudden trans- formation, at the climax, of the silent into the spoken play—by introducing George Beban and company to continue the action in the flesh. Incidentally,