The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Theatrical Film Critique Conducted by M. F. L. OUR PURPOSE: To analyze with fearless sincerity the current films representative of present production. Theoretically we are concerned with an art, limitless in possibilities because it should be a composite of various time-tried arts. With the highest possibilities of these combined arts as a background against which to throw present production—com- mercial, not artistic, in aim—we wish to point out the good and bad in films, remembering that the photodrama public, like any public, is a composite of varying human capacities and under- standings, demanding therefore legitimately a range of screen production from Rinehart sentimentalism to Galsworthian realism. This department, therefore, addresses itself to those thinking individuals who are logical enough to be patient with the meagre materials at hand, and reasonable enough to recognize occasional excellence even though it be but relative. Amid the discourag- ingly huge and endless output of films maudlin with sentimentality and bad taste, the "Movies," this two-decade-old brat of man's creative ingenuity, occasionally emits something more promising than a lusty howl. On the part of those who catch this promise, this department calls for intelligent optimism and understanding cooperation. )LLY OF THE FOLLIES Bravo! Once again Miss Talmadge distance) has a thoroughly humorous hide giving her a chance to present r many tricks conducive to genuine ghter from her audiences. A reviewer m a drastic viewpoint of unity might liment on the irrelevancy of the "jazz" ry of Caesar and Cleopatra. It is rfectly logical as introduced; its length, ly, makes it seem a digression. But flaw is easily forgiven in favor of many chuckles Caesar and "the nine r. queen" induce. The remainder of film is not to be questioned on any pre. The story of Polly Meecham, n to grimace, glitter and giggle, be- d the footlights of the Follies, but (as often the way of the gods) born in filling Green, Connecticut where the and fun of her pranks wins her the thet of "a limb of the devil" from the id uncle, is at once true, human and its many episodes, thoroughly funny, e show that Polly puts on for the chil- li after said uncle has, in company h the other joy-killers, closed the one cture show" in town is the cleverest bit we have seen for months. Its use of the only material at hand, the ad cards of the store, ought to bring down the most critical house. Miss Talmadge does real character work here. Polly's in- vasion of the Jones home in New York to assist in the production of a charity benefit is equally rib-tickling. Again the misfit idea introduces the action, though this time it is not the fault of the gods but of Mrs. Jones herself; she was meant to be a "comfortable old fatty" and Mr. Jones was a "good old scout" but "his style was cramped in a drawing room." Polly's ingenious wit turns the benefit into a success as adequately as it got her past the door man to Mr. Ziegfeld, and the audience is given several opportuni- ties for side-splitting mirth before either deed is accomplished. The close of the film with its sincere though delicately light-vein suggestion that Polly's genius was best used when she became Pierrot for her roly-poly twins leaves the audience in the friend- liest of spirits with an actual wholesome something rarely felt before the cellu- loid. 27