The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

2U The Theatrical Field The Educational Screen ness his rag man in "Hail the Woman"; and yet his picture of the henpecked husband in "Is Matrimony a Failure" was good for a continuous stream of chortles. And you may see him next as a cruel landlord or a hard-hearted lawyer. Theodore Roberts and his cigar are two important factors in any picture they may happen to grace. But Theodore Roberts without his cigar is no less important. His puritan father in "Hail the Woman" and his kindly Uncle Josh in "The Old Homestead" testify to that. And to them we may add his attractive, bewhiskered old sinner in "If You Believe It, It's So." and his gallery of irritable, likeable fathers in such pictures as "Across the Continent," "What's Your Hurry," "Excuse My Dust," and their ilk, to say nothing of the memorable Drightie in "Miss Lulu Bett," or the old fiirt in "Old Wives for New." But the story is not complete unless you could have seen him as I did in the Writers' Revue, burlesquing Little Lord Fauntleroy, in black velvet and lace, red sash and blond curls, with a bigger, blacker cigar than usual. Many of us treasure memories of George Fawcett, who can screw " his face into such quizzical tangle. His was the quaint old village character in "Hearts of the World," the stubborn old dad in "The Cinderella Man," the hard heart in "The Old Homestead," the elder in "The Little Minister." His, too, was the portrait of the soldier of Napoleon, who afterward became such a quivering old wreck, in "Forever." Edward Connelly comes in for his share of character honors. His vain old fop in "Trifling Women" was a gem, and so, too, his prime minister in "The Prisoner of Zenda," and we shall surely not forget his caretaker in "The Four Horsemen." And while we are on that subject, let us recall Josef Swickard, the splendid Desnoyers of the same picture, and Nigel DeBrulier, who played the Stranger, and later gave us such a perfect Richelieu in "The Three Musketeers." Here, then, is the character man, the one we can expect fine things of because he has given them to us again and again; the one we look for after we tire of the "pretty picture," the one on whom the casting director spends perhaps more thought than on any other member of the cast. Rightly so, because he. at least has to do more than stand 'round. He has to "act." and — you never can tell — in the process of "acting" he may run away with the picture! Reviews THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON (Paramount) If you like Mrs. Wharton's novel, you are going to be disappointed in the celluloid edition of it. Partly, of course, because of the changes which film presentations always require in a story, and partly because in this case the adapter couldn't find any motivation whatsoever for any of the characters. They are just puppets. You will know the hero by his shiny hair, and the vamp by her wicked eyes, and so on. But why they are what they are, or why they do what they do, are questions you'll carry away with you unanswered. It isn't a matter of direction or acting, for both are very good. It is a matter of finding the right kind of material for the screen, and "The Glimpses of the Moon," which is only one of many, and far from the worst, is simply the latest example of what not to put into the movies. There has to be action in a motion picture, and the general run of modern novels does not provide enough of that very essential commodity. Aside from the story itself, the picture is wholly pleasing to the eye. Settings and costumes are gorgeous. Bebe Daniels and David Powell are suitable as the two poor young things whose honeymoon depends upon the charitable impulses of their wealthy friends. Nita Naldi is eflfective, if hefty, as the designing cousin, and Rubye de Remer, Maurice Costello, and Charles Gerrard complete a satisfactory cast. (Theatrical only.) (Adult.) THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED (Warner Brothers) Deprived of the fillip of its author's style, this story of F. Scott Fitzgerald's becomes very ordinary screen entertainment. The main thing to comment on is the cast, filled with brilliant names and headed by Marie Prevost and Kenneth Harlan. They do good work and really deserve more than this picture gives them. (Theatrical only.) (Adult.) ALICE ADAMS (Associated Exhibitors) Booth Tarkington's latest Pulitzer Prize novel ^ has reached the screen in a rather talky form, due