Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1921 - Mar 1922)

SPECIAL CAST IN THE SIN FLOOD (GOLDWYN) This is a most unusual picture and will likely create a sensation. The story is remarkable, full of tense dramatic situations and puts over a message that hits home to the heart. It should prove a big money maker. It is in six parts and was directed by Frank Lloyd. The Cast Billy Bear Richard Dix Poppy Helene Chad wick O'Neill James Kirk wood Swift John Steppling Frazer Ralph Lewis Sharpe Howard Da vies Stratton WU1 Walling Nordling William Orlamond Charlie Darwin Karr Higgins Otto Hoffman Drunk L. H. King Pictures with a message may or may not be acceptable to the average run or theatre goers, but the big one conveyed in "The Sin Flood" is done with such dramatic skill and in such an intensely interesting way, as to make the picture one of the best entertainment features of the year. "The Sin Flood" will take rank as one of the really big pictures. The message is one that will make many sit down and do some quiet thinking. In moments of great peril, face to face with the great beyond, the average human is prone to forgiveness of all enemies, sees his own frailties in a new light, and seeks only peace with which to face the great question. Removal of the peril causes a reversion to type, for' sworn hates and vices again prevail and the human is human again. In "The Sin Flood" all these are shown in a startling way, love being the only element which withstands the test. Billy Bear, a cotton broker's clerk in the Mississippi river town of Cottonia, is in love with Poppy, a chorus girl. He learns that his crabbed employer, Frazer, is secretly trying to corner the market and uses this knowledge to enter into partnership with Frazer's enemy, Swift. They grow rich and Billy becomes engaged to Swift's daughter. On the day of the wedding, however, Billy, Poppy, Frazer, Swift, a street preacher, with a taste for alcohol, a plain drunk, a stranded Swedish engineer, an out-at-elbows actor, a corporation lawyer, a saloonkeeper, and his bartender, are imprisoned in Stratton's cafe by a sudden flood. Stratton has had water-tight doors and shutters put on his cafe to avoid a repetition of damage to his cafe by floods and these doors and shutters are closed. The ticker, the telephone and the electric lights are soon cut off. Nordling, the Swede, figures that they have twenty hours before the oxygen in the air will become exhausted, bringing them a lin gering death. Candles are lighted and as the oxygen grows less and the prisoners find it more difficult to breathe, O'Neill, the street preacher, tells them the last day has come and exhorts them to repentance. They join hands in a circle. Frazer forgives Billy and Swift for their efforts to ruin him financially. O'Neill discovers in the corporation lawyer, the man who stole his wife and drove him from his pulpit into the street, but in the presence of death he forgives him. Sharpe, the attorney, confesses that he had bribed the contractor building the levee which has burst and flooded the lower city, to use faulty material. Billy Bear find« his love for Poppy reviving and they agree to meet death in each other's arms. The bartender confesses that he took money from the till, and his employer Helene Chadwick and Richard Dix in "The Sin Flood" (Goldwyn) forgives him and admits that he had underpaid him. Stratton brings out his choicest wine and invites his enforced guests to partake of it. As the candle's flame becomes feebler and feebler and the prisoners find increased difficulty in breathing, they determine to open the flood-proof doors and let in the water, meeting death suddenly instead of lingeringly. The door is opened and sunshine bursts into the room. It is found that the freak flood has subsided and that Cottonia is resuming its normal business life. The ticker starts up. Frazer sees that Swift and Billy are still hammering him on the exchange and his bitter enmity returns. Stratton forces them to pay for their share of wine he had served them and tells his bartender that he will hold out on his salary until his petty thefts have been made ud. The bartender throws out the drunk, the stranded Swede, and the broken-down actor. O'Neill, the street preacher, again surrenders to his appetite for liquor. Billy Bear forgets Poppy in his interest in the ticker's quotations but when he sees her accosted on the street by a man, and on the point of accepting his invitation to have a drink, he rushes to her and takes her at once to the license bureau. The flood has taught him to value Poppy's love and to see the big mistake he was about to make in marrying his partner's daughter. Love only survives the test. WILLIAM H. TOOKER IN THE POWER WITHIN (PATHE) An interesting production with a strong appeal to the emotions. Replete with dramatic incidents interpreted by an excellent cast. The theme points a great lesson which will appeal to the most fastidious of audiences, and the picture will satisfy from whatever angle it is exploited. Directed and adapted by Lem F. Kennedy. In six reels. If there are persons in your neighborhood who are in any way opposed to molion pictures you can invite them to see "The Power Within" with the sate assurance that it will accomplish much good in converting their opinions of the cinema art. The picture tells a great story in a forceful, interesting manner. It abounds in fine photography and careful attention has been given to details in direction and presentation. The picture is based on the belief of a man in his own ability to conquer the material and mental forces of life. The biblical story of Job is interspersed in the events that transpire which show that man is not great in his own strength but in the strength of a Greater Power to which he must bend. William H. Tooker, as Job Armstrong, admirably portrays the role. The able cast in support, which includes Nellie Parker Spaulding, Robert Kenyon, Robert Bentley, and Pauline Garon indicates that it has been picked with a view to emphasizing the strong features of the story. Job Armstrong, from a humble start, has been highly successful. He glories in his own power and strength to which he attributes his rise. Then follows a series of events in which he learns that there is a Greater Power and strength A scene from "The Sin Flood." (Goldwyn.)