Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1921 - Mar 1922)

January 21. 1922 EXHIBITORS HERALD 53 WAX DA HAWLEY IN TOO MUCH WIFE (REAL ART-PAR AMOUNT) This is an excellent comedy-drama, full of humorous situations and very skilfully produced. • One of the best Wanda Hawley films ever made. Directed by Thomas N. Heffron. Five parts. A scene from "Too Much Wife" (RealartPara mount) There is considerable real, genuine humor in "Too Much Wife," which relates the tale of a young couple very much in love with one another, who are blessed with an indulgent mother-in-law — ■and the exhibitor looking for something bright and "zippy," something with plenty of action and brimful of amusing situations, should book this. There isn't a dull moment in the five reels. Miss Hawley never looked more vivacious nor appealing than she does as "Myra," and T. Roy Barnes was never more comical than as "Jack Morgan," her husband. There are other characters as well, who deliver with telling punches the scenes they enact, namely: Leigh Wyant as the stenographer, John Fox as the office boy, Arthur Hoyt, a henpecked husband, and Lillian Langdon. The subtitles are brief and to the point, with a good laugh in each. Lorna Moon wrote the story. Let us have more of them. Myra marries Jack Morgan, a dealer in hides. He has a love-sick stenographer, who is fond of holding hands. Myra overhears her sobbing as she talks to her husband, and forthwith discharge-* her. She becomes Jack's assistant and companion in everything, at business as well as at golf until he becomes bored. He sends himself a fake telegram, to get away on a camping trip, and while fishing his boat is capsized and he is reported lost. He swims to an island, however, where he meets his former stenographer. She uses "cave-man" methods on him, and calls him a "jellyfish." His wife and partv arrive off shore to strew flowers on his watery grave, and discover him on the island. A reconciliation follows, when Myra and Jack escape in the motor boat and leave mother behind. JIMMY AUBREY IN THE MESSENGER (VITAGRAPH) A two-reel Vitagraph comedy filled with the stereotyped slap-stick stuff of falls down a precipice, bomb throwing pursuits and the like. The incidents are based around the desire of a mysterious band which desires to get possession of a secret formula. The picture is full of this variety of action and if this appeals to your audience, "The Messenger" will more than please. THOMAS JEFFERSON IN RIP VAN WINKLE (HODKINSON) A delightful picturization of Washington Irving's story which rolls back the years and brings reminiscences of childhood days. It is interestingly told and you will enjoy living again with the famous characters cf the story. Excellently photographed amid picturesque surroundings along the Hudson. Scenario and direction by Ward Lascelle. Unless the average audience has become oblivious of the tales that fascinated the imagination of its youth it will welcome "Rip Van Winkle" as a refreshing diversion from the usual run of pictures. The famous childhood story has been pleasingly presented in a version that br ngs out more vividly than ever the likable characters in Irving's story. The romance of Little Meenie and little Heindrick Ycddcr and the scheming of Derrick Van Beekman form an interesting plot for the picture. If Thomas Jefferson doesn't represent the mental picture you have of Rip Van \\ inkle you wrill soon become convinced that your own impression of the character was wrong. Photography and surroundings are coordinated until it seems really possible that Rip Van W inkle, or anyone else, might be well contented to sleep in the reposeful atmosphere of the mountains for twenty years. Rip is accompanied by his faithful dog, "Schneider," and the ever handy flagon on these excursions into the hills to get away from the neverceasing tongue-lashing of his wife, Gretchen. The part of Mrs. Rip Van Winkle is ably portrayed by Milla Davenport. After swearing off drinking time and again and familiarly discounting the next drink after each resolution. Rip is finally driven from the house by his frau. On his journey into the hills this time he meets the little man of the mountains carrying the keg, and his subsequent slumber for twenty years follows. When he returns to the village, everything and everybody has changed. His wife has married the unscrupulous Van Beekman, who has designs on Winkle's property, and he arrives in time to prevent a forced marriage of his daughter, Meenie. to Beekman's nephew, and to reclaim his land. Mr. and Mrs. Van Winkle are reunited and she promises him he may become tipsy as often as he pleases in the future. Little Meenie marries her childhood sweetheart, who has returned after he is believed to have been lost at sea. THE HAPPY PEST (FOX) Al St. John is the star, and in fact the whole thing in this Fox comedy, directed by Ferris Hartman. About all of the stunts used in recent comedies and melodramas are employed to keep the plot moving, the director even going so far as to reproduce the ice scene from "Way Down East." There is also the much abused high and dizzy antics around the iron beams of a building in the course of construction. Scenes from a ten, twent' and thirt' melodrama, with a laughable snow storm, serve to pad out the two reels. WALLACE REID IN RENT FREE (PARAMOUNT) This is by no means one of Wallace Reid's best but it is good enough to prove a good attraction to followers of the popular star. It is well directed, well cast and full of laughable situations of the Reid Order. Five parts. A scene from "Rent Free" (Paramount) Wallace Reid, as an impecunious artist in his latest picture, "Rent Free," almost gets through the entire story without driving an automobile. As the story unfolds it appears that the automobile is to be made conspicuous by its absence, but it isn't. There is an automobile, and Reid drives it. So after all, it's all right. "Rent Free" is full of laughable situations, many of them new and unique even for screen purposes. Lila Lee plays the leading feminine role in her usual Sprightly manner, her youthful beauty lending not a little to the picture. The cast also includes Henry Barrows, Lillian Leighton, Gertrude Short, Claire McDowell and Lucian Littlefield. Reid plays the part of a young New York artist cast off by a wealthy father who had planned a legal career for him. Facing poverty and dispossessed by an irate landlady, he moves his belongings, including his dog, up to the roof of a 'iSth street apartment house, and becomes a squatter in a mansion, of which the door to the roof has been left open. On a nearby roof he sees a pretty girl — in fact, two of them for good measure — who have been similarly dispossessed. A storm collapses the tent in which the two g\r]s arc living and the artist rescues them and takes them to his mansion, where they also become squatters. It develops that the mansion had been the property of the girl's father. The stepmother has married a foreign count and returns home to discover the squatters and the usual conglomeration of funny situations follow, during which no opportunities for laughs are overlooked. The troubles are finally settled by the finding of a letter and a new will which takes care of the daughter in a proper financial manner and everything comes to a happy ending for all concerned, even to the disdainful stepmother. "Rent Free" is the first picture directed by Howard Higgin. who was for many years production manager for Cecil B. De Mille, and with his maiden effort as a criterion it is safe to say that Wallace Reid has made no mistake in securing his services. "Rent Free" is good, clean comedy, and should prove a good attraction.