Exhibitors Herald (Apr-Jun 1922)

April 29, 1922 EXHIBITORS HERALD 61 HOUDINI IN rHE MAN FROM BEYOND (HOUDIXI PICTURE CORP.) ^ melodramatic tale, dealing with reincarnation, well-set and with thrills aplenty, starring the reckless Houdini. Directed by Burton King from a story by Houdini. Adaptation by Coolidge Streeter. Photographed by Ruby, Zucker, Fischbeck, Penrod, Dunmeyer, Littlefield. A sincere attempt to give the public omething dirterent in the way of story ; apparent in this first vehicle starring he daredevil Houdini by his own comiany. The rapids scenes are without oubt as thrilling and realistic as anyhing ever set for the camera. Houdini pparently cares nothing for risks that \ou\d turn another pale to mention. The story starts off with an unusual ■ircumstance. that of a man frozen in olid ice for one hundred years, coming o life through the efforts of explorers ■ ho chop him out and thaw him. Once ou have parlied with your conscience nd judgment and accepted this situation, he rest is easy. It is interesting, at all vents, and well handled. The scientist. )r. Gregory Sinclair (Erwin Connelly) .-ho rescues "The Man From Beyond." farry Hillary (Houdini) does not tell im he is a century behind the times, lanning to make a study of what we Dve to call "reactions" to his environment .-hen he gets him back to civilization. The story Hillary tells is that he loved he daughter of the Captain of a ship, here was mutiny, he was trying to save he girl's father, when a blow on he head cut short his activities. He ashes out into the snow in search of "elice only to be persuaded by the scintist to return. When Dr. Sinclair reaches home he ?arns that his ward's father had started d join them and was lost. It is his .ard's wedding day. When Hillary sees ne bride he interrupts the ceremony, ailing her "Felice," and begging her 3 recall their love. The girl's name is :e!ice Strange, and she is really a reKarnation of his lost sweetheart. The wedding is postponed indefinitely, •hile the girl begs Hillary to help her nd her father. The discarded suitor, )r. Gilbert Trent, has kidnapped her ither, Dr. Crawford Strange, and is olding him a prisoner in the cellar of is house, planning to marry Felice and lake her believe her father is up in the ntarctic, so she will go with him. Hiliry and Sinclair stumble upon a clue, a it with a bit of cloth having on it the litials of the imprisoned Strange. They :scue him, and then Hillary is forced to )llow the girl, who has been pursued by hireling of Trent's to the edge of the iagara rapids. Hillard swims the rapIs, catches up with the canoe, and saves ie girl, in a well-staged thriller. Hillaryid Trent battle on a cliff and Trent goes ver. This, too, is well done. The girl recognizes the call of her true late and their belated romance bids fair > be consummated. Houdini does one ood stunt of his escape stuff, when he is ed to a mattress and water turned oi1 litn, and he works himself free, and esipes with the sheets as rope. Frank Montgomery as Francois Duval oes good work, and Nita Naldi plays a imp. Louis Alberni is captain of the argentine, and Yale Benner plays Milt orcross. It is a picture that has the audience apeal of a serial crowded into six reels. BERT LYTELL IN THE FACE BETWEEN (METRO) Lytell has had far more interesting vehicles than this adapted Justice Miles Foreman story. Star not particularly suited to dramatic role. Story of self-sacrificing son who has queer hallucinations after being shot in the head does not seem logical. Directed by Bayard Veiller. Six reels. There appears something a little unnatural in the forced situation of a son assuming the guilt for a father's indiscretion, especially when the father has admitted his guilt. This, however, forms the basis of appeal in "The Face Between." It is an entirely different story from what we are accustomed to seeing Lytell in and for those who like "domestic tangles" it is one of the best. The star's name may draw them in. A down-town Chicago theatre audience found it rather slow-moving and were impatient for the comedy that followed. Tommy Cartaret, Jr., nobly takes the blame for an affair his father has had with a married woman, and accepts the woman's husband's ultimatum to leave for a desolate spot in the Kentucky mountains never to return until Hartwell. the husband, is dead. The primitive mountain folk make life miserable for him and finally threaten to tar and feather him because he has been seen with Marianna, daughter of the woman who does his laundry. In a heavy rain storm the girl comes to his cabin and warns him ot their approach, just as he was about to commit suicide. The girl announces before her father she is going to marry Tommy and the clan force them to ride off to the minister. Just as he is leaving he receives a telegram from home announcing that Hartwell has died and his name is clear. Also that his sweetheart is waiting for his return. As they ride through the woods a shot kills the girl and another wounds him in the head. Weeks later, having been brought home by his sweetheart he recovers consciousness but is haunted by a vision of Marianna. He tries to pursue the phantom and falls from a balcony. The injury restores his mind and wipes out the illu sion of the laundress girl, and he finds happiness in Sybil's love. Lytell appears somewhat forced in the dual role of father and son, and there is not enough distinction in the two roles. Sylvia B reamer plays the mountain girl and is in the double exposures showing the phantom spirit. It isn't a role that calls for much ability but her work is good all around. Andre Tourneur plays acceptably the role of Tommy's sweetheart, Sybil Eliot, and is very pretty and appealing. Hardee Kirkland is Hartwell; Girard Alexander is Mrs. Eliot and Dewitt Jennings the familydoctor. The mountaineers were Frank Brownlee, Burwell Hamrick and Joel Day. Some fine photography marks the picture, the work of Arthur Martinelli. SAWING A LADY IN HALF (CLARION PHOTOPLAYS) This is a real novelty. Thousands of audiences in vaudeville theatres throughout the United States have marveled over the mysterious performance, and the expose of the trickery will undoubtedly prove fully as interesting. A long box, about two feet square and with a hinged door, stands upright on the stage. A young woman, hands and feet tied, is lifted upright into the box. The ropes binding her are run through holes in the sides of the box, and held securely to prevent her from moving. The door is then padlocked, and the box laid on its back on a trestle. Three large sheets of glass, and two of steel, are run through slots in the box, dividing the space into eight compartments. Then two men, with an ordinary crosscut saw, cut the box in half in the middle, apparently sawing the woman directly in half. The ends of the sawn box are removed, and then placed end to end again and the woman is found unharmed and untied. The complete performance, as shown in the vaudeville theatres, is first depicted on the screen. Then it is all gone over again in such a way that the audience is shown just how the deception is practiced. The second half of the picture is, of course, much more interesting than the first. The picture runs to 1,500 feet, and could be improved by cutting down on the first half. However, as a novelty film it is intensely interesting and should prove pleasing to audiences. HOUDINI during a tense moment in his first production, "The Man from Beyond."