Exhibitors Herald (Apr-Jun 1922)

SPECIAL CAST IN THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT (METRO) An intensely interesting dramatic production which should prove entertaining to theatre-goers and furnish them with much food for serious thought. Many of the effects are brought about by double exposure, which is excellently done. Six reels. Just why the title, "The Stroke of Midnight" should have been selected for this remarkable psychological study is hard to understand, because it stresses one of the incidental themes of the photoplay rather than expresses the general purpose of the film. The picture, which was imported by Metro, is an intense, holding story depicting the regeneration of a quarrelsome vagrant through a nightmare. The nightmare is depicted by double exposure, showing the "Cart of Death," which must be driven by a person who died on New Year's eve at midnight, but even more gripping is the development of the central character as he sinks again and again into the vagrant class and does not respond to the exterior influences exerted upon him. Victor Seastrom, one of the leading actors of Sweden, plays the vagrant and also directed the. filming. The picture was made by Swedish Biograph. The picture opens with the vagrant leaving prison and returning to his former home. Finding his wife and children have moved away he becomes sullen and forgets his vow of reformation. He hates humanity, and while he will accept food and lodging, spurns the extra kindnesses bestowed upon him at a rescue mission. His clothes have been patched while he slept but the misanthrope tears them off and laughs in the faces of the women who helped him. A reconciliation is brought about between the derelict and his wife and children, but his bitterness soon comes to the surface, and he again seeks out his boon companions— drunkards and gamblers. On New Year's Eve he hears in a tavern the legend of the cart of death — that he who dies on that night must gather in all the dead for a year on land or sea, in palace and hovel. In a quarrel in a churchyard he is knocked unconscious and his spirit joins the driver of the cart — one of his vagrant companions — on the weary rounds. The cart stops before his own home and he — as a spectre — sees his wife preparing the potion that will end three lives, her own and the two children's. He stands helplessly by, conscious that he must be the driver who awaits the release of the three spirits. The story turns back to the graveyard where he is lying prone upon the ground. He becomes conscious again and hastens to those he really loves — his regeneration brought about not by exterior forces but by the terrors of his own imagination. A scene from "Over the Border." (Paramount.) SPECIAL CAST IN OVER THE BORDER (PARAMOUNT) This is a swiftly moving, well filmed romantic picture based on the smuggling of liquor across the Canadian border, with the daughter of the chief bootlegger as the heroine. Excellently directed by Penrhyn Stanlaws. The country turning to prohibition has not prevented the films from finding interesting material for stories in the handling of the forbidden stuff — as for instance "Over the Border," the Paramount picture with Betty Compson and Tom Moore, which was filmed from Sir Gilbert Parker's story "She of the Triple Chevron." Penrhyn Stanlaws, who directed th> production, is fast coming to the fore as an artistic director with a fine appreciation of dramatic values, and has made an exceptionally interesting picture in "Over the Border." The production has an added interest in that it is the first Paramount production in which Tom Moore appears. Betty Compson plays Jen, daughter of a bootlegger on the Canadian border, and Moore appears as Sergeant Tom Flaherty of the North West Mounted. The young people are in love and the girl often begs the young officer to give up his job as policeman. Moore has secretly asked for his discharge but the drama happens at a time when he is still bound to uphold the laws. While Jen is riding home through the snow one night she is mistaken for a spy of the moonshiners and fired upon by the police. She returns the fire and wounds an officer's horse. The trail leads to her home and the police follow — Tom arriving at the bootleggers' camp about the same time and seeking to divert suspicion from the girl. Her father and brother are arrested and the girl turns from her lover in anger. The prisoners are freed on bail and plan to ship the liquor across the border into the United States and forfeit their bail. A spy is shot by Jen's brother and Flaherty is sent to follow the slayer through a blizzard. Stopping at Jen's home he is drugged by her father but the girl carries Flaherty's sealed orders to the headquarters post. Flaherty follows and pretends that he has authority to take the prisoner back with him; then, his commission having expired he tricks his former fellow officers and aids the girl's brother to escape, thus bringing about a reconciliation with the girl he loves. "Over the Border" is fine entertainment. The names of Miss Compson and Tom Moore, coupled with Stanlaws as director and Sir Gilbert Parker as author, provides excellent material for exploitation. IRENE CASTLE IN NO TRESPASSING (HODKINSON) | Several original twists in this pleasing little romance make it rank high as screen entertainment. There is strong story interest and a thoroughly satisfactory love theme running through it. Directed by Edwin L. Hollywood. Seven parts. This adaptation of Joseph C. Lincoln's story "The Rise of Roscoe Paine," a story of Cape Cod, makes a dramatic and altogether pleasing vehicle for the "peppy" Irene Castle. The development of the plot has been well handled and the casting and direction is such that you feel that the characters are r-al human beings doing natural, earnest things. The story concerns Roscoe Paine, who lives with his mother, an invalid, in a fishing village. Roscoe owns a lane leading to the shore, which skirts the wealthy James Colton property. Mabel Colton and her father and mother arrive at the village and the fish carts passing annoy Mrs. Colton. Colton thereupon tries to buy the lane but Roscoe refuses to close it to his friends and neighbors. Roscoe and Mabel become friends when he saves her from a runaway horse. Victor Carver, a suitor for Mabel's hand, attempts to ruin Colton in a stock deal, but Roscoe engineers a counter stock deal during the illness of Colton, which saves his fortune. He also sells the lane to Colton to save his friend, Davis, cashier in the local bank, from disgrace. The townspeople attempt to run him out of town until the truth is known and he is vindicated by Mabel and her father. An excellent cast appears opposite Miss Castle and the acting through is of a high quality. Howard Truesdale appears as Colton, Ward Crane is Roscoe Paine and Al Roscoe is Carver.