Exhibitor's Trade Review (Nov 1925 - Feb 1926)

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Page 20 Exhibitors Review BOX OFFICE REVIEWS Key To The Rating System A B C D E Road Show Calibre First Run Product Suitable for Second and Subsequent Runs Action Pictures, Westerns and Melodramas Shooting Gallery Stuff 1 Excellent 2 Good 3 Fair 4 Not Recommended * Unusual Exploitation Possibilities THREE FACES EAST Cecil de Mille Production. Released by Prod. Dist. Corp. From the play by Anthony Paul Kelly. Directed by Rupert Julian. Length, 7,419 feet. CAST AND SYNOPSIS Miss Hawtree Jetta Goudal Fraulein Marks Jetta Goudal Frank Bennett Robert Ames George Bennett .". Henry Walthall Valdar Clive Brook On the fighting line in France, Lt. Frank Bennett falls a prisoner to the Germans. In a German hospital he is attended by a nurse who identifies him with the British Intelligence Service. In a raid she is captured by the British, but gives the countersign, learned from Bennett, and is sent to London to unmask Boeke, a German spy. She stays at the home of George Bennett, head of the War Office. In this house she meets Valdar, a servant, presumably wounded in the war. He reveals that he is an agent of Boelke's. The two fall in love.. Later, she learns that he is Boelke himself, and broken-heartedly has to make him her prisoner. He is shot in the act of signaling the enemy. By Michael L. Simmons Rating Bl Box-Office Highlights: The superb characterizations by the entire cast. The consistent tempo of dramatic tension from the first reel to the very last. The mystery of the chief character's identity. Though the military background is well registered, most of the action takes place in a single house, with only a few individuals making mysterious moves like pieces on a checker board. This is so well wrought, so masterfully handled, as to evolve into gripping, breath-taking situations. Audience Appeal: Everything high-grade, successfully aimed to give intelligent audiences "good theatre." It will be acceptable also to "just folks" for its love interest, its graphic portrayal of the spy system, and the war fireworks. How to Sell It: Good tie-up angle with the local Red Cross. Use a Red Cross nurse ballyhoo. Advertise it as adaptation of play which had great vogue on Broadway. THE RECKLESS LADY First National Release. Robt. T. Kane Production. Adapted by Sada Cowan. Directed by Howard Higgin. Length, 6 reels. CAST AND SYNOPSIS Mrs. Fleming, the Reckless Lady .... Belle Bennett Colonel Flem'ng James Kirkwood Sy'via Fleming Lois Moran Boris Lowell Sherman Ralph Hillier Ben Lyon Gendarme Charlie Murray Mrs. Fleming, the Reckless Lady, par'ed from her husband, relies upon her luck at the gaming tables to provide a livelihood for herself and her daughter. Boris, a suave product of the gambling house, lover of Mrs. Fleming, meets the daughter, unknown and unknowing. He sees in the young girl fair prey. T ater, when Mrs. Fleming does find out his intentions, she is held to silence by the former lover's ' insidious innuendoes. The Reckless Lady once more returns to the gaming table to stake everything in order to get sufficient funds to remove them both from the sinister Boris. She loses, and 'is about to take her life when her former husband saves her from self-destruction. They are reunited, and return to their former happiness. By Hank Linet Rating: B2 Box-Office Highlights: The reunion of Belle Bennett and Lois Moran as mother and daughter recalls their fine acting in "Stella Dallas." They almost bear a family resemblance thanks to the dexterity of the make-up artist. The automobile race to save Belle Bennett from flinging herself head-long over a bottomless precipice is sufficient to raise blood pressure a few degrees. / Audience Appeal: An excellent picture for the audience that can appreciate the great sacrifices a mother will make for her own flesh and blood. At the same time, the sordidness of the situation is much relieved by the fashionable society background. How to Sell It: The cast is the selling Avedge for this picture. Teaser stories in the newspapers about escapades of reckless people will serve as a tie-up basis for exploiting the title. Sell the mother-daughter act of Belle Bennett and Lois Moran. BEHIND THE FRONT Paramount Production. From Saturday Evening Post Story by Hugh Wiley. Directed by Edward Sutherland. Length, six reels. CAST AND SYNOPSIS Riff Swanson Wallace Beery Shorty McGee Raymond Hatton Betty Bartlett-Cooper Mary Brian Percy Brown Richard Arlen Captain Bartlett-Cooper Hayden Stevenson Scottie Chester Conklin Sergeant Tom Kennedy Mrs. Bartlett-Cooper Frances Raymond Mr. Bartlett-Cooper .Melbourn McDonald Riff Swanson, detective, has his watch picked by Shorty McGee, light-fingered member of the underworld. Riff chases Shorty into an army conscription office, and both forget their personal troubles in the bigger issue of being pressed into service. A captain's sister, out for a recruiting record, has managed to sign them up, leaving each in the blissful assumption that she is his girl. On foreign soil both gladiators distinguish themselves as prize-winners in the awkward squad. Finally they see real action, capturing an armored car, only to learn that the armistice has been signed. Both return to the States, demobilized, when Riff suddenly recognizes his watch in Shorty's hand, and continues to give the chase that the war interrupted. By Michael L. Simmons Rating: Bl Box-Office Highlights: Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton in an orgy of inimitable comic capers. Mischievous spirit of merriment pervades the whole atmosphere of the picture. Clever reproductions of locales convey the bogus illusion of Avar. That expert craftsman, Ralph Spence, has dug deep in his kitbag for an array of titles that adds more guffaws and smiles. Audience Appeal: It Avould seem hard to find an audience that can sit still under this BigBertha of Avholesome, good-natured hokum. Has the sort of humor that can be comprehended merely by the eye. How to Sell It: Invite your local "Legion" post. Also other post-war chapters. An excellent chance for biscuit tie-up with grocers. Also a jeAveler's angle, with a watch that is at the root of the Avhole story. Probably nothing better to sell the picture than to shoAV one of the laughable incidents in advance trailer.