Exhibitor's Trade Review (Aug-Nov 1925)

October 10, 1925 39 III The <Biq[ Little Feature "Cupid's Victory" Universal 2 Reels Wanda is an office worker who has a peculiar faculty for getting into trouble. She meets and loves a young man, but a misunderstanding arises and 'she becomes most jealous. She gives a party and invites all the boys of her acquaintance to win him back. He throws out the crowd through a ruse arid telephones a lot of show girls who appear and seem infatuated with him. Wanda sallies forth heartbroken arid tries in many humorous ways to commit suicide. She falls and in an automobile collision she is literally thrown into the arms of her sweetheart. This is a high type comedy which will please in any house. It is well produced with unusually fine sets. In the early part of the picture there are a lot of good laughs centering about the actions of Wanda as an office girl. She tries to please, but always fails. In the end a frog somehow gets into the office and she pursues it with a fire axe. She wrecks the office but the frog escapes. One of the best bits shows her Romeo disguised as a vamp. One by one he lures her male friends into an adjoining room where he, blackjacks them and drops them from a window. Her attempts at suicide are also good for a hearty laugh. She does all sorts of hairraising stunts but is always miraculously saved. The final scene shows a collision between the car she is driving while blindfolded, and that containing her sweetheart. There is a teriffic smash-up and Wanda finds herself in her lover's arms perched upon the fourth floor balcony of a nearby building. The comedy was directed by Charles Lamont, and Wanda Wiley is the star. She is as daring as she is beautiful. Feature her in your exploitation and her flock of followers will come to your theatre. The title is also good for some "different" sort of publicity stunt. Little bags of candy hearts may make attractive throwaways "Ko-Ko* Packs 'Em" Red Seal 1 reel One of the cleverest of this clever series. It is bound to please. Ko-Ko's boss is going to move. The cartoon clown and his dog decide they will not be left behind. They pack everything in sight. Even the landscape itself is rolled up in comical fashion and stacked in a corner. The pup even folds himself up and ties himself with a piece of cord. Then Ko-Ko sets the vacuum cleaner working and everything is ducked into the inkwell. The boss himself disappears back into the inkwell and, thus the film ends. There are lots of humorous touches, such as the dog packing each piece of coal in a tidy paper package, and tying each package neatly with string. Tell them this, is a mighty clever cartoon. Feature Ko-Ko. Try a clown ballyhoo — and don't forget the pup. This series is worthy of special exploitation. * * * "Spot Light" Educational 2 reels This concerns itself with the difficulties encountered in presenting a vaudeville show, commencing with the advertising of the performance, and ending with the last curtain fallEach one in his turn adds to the failure of the show. The sandwich man on stilts gets in a traffic jam. The property man falls asleep and later misses every possible cue. He uses the rain effect instead of the snow, thereby causing the prima donna the discomfiture of a thorough drenching. And so on down the line. This is entirely lacking in any new situations, making no attempt even to camouflage the time-worn stage bits. At best, it can be classed as an average two-reeler. REVIEWED IN THIS ISSUE Cupid's Victory Ko-Ko Packs 'Em Spot Light The Heart Breaker Universal Red Seal Educational Fox Working for the Rest Bischoff, Inc. Scrambled Eggs Solid Ivory Mozart-Hadyn As You Like It Educational Pathe Fitzpatrick Ives-Leventhal The Caretaker's Daughter Pathe On the Go Fox Maid in Morocco Educational "The Heart Breaker" Fox 2 reels At a bachelor dinner Sid bets he can stop at "Cupid's Inn" for two weeks without marrying. The Inn is inhabited entirely by beautiful girls bent on matrimony. One girl to escape an unwelcome suitor dresses as a boy and fools Sid. When he discovers her sex he falls in love with her and is happy to lose the wager by making her his wife. This is a lavishly produced comedy which should prove pleasing to any audience. Little resort is made to slapstick. As a rule the laughter is brought out through somewhat more subtle humor than usual. One of the best scenes is that showing the arrival of Sid at "Cupid's Inn." He swaggers up quite sure of his ability to maintain bachelorhood. But his confidence quickly goes. Girls pop out from every nook and corner. Every window in the huge structure contains a vision of fair femininity. Even the bus boy and hotel clerk are girls — not to mention the house detective. And they all have but one object — matrimony. There are some other good touches. One is the sequence showing the bachelor dinner where the wager is made. The pranks played upon the groom-to-be by his pals are good for many chuckles. In another scene he invites the heroine, disguised as a boy, to recall boyhood days by takmsr a plunge in the old swimmin' hole. Of course, there is the usual chase. But this is given a new touch by having the couple fly in a circus chariot. An elephant is introduced also. The cast includes Sid Smith, Judy King, Jack Henderson and others. Exploit it as an Imperial Comedy. Invite all engaged couples to see it — or in fact all men and girls who wish to become engaged. What Others Think 6. DAVID LOEW: "I consider Red Seal product the best in the short subject market." 729 7th Ave. |'\jH^^»iW N Y c Edwin Miles Fadman. Pres. "Working for the Rest" Bischoff, Inc. 2 Reels Johnny sets forth on a vacation with his wife and her family. From the beginning things are made miserable for him. While the rest of the crowd loaf he works incessantly. In one part he is stretched unconscious by his mother-in-law. While out he has beautiful dreams of fair women. Upon regaining consciousness he and his wife slip back home for a rest. As they open the door of their house they are again confronted with the demon mother-in-law. The mother-in-law theme has been used as the basis of this "Biff" comedy. There are a number of good gags. The comedy should get a satisfactory number of laughs from the average audience. One of the best laughs in the picture is a scene where Johnny is struggling through the woods with a canoe over his head. He looks for all the world like some strange bird. Two hunters mistake him for a new kind of animal and pepper away at him. Another good gag shows Johnny dreaming he is in swimming with a crowd of bathing girls. They beckon him to dive. But although they are only a few feet away, each time he dives he finds himself in only an inch or so of watei. While pursuing an elusive rabbit which_ he wishes to shoot, Johnny suddenly finds himself being stalked by a bear. For publicity, invite all newlyweds to see the show— and to bring the mothers-in-law. You can tie-up with sporting goods stores for window displays on the strength of the camping episodes. ^ "Scrambled Eggs" Educational 1 ree' This, as the name implies, is a very mixedup and pointless affair. Two correspondence marriages are about to be consummated, but not without the proverbial misunderstandings. The tell-tale imprint of two rouged lips on the hero's forehead, the lady's stocking pulled out of his pocket ; these are complications which must be explained. This crudely put together slapstick affair is below the average. "Solid Ivory" Pathe 1 reel Earl Mohan and Billy Engle are very_ much in evidence here in a series of comedy falls, trick stunts with a flivver, and a fling at the "manly art/' Mohan is the aspiring contender for the world's titular pugilistic honors, and the sequences with the flivver show his chief vehicle for training. After many of the difficulties and vicissitudes that usually beset the owner of one of Hank's onery tin Lizzies, Mohan finally reaches the ring, where, in the words of Jefferson Shrewsbury Nutt, there is much excitement, but he could learn nothing. Perhaps the device of showing a recalcitrant flivver come to grief by showing its departing spirit taking wings bound heavenward (much after the manner of little Eva soaring to the angels in the ten, twenty and thirt' melos) is nothing new, but Ralph Ceder, who directed this Roach fun film, pulls it here with a deftness that is certain to draw a volume of laughs. Our hero, Mohan, is so tough he allows motor trucks to run over his face, and that not one of them suffers a "flat" in consequence, is a worthy tribute to the staunchness of tires the manufacturers make these days. In any event, that's the sort of lad an ambitious aspirant for heavyweight championship honors meets in our hero, and what takes place in the ring looks like a wholesale distribution of cyclones, hurricanes and a few_ typhoons stuck in for good measure. This, in a sense, gives an idea as to the brand of action in this one-reeler. As for the humor, there are enough gags to keep the spectator diverted throughout and send him away with a smile.