The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Apr-Jun 1922)

May 20, 1922. THE FILM RENTER &» MOVING PICTURE NEWS. 33 OUT WEST STORY OF UNUSUAL TYPE. “The Last. Trail,” a Zane Grey story which will make a general appeal. O the London T trade last week F Fox Films showed an ‘adaptation of a novel of Zane Grey's entitled *The Last Trail,” a film) of 6,800 feet, with a setting in a far West town not a great distance from the Mexié¢an, border. Choya is the of the frontier town that has suffered name and become nervous from the visits of the “Night Hawk,’’ and the sheriff, who is cautious rather bold, is Llamed for his inactivity in not seeking him out and capturing than him. Then, in a way which bandits have in fiction, the ‘' Night Hawk ”’ announces to the sheriff that he is visiting Choya again shortly to steal a kiss from Chiquita, the dancer at the Cantina. CHIQUITA’S CHOICE. A week later the stranger arrives, and the sheriff arranges with Chiquita to dance with him while his posse surround and attempt to take the stranger alive. An attractive little scene shows Chiquita dancing in the courtyard, and using her beauty and. allurements of posture and rhythm to bring the stranger At length with fascinating manners and phrasing she tells the stranger he is and’ the stranger, seizing one of their number, uses him as shield to from his balcony. she is successful, and in danger. At that moment the circle narrows, effect his escape. ARREST AND ESCAPE. So far the play has developed along lines with which one is more or less familiar in this class of story, but at this point the action quickens. The pay-roll of the construction company is stolen, and Kirk, noting that the stranger rides a similar horse to that which the ‘‘ Night Hawk "’ uses, rides into Choya and denounces him, with the result that he is imprisoned. Chiquita endeavours with fascinating the stranger's release, and failing ‘in this manner, seizes the sheriff's revolver and enters the cel! to find he has escaped. Kirk, riding the trail, sees the stranger disappear into the woods, and, following him, comes upon a cave with obviously stolen wealth. He returns to the works, kidnaps Winifred, planning to take the money from the cave and disappear over the border with her, first dynamiting ‘the dam-to cover his ways to secure Digitized by Go gle escape and his bad work. As he prepares to leave the cave a man enters whom he kills, but not the man he imagined him to be. finds it is DYNAMITING THE DAM. Returning to dynamite the dam, Kirk is seized by the stranger and a struggle takes place, the stranger demanding to know. the whereabouts of Winifred, who has meanwhile unbound herself and escaped to Choya, where she believes the stranger foreman to be in jail. The dam blows up, the water is released “and rushes down upon the town of Choya, the stranger racing it to warn the-inhabitants, who make for the hills. The play ends very abruptly with a flood seene showing Chiquita and José, her lover, on one roof amid the deluge, and Winifred and the supposed ‘* Night Hawk’? upon another. It is then revealed that the stranger is not the ‘* Night Hawk,’’ but the new engineer sent to supersede Kirk, whom death has now removed; and in an excess of affection the couple very stupidly fall into the flood. : The story is a.long one, with many subsidiary incidents. .The big incident, the blowing up of the dam, is an impressive scene, the rush of pent-up water sweeping everything before it making an effective thrill. The identity of the stranger is well concealed, as it is not until the close that it is suspected that he is any other than the ‘' Night Hawk.’’ Winifred (Eva Novak) has not so attractive a part as Chiquita (Rcsemary Theby), who plays the Cantina dancer to the life. Those to whom out West stories appeal will find rather more than is usual in this class of picture, the scene on the waterworks construction introducing a brisk incident and widening the stor" eope. abl THE DOG AND THE MOSQUITO A young mosquito noted that A dog enjoyed a friendly pat n the back or on the head; “Doesn't it hurt the insect said. “Hurt” said the dog, why, it’s a joy To get a pat or two, my boy.” Next time a-hand was poised to hit The skeeter smiled and welcomed it! “Alas,” he cried, with his last breath _ “One's joy may prove another’s death i” fe — £sop, Jr.