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

THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. June 17, 1922. = 2 SR = SS SS SS SS SS OS Films of the Week Reviewed FOR THE GUIDANCE OF. EXHIBITORS. 3 = 3 RES SS 3 2 2 ES eS Boomerang Bill. Lionel Barrymore as Chicago gunman, whose imprisonment and failure provide youths with object lesson and warning. COSMOPOLITAN Paramount picture with the title of A “Boomerang Bill’ London last Lionel Barrymore in the star and Marguerite Marsh, sister of Mae Marsh, as the leading woman, was trade shown in week, with role It is shown in the form cf a long ** vision.’’ A young fellow wishing to obtain money for a costly present for his girl is invited by crooks to take a hand in a crime, but Detective Terence O'Malley, scenting trouble, gets into conversation with him and dissuades him by telling the story. cf Boomerang Bill, SCENE From ‘* BooMERANG Bitn.’’ who at that moment, a broken man peddling matches, is led past by his devoted Chinese girl companion, The story is then pictorially given. When Detective O'Malley officer, Boomerang Bill, who always came back after a fight for some was a young police more, was a Chicago gunman, with a tender place in his heart for children. He fell in love with Annie, whom he met at a dance, and resolved on her aeceptance of him to give up the old life and begin on honest work. Annie’s mother was an invalid, and in order that she might go away to the country, Bill resolves to obtain the wherewithal by means of one last hold-up. He is chased and arrested, having been caught in Chinaman Ling’s laundry, playing with Ling’s small daughter. Imprisoned, he is ever looking forward to release and marriage, but the girl eventually confesses. that a young engincer has proposed to*her, and for her mother's sake she has accepted, Bill reason temporarily, and upon his release visits Amnie'’s home, to find her happy with husband and child. A broken man, he returns to the Chinaman’s laundry, where the small girl becomes his helper and guardian. At this point the detective and the Jad enter the story again, with the latter resolving to pursue a straight life. loses his The bulk of the work in the picture is performed by Lionel Barrymore and Marguerite Marsh, the latter interpreting her part with sincerity and charm. Her acting and that of the leading man should help the picture to a good share of success, Digitized by C0 gle Sheltered Daughters. An attractive little play based upon the culpability of those who keep youths in ignorance of the world’s ways. [ is difficult to estimate the harm caused by an_ earlier I veneration through the convention which aimed at keeping the youth of that generation, and especially the feminine section, in ignorance of the facts of life and the pitfalls with which the outer world abounded. Such a policy, was responsible for much misery, and ‘t Sheltered Daughters,”? trade shown in London last week by Gaumont, endeavours to state that problem in pictorial form, From the title it might be supposed that the problem of maiden ignorance was to be dealt with as affecting the great risk run by young women unaware of the efforts to entrap thera -for the worst of purposes, and the play loses strength by the A girl well versed in the world's ways might, however, have succumbed to the temptation which overcame Jenny. Jenny Dark is the daughter of a widower father whose wife was of French blood, He is a detective, but notwithstanding his profession, the girl substitution of fraud for the more flagitious purpose. appears to believe that saintliness is the common possession of mankind. She lives in a world of books, French history and the character of Jeanne d’Are making strong appeal to her romantic side. Thus, when a French crook, acting the part of Major Mallarmé, collecting money in America for France's war orphans, meets her at the Joan of Are statue, New York, he imposes upon her romanticism by representing that she can do a great thing for France and the orphans if she will consent to appear as his wife (absent through illness) at a dinner that evening, where an appeal would be made for funds, His request, made at the instigation of friends who knew of Jenny’s weakness as well as of her fluent French, sueceeds, and On the following day she hears from a conversation between Pep Mullins, a fellow-boarder who is a reporter, and her father, that Mallarmé is an impostor, and hastens to his recom to upbraid him. While there her father arrives to effect the arrest-of Mallarmé and his wife, and is astounded to discover that his’ own daughter has assisted the Frenchman in his crooked scheme, Jim Dark, the detective, admits the foolishness of not making the girl aware of evil possibilities, and hands her over to Pep Mullins, who has fallen in love with the girl. the girl’s appeal reaps a huge monetary reward. There is a subsidiary story of Adele Hoyt (Helen Ray) and her father’s expulsion of her from his house as the result of having found in an cabaret. This, incidentally, brings about Jeanne’s false step. Helen Ray plays her part, especially the drugged scene, convincingly. : been unrespectable Justine Johnstone, as Jenny Dark, did very well indeed in her varied part. As the horn-bespectacled recluse among her books, drab of dress and limited in worldly outlook, she suggests the possession of a spirituality similar to that shown by her heroine of distant Domremy, Later, unbespectacled, and with tumbled hair as the result of a romp, her appearance charms Pep Mullins, while at the dinner, as Mallarmé’s wife, she has a triumphant inanner which contrasts strongly with her earliest appearance, Some beautiful dresses add to the charm of the scenes. * Sheltered Daughters has been attractively produced and well the whole cast chosen, It should meet with success wherever shown.