The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Nov-Dec 1922)

December 9, 1922. THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. 19 THE FATAL INFLUENCE OF THE DESERT. Another Drama Amid African Sands. F.B.0.’s BRITISH PRODUCTION. ATELY the sandy wastes of the African desert—Egypt, L Libya, or wherever—seem to have exercised a strange fascination over British producers. The latest to succumb to this rather arid charm is Mr. F. L. Granville, whos picture, ‘‘ Shifting Sands,’’ was shown by F.B.O. on Wednesday at the Alhambra. It may be said at once that Mr. Granville has been able to do far more with this Eastern atmosphere than some other producers, who apparently imagined that a ‘‘ closeup '’ of the Sphinx, a few camels, and a sandstorm would amply a SCENE FROM ‘‘ SHIFTING SANDS.’’ atone for the poverty of their story. The desert scenes in ‘* Shifting Sands ’’ (though towards the end a little monotonous owing to repetition) are, on the whole, well varied, and now and then exciting. But the sand has got into the mechanism of Mr. Granville’s theme and clogged it badly. It was not much of a theme to begin with, being too closely related to millions of screen yarns which have been served up before. But the demands of the desert caused ‘*t to slow up very considerably— if not to stop altogether—in places, with the result that the pulse of interest beat very feebly. After a time one began to wonder why one had been asked to bother with the story at all. A rivulet of plot meandered through a huge desert of sandy scenery. Occasionally an oasis of real dramatic action appeared on the horizon, but the latter part of the story is simply a ‘travel’? picture with a few personages and a poor littl: ‘love and revenge ’’ motif lingering on to keep it in countenance. Truly, the desert helped to kill Mr. Granville’s plot, as it has killed the plots of nearly all his predecessors who have thought to enhance the value of their material by getting local colour in Africa. has THE ETERNAL THEME IN A NEW SETTING. When Barbara Thayer, the daughter of a famous painter, realised that her regard for Dr. Willard Lindsay was more than mere friendship, she persuaded her father to take her away from London, Glad of the opportunity to paint his beloved desert, he takes a villa in Tripoli, North Africe. A few days after their arrival Barbara is amazed to see Yvcenne, Willard Lindsay's wife, in Tripoli, accompanied by Pierre Moreau, a former lover and an engaging scoundrel, whose home lay in the interior of the Libyan desert. She realises that’ what she feared has Digitized by Gor gle happened, Yvonne, infatuated with Moreau, has taken her son, Leroy, and left her husband. as Willard follows Yvonne to Tripoli, where, through the machinations of Moreau, he is attacked and injured in a native quarter, fortunately being rescued by Samuel Thayer, Barbara‘s father. Yvonne and Moreau flee to the desert—while Willard, convalescing under Barbara's tender care, rapidly falls’in love with her. He decides to divorce Yvonne, when the latter having repented of her rashness, returns with Leroy to Tripoli,: and, meeting Willard, begs him to forego the divorce, to leave her his name and the custody of their little son. Willard, faced with the destruction of his happiness, neverthless assents, bids farewell to Barbara and goes forth into the desert. His sacrifice is in vain. Yvonne, endeavouring to escape from Moreau, who pursues her, is accidentally killed. Barbara and her father, after a fruitless search for Willard, return to’ England with Leroy. Ten years pass, then by strange chance comes news of Willard. Thayer, Barbara, and Leroy, now grown big, set off to the desert in search of him. On the eve of success their camp is raided and Barbara carried off by Hamed Assan, the noturicus brigand. Thayer and Leroy eventually get in touch with Willard, now attached to a military post. Several squadrons of cavalry are called out to attack the brigand’s camp, where Hamed Assan has revealed himself to Barbara as none other than Pierre Moreau. He escapes the soldiers, but Willard, pursuing him, captures and, in a struggle, kills him, His enemy vanquished, Willard returns to the camp to find dwaiting him not only his beloved son, but the girl who had Joved him so faithfully. A LITTLE VARIATION. One slight novelty of treatment should be recorded. It will have been observed from a perusal of the story that the villain twice encounters the hero in a struggle concerning a woman. On the first occasion Willard gets the worst of it during a fight with his wife’s lover. But the latter is a man of disguises, and when he turns up again as Hamed Assan, and attempts to get Willard’s new sweetheart into his power, he has to meet the hero under more tragic circumstances for himself. The fight in the ever-shifting sands is realistically performed, and is, of course, the prelude to the final scene between Willard and Barbara. TOO MUCH SAND. The story of ‘‘ Shifting Sands’? cannot at this stage he materially altered. But it can) be cut. There is too much sand. The oncoming of the cavalry squadron to attack the brigand’s camp is too long drawn out, and too reminiscent. of similar cowboy scenes on the Western prairie. In other places, also, the padding sticks out—little things, perhaps, but all helping to make footage instead of drama. One hour is ample for a subject of this kind. At the Alhambra the show lasted at least half as long again. There was not much chance for subtlety of interpretation in a play of, mainly, spectacular interest. But Pegey Hyland did all that was possible in the part of Barbara, Lewis Willoughby was rough and ready as Willard Lindsay, and Richard Attwood appropriately sinister and ‘‘ hang-dog’’ in. Moreau-cum-Assan, the villain of the piece. Mlle. Valia did well in the smaller part of Willard’s first wife. F.B.O. are to be congratulated on their enterprise in sponsoring an all-British production, but next time they should stipulate that the producer must give the desert a ‘t miss.”’ appearance as Original from NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY