The Film Daily (1924)

Sunday, November 9, 1924 THE 11 ::'[ the tricks are done so expertly that [ are hardly distinguishalile. I'ut unfortunately, we are unable to wax I riithusiastic over a remainder of the picjn. Norma Talmadge is excellent, of course i-shc always is — but the story 1 as been ,one so often than it is hackueyc 1. ♦ • * ; Sidney Olcott directed, .ii'J le i;iade an ,,i\cellcnt job of tlie material in l-.atnl. * * * GRAPHIC— "The Only Woman" ♦ ♦ ♦ fine film fare. It is what is known to r.ilucers as a "sure-fire box-office attracon. " and there isn't a Norma Talmadge n in the country who won't want to see is beloved movie idol in the role of Helen irinsley. ♦ ♦ ♦ HERALD-TRIBUNE—* * * One very ice thing we can say for the star and .1 !ier leading man also. Both are soulilly slender and Miss Talmadge wears some jlothes that are alone worth the price of idmission. There are, too, some decidedly 'iRitating storm scenes. * * * Sidney Olcott he of our very best directors, directed it. MORNING TELEGRAPH—* * * Despite le fact that in conception and general eatment the idea is pretty old, "The Only /oman" is sustaining. When two such tilled technicians as Miss Talmadge and [r. Sullivan get together, and when their ares are taken in hand by svich a director Sidney Olcott, something considerably orth while in the entertainment line is retty sure to result. But "The Only Wolan" just shows what they can do with jnventional material. It is no one of the iree at top form. One exception can be made to the above iticism, and that is the utterly realistic :orm at sea which Olcott and his assistnts have contrived. It is done in minia jre, hut it is superb. * * * POST — Norma Talmadg«'s new picture * * will be a distinct disappointment to lest of her old admirers and to the new nes she gained in "Secrets." Her latest Im, in all but one of its sequences, fails rise above the height of mediocrity, which fortunately characterizes such a large proortion of the photoplay output. ♦ » * SU.N' — * * * It is an ostentatiously trivia! nema that, strange to say, is not helped iong a very great deal by the presence of le incomjjarable Talmadge in its cast. But perhaps no actress could make this ickneyed tale of ('. Gardiier Sullivan seem intly interesting. It is much too old and lopworn and before the last reel is reached, le story is completely done for. TELEGRAM—* * * Norma Talmadge as the sacrificed daughter, a lovely, fasci.ting. glowing heroine who could sustain iterest in a film though there was no plot all. There is also a storm that is probably le finest, in that it is one of the most terble spectacles of a storm at sea ever shown 1 the screen. * * * TIMES — Although the actual plot of * * * The Only Woman" is not unfamiliar, the ory contains several interesting situations hich are eflectivcly pictured. Sidney Olcott * has concentrated on an imposing marage sci'ne in a marvelous rejiroduction ol church, and on other sequences in which le action takes place aboard a beautiful jcht. These stretches and the charm of le talented Miss Talmadge compensate for >me of the trite subtitles an<l awkward poses [ the players in the first chapter of the irrative. * * * ■" It is a compilation of exaggerations in hich none of the characters are really nairal, with the jiossible exception of the roine. WORLD — ♦ * * Miss Norma Talmadge's w picture is an example of heroic treat ent administered to feeble drama. * * * * * this is not the kind of thing to _. cngagitig the attention of a man like ' Icott. It must be added that he has filmed S interiors, anil also his exteriors, with a ste for the beautiful and, as is his way. ; has caused his players ever so often I seem like regular beings. But it was too uch to ask comidete success. My point tlat he has no business being just pretty Dod on anv occasion. "Worldly Goods" — Paramount Rialto AMERICAN—* * * While "Worldly oods" will never bo listed among Famous layers' ten best or even twenty, neither ill it be listed among the ten worst. 1 ight say it comes along about the middle. nd is neither very bad nor very good. * * • Paul Bern is the <lirector, and the direcon is one of the best things in the picire. * * • DAILY .MIRROR—" * * "Worhlly ooils" * * * is humorous entertainment. fragile and trite though the story. Under the splendid direction of Paul Bern, Agnes Ayres rises from the ranks of "puppet actress" and gives a surprisingly good characterization. ♦ * • EVENING JOURNAL—* * * It's an amusing light little comedy, with no pretense at a moral, and both Miss Ayres and O'Malley do better work in this film than they've ever had the opportunity of doing before. * * * EVENING WORLD— It seems to us that the casting in this picture was not as good as it might have been. We had serious difficulty in distinguishing between Pat O'Malley ♦ * • 3,,(j Victor Varconi. They resemble each other and dress very much alike. This made the picture rather confusing in spots. But, at that, "Worldly Goods" is good enough to enhance Agnes Ayres' wide popularity, and the simplicity with which she enacts her part is bound to add to her appeal. * * * HERALD TRIBUNE— "Worldly Goods" couldn't help being good, because it is patterned, line for line, after "The Show-Ofif." * * * However, the scenarist or somebody has an excellent memory. Agnes Ayres is the nominal star, but Pat O'Malley, Victor X'arconi. Edythe Chapman and Bert Woodruff divide the honors with Miss Ayres Paul Bern ♦ * ♦ has done an excellent I)iece of work. He probably has made it what it is today. * * * MORNING TELEGRAPH—* * * one of I he better pictures, clean througout and with a moral lesson brightened by human characters. It doesn't seem like a screen play, there is so much life to it. If you like good pictures, go to the Rialto. * * * POST— In "Worldly Goods" * ♦ ♦ Paul Bern * ♦ * has made amends for his mental lapses in * * * "Open All Night." In that film, he seemed to be not at all sure of himself ; in "Worldly Goods" there are a sureness of touch and a certain almost swaggering confidence in technique which tells you that his feet are on the ground at last. This picture is very good entertainment of a certain type. ♦ ♦ ♦ SUN—* * * "Worldly Goods" won't make you swoon with excitement over its originality and freshness, but it will serve to pass a pleasant and fairly amusing hour. ♦ * * TELEGRAM—* * * Just how the whole affair is straightened out makes a very interesting picture. ♦ * * TIMES — As a species of comedy-drama with occasional farcical tilts, "Worldly Goods" * * * is a clever and amusing entertainment, much of its sucess being due to Paul Bern's gentle and imaginative direction, which helps the flow of the story and aptly delineates a variety of interesting characters. Out-of-Town Abraham Lincoln" — 1st Nat'l Rivoli, Baltimore NEWS — ^"Abraham Lincoln" is based upon incidents in the life of the Emancipator and iiaturally it is an episode photoplay. But these incidents are handled so simply and so sympathetic that one is not conscious of the jolting which so often accompanies episodic plays and motion pictures. "Abraham Lincoln" is one of the very best photoplays I have ever seen. "Barbara Frietchie"— Prod. Dis. Corp. Circle, Cleveland NEWS — The picture has all of the elements that appeal to the imagination and quicken the pulse. It is rich in sentiment and pathos, finely acted, exceptionally well photographed ♦ » ♦ jj carries all of the glamour of Civil war days in the old south. * * « PLAIN DEALER— The supporting players are sufficient for their roles, but the picture depends solely upon the heroine and its exciting war episodes. Kings and Rivoli, St. Louis GLOBE DEMOCRAT— A whimsical love story as fragrant as a rosemary sprig ♦ * * Romance, however, vies with the war scenes, bits of history and historical characters, human passions and patriotism. POST-DISPATCH— The film was based on the Clyde Fitch stage version which eliminated Barbara's "gray head" and made the heroine a young woman . Even the stage version is not closely followed. STAR — * * * nicely filmed in sets which look authentic. TIMES — The picture follows closely the theme of the poem e.xcept that Barbara Frietchie, as 'portrayed by lovely Florence Vidor, has black instead of white hair. "The Alaskan"— F. P.-L. Metropolitan, Los Angeles (Week Ending Nov. 1) TIMES — * * * It has more vitality than most productions that he (Meighan) has done lately in the East, but it is far from a high degree of perfection at that. His best acting is the fighting that he does at tho finish, and that is excellent. ♦ • * Eastman, Rochester DEMOCRAT AND CHRO.N K LE— The thousands of motion picture patrons whose admiration has been won by the type of jjhotoplay in which Thomas Meighan always appears will find "The Alaskan" * • * charac teristically wholesome as well as entertaining. * " * HER.VLD — Alaskan scenery that is very pleasant and Thomas Meighan in a characteristic role. * * * TIMES-UNION—* * * Meighan is seen in a melodramatic and none too convincing story ; but he has a background of majestic mountain scenery, awe-inspiring in its beauty, and quite sufficient to make a visit to the theater worth while. * * " "Between Friends" — Vitagraph Colonial, Indianapolis STAR — * * * it contains the swift dramatic punch common to almost all of Mr. Chambers' stories, intermixed with the domestic tangle also always incident to his tales. * * ♦ "Butterfly" — Universal Merrill, Milwaukee LEADER—* * * the author can justly feel proud of its filming. * * * "The Chechahcos" — Asso. Exhibitors Cameo, San Francisco (Week Ending Nov. 1) CALL AND POST—* * * A stirring story, given a .setting of stupendous grandeur * ♦ * CHRONICLE—* * * It has a melodra matic story and many thrilling .scenes, in one of which there is a glacier slide in which a great block of ice slips into the sea, leaving a group of forty workers very near tlie brink where they had been working. * * * EXAMINER — There is at least one scene wliich will be long remembered. * * * It is a scene on Child's Glacier, in Alaska, where tlie company of forty are at work when a large portion of the glacier parts and slides, crashing into the sea leaving the players not more than fifteen feet from the brink. » * * DAILY NEWS— The Cameo has a picture of more than passing interest in "The Cludiahcos." The story itself is melodrama, fairly conventional, save in its broad retrospect on the Klondike stampede era, and its majestic background.. ♦ ♦ ♦ "Christine of the Hungry Heart" — First National Olympia, Boston PLAIN DEALER— • ' * another one adding to Miss Vidor's fame in so far as her work is concerned, though the director has failed her in many instances. * ' " Park Mall, Cleveland NEWS — * " * the plot upon which the picture is builded otTers nothing original but it probably will appeal to the ladies. "The Clean Heart"— Vitagraph Mission, Los Angeles (Week Ending Nov. I) EXAMINER— * * * The story is ««ld with a new tempo, Blackton and Percy .\Iarmont, who plays the lead, have contrived a fast moving, tense story of the overcrowded life of a man of letters, and they have done it with a delicate suggestive art which spells something new and most successful for the film medium. » * • TIMES—* * * It is not at all for the lover of the stock pattern film story. Its character-drawing is too nicely shaded, its drama too finely drawn, to please the fan who likes his drama labeled. But it will appeal to the culturally sophisticated. It will be welcomed with open arms by those who really desire to see fine things done in picturedoir. ' "The Cyclone Rider"— Fox Fox-Washington, Detroit FREE PRESS—* * *a rip-roaring melodrama, that ought to send shivery thrills through every audience. It's " this Lincoln J. Carter material William Fox has turned out most thrilling and absorbing ever seen in Detroit, NEWS — The likely-named hero, Mr. Armstrong, gets mixed up in a pair of wild automobile races, tlits about the framework of a skyscraper, drives his car across a wide water gap and on to a moving ferryboat and — well, lots and lots of breathless things like that. But Mr. Carter's plots never fool you. great stuff, and with it one of the melodramas "Dangerous Money" — F. P.-L. Castle, Chicago NEWS — Belie Daniels * " ' is a .screen actress of more than ordinary power, swiftness and ability. * * * ■ She's a lot better actress than here set forth, with capacities and talents not touched or brought anywhere near the surface in this production. Frank Tuttic directed the picture and was somewhat rushed with a factory order from the look of the production. The result was a somewhat below average program number. Strand, Cincinnati POST — It's quite dull * ♦ • unless you can't recognize the old Cinderella yarn in "Dangerous Money." or don't care how often stories are repeated. * * " If you're interested in acting, Bcbe Daniels, Tom Moore and the fine points of picture production, we recommend "Dangerous Money." Apollo, Indianapolis STAR—* * ' Belie has flitted through many a picture in parts almost as promninet as any player in them, but never before has she shone all by herself as she <loes in "Dangerous Money."' The result is ample proof that her producer used good judgment in advancing the pititiant Belie to the stellar position. * • • "Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall" — United Artists State, Boston PO.ST — Everything, from the acting of the extraordinary cast * * * to the reproduction of the impressive castles of early Englainl, set in the landscapes that transport the watcher to that picturesque country, is done in the most artistic fashion . "The Fast Set"— F. P.-L. Strand, Omaha BEE — * " ' The subtitles are crisp and III the point and contain not a little subtle NEW CHRONIK CAMERA with automatic dissolving shutter, 2" F3.5 Carl Zeiss Tessar, 6-400 ft. magazines, case and new Precision Ball Bearing Tripod. $650.00 MOTION PICTURE APPARATUS CO., Inc. 118 West 44th St., N. Y. C. Bryant 6635 I ' S. iin.l C.iriiiJii -XRcms for Del'rn;