The Film Daily (1926)

DAILY ■91 Sunday, January 3, 1926 Newspaper Opinions New York "Ben Hur" Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cohan Theater AMERICAN— For ten years "Ben Hur" has been planned. For three it has been in actual production. We hasten to say that it is well worth waiting for. The producers have approached a difficult subject with reverence and understanding. The Nativity scenes are strangely beautiful, with the first technicolor that we can praise with real enthusiasm. Again and again the audience broke through its hush with loud applause. • • * As a spectacle, the film is magnificent. Scene a-fter scene of tremendous scope is flashed on the screen. * ** Any one of a dozen sequences of "BenHur" would have made a talked-of picture. Yet, though they have all been piled into one huge production, there is no confusion. * # • "Ben-Hur" has been filmed with power and taste. As we have said, it was well worth waiting for. DAILY MIRROR— "Ben Hur" is a magnificent, lavish production. It bears the impressive stamp of its six million dollar expenditure and stands in isolated grandeur as the supreme mechanical achievement of the silver sheet. Ramon Novarro scores a sensational hit as Ben Hur — heroic, handsome, sincere, arrogantly youthful and fearless. • * • Around this adventurous youth surges a beautiful story, handled with rare deftness and reverence by June Mathis and Carey Wilson. The pinnacle of its splendor is reached wifh the chariot race. • • ♦ It is magnificent. The greatest thing we have ever seen on the screen of its kind. The picture has been deftly cast, • * • EVENING JOURNAL— Beautifully presented, magnificently made • * • three years in the making — and it was worth waiting for. There are such elaborate details, so many sets of splendor, that the first night audience applauded scene after scene. But the thrill of the evening was the chariot race — * * • The role of the Madonna is marvelously portrayed by Betty Bronson, and the Nativity scenes, done in delicate coloring, are wonderful. • * • It is a wonderful picture, with a splendid cast • • • And the chariot race is unforgettable— -a sequence that makes motion picture history. EVENING WORLD— It is a spectacle on a grand scale • * * But the very magnificence of the production seemed to dwarf the individual actors and to make their efforts less effective than they might have been in simpler surroundings. * ♦ * Some of the most charming and effective scenes were in the opening sequence dealing with the Nativity. • • • The handling of the mob scenes, and the long shots of crowds were perfectly managed and beautifully photographed. The sets were, if anything, more than adequate. The sea battle with the pirates, the galley slaves at their oars, and the great chariot race were striking examples of the fields in which the motion picture is supreme. It is the only medium for recording such effects. HERAED-TRIBUNE — • • • we are tempted to write that the chariot race in "Ben Hur," • * • is the biggest thing ever done in pictures. • • • Ramon Novarro plays Ben Hur and he is magnificent. • • • Each player deserves a favorable notice of his own. so fine was every one. • • • But we haven't the time or the space to give it to him now. And that brings us to the only two complaints we have to make. From our point of view, "Ben Hur" is too long and too complicated. • • • It isn't that "Ben-Hur" isn't one of the greatest things that ever has been put on the screen. It is. It's too great. One, or at least this one cannot assimilate it. We are still dazed. Our list of "imperatives" is piling up, but whatever you do, don't miss "Ben Hur." POST— The chariot race, be it told, is considerably more impressive than it used to be on the old stage treadmill. • • • As a spectacle "Ben Hur" is mighty enough — its mob scenes are well handled and often brilliantly done. The rest is dull, lifeless and unconvincing, sometimes to an embarrassing degree. A cast of notables of the screen world wanders through the picttire with evident good intentions but little inspiration. • • • SUN — The settings are lavish and large, and several scenes — notably those of the Vale of Lepers, tlje galley slaves and the shepherds in the desert — are quite beautifully composed and striking. The affair reaches its highest peak, of course, in the chariot race — which is unquestionably the most dynamically staged chariot race in which Ben-Hur ever rode to victory. * * * It is good. ♦ * • Most of the religious episodes * * • are done in colored photography, but stained glass window still retain their artistic supremacy. Fred Niblo directed "Ben-Hur." He offers no striking innovations — outside of photographing certain scenes of the chariot race from a pit underneath the chariots. TELEGRAM— Unversed but open-minded we went to see. And we stayed openmouthed and open-eyed to marvel at the most extravagant and staggeringly spectacular pictorial pageant in the history of the unspoken drama. • • • Every lover of the silver screen will walk a mile to see this picturization of "Ben Hur." Bewildered eyese will blink as scene upon impressive scene is flashed before them. * • • But of all the scenes the most vivid and intense of all, the most ambitious and electrifying, is the chariot race in the Great Circus of Antioch. * * • The performance is magnificent, and Fred Niblo's chariot race "will go down in motion picture )<(story as one of its most remarkable achievements. * * * "Ben Hur" is a long production, and the action is not all keyed to the acute pitch of the chariot race. • • * Particularly during the first half of the picture there are moments where it drags considerably. But in the latter part it picks up again, and the interest is conscientiously sustained. TIMES — As a film spectacle it is a masterpiece of study and patience, a photodrama which is fTIlcd with so much artistry that one would like to ponder over some of the scenes to glean all that is in them, instead of seeing just that passing flash. Ordinary conventional methods have for tlie most part been discarded by Fred Niblo, * * * it is plain that the stupendous photographic feat was in reproducing the sea fight, which was filmed in the Mediterranean. This comes in the first portion of the production and it is put forth with amazingly fine effect. ♦ * * The famous chariot races have been depicted so thrillingly that this chapter evoked no little applause. • • • Ramon Novarro, who plays the part of Ben-Hur, is a sturdy, handsome young chap, with an excellent figure. His performance is all that one could wish, for he is fervent and earnest throughout. • • • WORLD — And this is a cinema which reflects upon its makers the utmost credit. • * * "Ben-Hur" comes out a film drama scenically superb, dramatically weak land pictorially a thing of rich and surpassing beauty. * * * it did seem to me that over long periods of time a constant determination to reproduce illusions of bigness * • * overshadowed, and unwisely so from the standpoint of the drama, the poignant romantic attachment as between that splendid Jewish lad and Esther, • • • Still, it may be that volume was the aim * * * If this is the case, then in this respect "Ben-Hur" takes rank in the very fore ranks of all screen plays which I have seen. With its size no man may quibble. In the splendor of its individual "painting" — panels in color of views from the Biblical pajBsages of Jesus's communion with his followers — "Ben Hur" is of utter loveliness; "A Kiss for Cinderella" Paramount Rivoli AMERICAN—* » * again Herbert Brenon has attempted to film a Barrie play, and again he has succeeded. The sentimentality, of course, could have been carried away in buckets. But it was whimsical sentimentality and not too awfully sweet. * • • DAILY MIRROR—* * * faithfully picturizes the whimsy and charm that is Sir James Barrie's. Director Herbert Brenon makes of the fantastic royal ball-room scene a gem of beauty and dainty humor. But he fails to inspire sympathy for Betty Bronson in the leading role of Cinderella, or Cinders. * ♦ • DAILY NEWS—* * * Betty Bronson is an elf. She is not pretty, except for her lovely nose and her tiny feet and hands, but she has more than picture-card beauty. Hers is a wistful, mysterious charm that wholly entrances. Take your children to see her. • • ♦ EVENING JOURNAL—* * * Herbert Brenon, who made "Peter Pan" last year, directed this production, and the dream ball sequence is wonderful. Children will revel in it, for it's beautifully done. * * * EVENING WORLD—* * * The stage could not show hundreds of people at the ball, with a hall room larger than any theater, let alone any stage. ♦ • ♦ The set is an achievement in itself. It is something such as never appeared on land or sea except in the Paramount studio and in the minds of Barrie and Brenon. The whole picture is good. This scene is gorgeous, and well worth the price of admission. » ♦ ♦ GRAPHIC—* * * Betty Bronson seems to be an inspired Cinderella. Having seen Miss Bronson interpret the role, we can't imagine only one doing it half so well. She has a fine sense of dramatic values and her closeups disclose the fact that a good deal of her acting is mental. • * ♦ HERALD-TRIBUNE—* * * There is no way around it — ^"A Kiss for Cinderella" is another perfect picture. It appeals to the heart, to the eye and to the love of fairy lore V hich none ever loses — if he is fortunate. Betty Bronson is inspired — she is a genius! We felt like standing up in the theater and shoutine "Brava!" ♦ * • MORNING TELEGRAPH—* * ♦ adroitly raptures the whimsical charm of the noted Scot, yet it remains at all times substantially interesting. It is not whimsy for the few, but good hox office for the many. Every one concerned in it has earned the big star that caps the ton of the Christmas tree ♦ * * POST—* * * Miss Bronson endows the little slavey with the imagination and charm of a true Barrie Character, and she has almost, we think, lost her earlier self -consciousness before the camera, noticeable, now and t^ien. in several of her former pictures. Miss Bronson is interesting, and she is especially so ufHer the direction of Mr. Brenon. • * • SITN — * * * some good acting by Betty Bronson and the ever dependable Tom Moore, some lovely picturesoue pageantry and a moderate miota of the famous Barriesque quaintne«s. This latter element is present principallr in the substitutes-rather than in the pirt^rinl elements. * • • TELEGRAM—* * * Children and those men who possess any centle strain, any love of poetry and whimsicalitv (the word was inevitable!) should delight in the film Women packed the Rivoli, lauehing soimdly and broadly at the detailed fulfilment of the little slavev's everv whim » • • TIMES* • • he CHerbert Brenon't has produced a marvelous rendition of the Barrie play. He has crowded most cleverlv into a comparatively short sequence an unbelievably ioyous conception of Cinderella's ball. It is a eorgeous piece of work in which the '■amera wizard and the stage designer have ably supported Mr. Brenon. • • • WORLD — * * • is .■> much better nictnre play than was "Peter Pan" In it there is expressed a very definite feeling fnr the d^sisrn of fantasy in picture form. It is easily the most refined and T"n=t cha'-acteri^tic n^-rformance vet given by *he small and delightful Miss Bronson .* • • Out-of-Town "The Big Parade" Garrick. Chicago AMERICAN—* • * a war drama that is different I Here is an American epic of the conflict in which humor is as prominent a factor as the love theme. • * • The story of "The Big Parade" is frank, but the humor prevents any attempt to dwell on brutality. It is really a very sim ple tale, too, and therein lies another reason for the film's greatness. * * * HERALD AND EXAMINER— * * * real cinema. It plays the game. It does not combat popular prejudices and superstitions ; doesn't bite the hand that feeds it. Indeed, I should hesitate to follow the example of the New York reviewers who hailed "The Big Parade" as a masterpiece. A good show doesn't have to be a masterpiece to be a good show ; too good to be ruined by puffing. » * * JOURNAI^-* * • Hundreds of trucks, applauded planes, townfuls of villagers, dozens of motorcycles, the homely gas-masks, the dugout. No Man's Land, a hamlet of corpses, everything is piled onto the screen by a lavish directorial hand that never jams its effects and continues the majestic picture of war with a keen and bristling generalship. ♦ ♦ * NEWS — * * * tells more about the war than any one picture, and probably more than all other war pictures put together. ♦ • » It's a story, and it's history and it's tragedy and comedy. It would be terrible and heart-breaking i! it were not for the funny high spots and the sublime depths of it. * • • TRIBUNE-M* * « John Gilbert's portrayal of the hero is clean cut and understanding, and the supporting cast do their bits with zest. King Vdor's work shows that he knows how to use a megaphone and the photography is splendid ; some scenes of moonlit French forests are especially good. » » • Aldine, Philadelphia BULLETIN— It is hard to believe that such preciseness and correctness of detail could be included in a motion picture, as are seen in "The Big Parade" • • » To the overseas veteran it is reeling off before his eyes things he actually experienced, the maddening, the revolting and even the humorous side of the "Yanks" life in the trenches. * * * PUBLIC LEDGER—* • * The first half of the film is slow-moving, but in the light of the second half, the director justifies himself. He spends several thousand feet of film getting everything in readiness for the big battle scenes. A love story, not too sentimental or mawkish, is inserted with great effectiveness. * * * RECORD—* * » When you have seen "The Big Parade," which opened at the Aldine Theater last night, you ha've seen the war. Other pictures have attempted to recreate it, but this is beyond anything ever shown before. It is the real thing. If other pictures were entitled to superlative praise, this deserves super-superlatives. • • * ^TUBLIC SERVICE'^ Adventure speakers from Far places, or films only. Bureau of Commercial Economics lI08-16thSt. N.W. Washington, D.C Schools, Churches and Clubs using Motion Pictures Should Subscribe for THE EDUCATIONAL SCREEN and keep up-to-date with the new films and new equipment '*1001 FILMS" booklet, listing nearly 3000 educational films given free with each subscription $1.50 per year 5 South W abash Ave., Chicago, III,