The Film Daily (1920)

10 DAILV Sunday, February 22, 1920 Fairly Satisfactory Picture Made From Strictly Conventional Material Frank Mayo in "BURNT WINGS" Universal DIRECTOR Christy Cabanne AUTHOR Bayard Veiller SCENARIO BY Percy Heath and Christy Cabanne. CAMERAMAN Alfred Gosden AS A WHOLE Fairly satisfactory picture made from material of strictly conventional nature STORY Maintains average degree of interest despite some very unreal characters. DIRECTION Average PHOTOGRAPHY Generally good LIGHTINGS Some fine effects CAMERA WORK Straight stuff STAR Acts well in an unsympathetic role SUPPORT Josephine Hill as sacrificing wife is forced; Betty Blythe in semi-vamp role steals sympathy. EXTERIORS Plain INTERIORS Suitable DETAIL Some subtitles should be altered to gain better effect. CHARACTER OF STORY Wife sells herself to obtain money for sick husband who, recovered almost proves fickle. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,075 feet The story and the treatment accorded it in the production are both conventional quantities with the case of "Burnt Wings" but the picture manages to get into the average class despite its stereotype mold and a pair of rather unreal characters. One reason for this is that it is brief and wastes small time about details, and although this treatment has also served to level the high-lights to a continuous state of sameness the action is never tiresomely prolonged. The picture is an adaptation of Bayard Veiller's play, "The Primrose Path," and opens in a Paris studio where Ned Templeton, an artist, finds the going hard. When he suffers terribly from starvation his wife, Joan, goes into the streets and sells her body to obtain money for him. Later Ned is seen installed in New York and successful. He is commissioned to paint the portrait of James Cartwright, a wealthy patron, whose acts are guided by the whims of his daughter, Helen. Helen takes a great liking to Ned and Cartwright schemes to separate him from his wife. In this he believes himself aided by the fact that he is the man whom Joan met in the Paris streets. But his scheme fails. Ned hears him attempting to liribe Joan to leave him and threatening her with exposure of her past if she refuses. The result is that Ned casts his false friends aside and returns to the wife that made such a supreme sacrifice for him. The picture brings out some good acting, notably on the part of Frank Mayo, the star, although the appeal he creates is rather short owing to the unsympathetic nature of the role. Betty Blythe, often seen in a lo and behold gown, makes a beautiful figure of Helen Cartwright and in fact, takes much of the sympathy that should go to the role of Joan which suffers considerably owing to the forced performance of Josephine Hill, who is pretty but by no means subtle or polished. Rudolph Christian gives a dignified and impressive performance in the rather impossible role of Cartwright. Some of the subtitles could be changed to much better effect. When Ned tells his wife not to enter his studio because : "it would be fatal to my career," the very conventionality and "convenience" of the situation is bared to the bone whereas a more skilful use of words would in part cover it up. There are other subtitles of a similar kind. Not Worth Making Any Big Fuss About Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Exhibitors of Universal pictures will find "Burnt Wings" below the best of the product issued by this company but good enough to fill a bill. It is not one that you can talk about with any great degree of confidence in your advertising for there is nothing exceptional about it in the way of either story or treatment. The biggest advertising asset in connection with it is the name of the author. Bayard Veiller, who has the two plays, "Within the Law" and "The Thirteenth Chair" to his credit among others. Indicate that "Burnt Wings" is an adaptation of his play, "The Primrose Path." This should attract. But don't promise anything extraordinary.