The Film Daily (1920)

Sunday, February 22, 1920 iM^ DAILY u Below the Average Standard of Kerrigan Productions J. Warren Kerrigan in "THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS" Brunton Prod. — Hodkinson DIRECTOR Ernest C. Warde AUTHOR H. B. Daniel SCENARIO. BY Jack Cunningham CAMERAMAN Arthur L. Todd AS A WHOLE Episodic and incoherent STORY Fair material with very slight plot hin hered by weak continuity and injured by careless direction. DIRECTION Gave little attention to presenting the story in an understandable way. PHOTOGRAPHY All right LIGHTINGS Usually good CAMERA WORK Ordinary STAR .Doesn't look the part of a lawyer SUPPORT No one stands out conspicuously EXTERIORS Few used INTERIORS Satisfactory DETAIL Biggest error in failure to properly identify characters. CHARACTER OF STORY Old story of the necklace. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 5,000 feet This is a case of fair story material being spoiled hy either a bad continuity or lack of application on the part of the director. Surely something is vitally wrong somewhere for the five reels of "$.'^0,000" have pretty well run their course before the spectator can make head or tail of the whole affair and by that time his interest has been sadly misplaced. Incident upon incident is flashed upon the screen without the slightest degree of realism or hint as to what the whole thing is about. All that the audience knows is that the fuss is about a necklace but further than that they're kept wondering pretty much as to the rest ot the action. They start off by introducing the characters in a \ague sort of fashion which probably accounts for the failure to understand what happens after the story gets started. Kerrigan is shown as a "poor but honest" lawyer who is greatly shocked by having $30,000 deposited in his care by Nancy Chase who is endeavoring to recover a necklace belonging to her uncle and which her cousin, Jack Rollins, has lost in a gambling game. For some reason or other ^^^arren hides the money back of the pictures on the wall in his office and finds it missing in the morning when Fritzi Brunette, as a go-between in the necklace deal, arrives with the jewel for which \\ arren is suj^posed to turn over the $30,000. Fritzi is innocent of anything crooked in the deal. Fritzi's father is janitor of the building in which Warren has his office. A\'hile performing his duties the money falls from behind the pictures and the old man appropriates it. Warren goes to the gamblers' rendezvous to investigate and while there wins $30,000 at roulette which he gives to Fritzi in return for the necklace. But it is not the real article so hero has to go back and fight for the genuine article which he returns to Rollins' uncle and is rewarded by the old man with a regular job as his lawyer. A prologue to the story informs that a sage of olden times is merely prophesizing the story and so in the end to satisfy the ladies of his harem he looks further into the crystal of the future and shows the wedding ceremony of Fritzi and Warren. The Star's Name is Your Chief Asset Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Unless this production is revised to a much more satisfactory degree of coherence it would be advisable to hand your folks a synopsis of the story or they may not know what it's about. The fault lies mainly in a poorly arranged introduction which fails to properly link the characters with the action; that is, the audience w'l find it difficult to associate the players with the action. .Should you run "$;30,0()0"' play up the idea of the "poor but honest" law-yer who suddenly won himself a good position by recovering a famous necklace from a band of master gamblers. You could run the line : "He lost $30,000 intrusted to his care but see how J. Warren Krrigan gets out of the difficulty in '$30,000' at the blank theater."