The Film Daily (1921)

Sunday, January 9, 1921 ftfrcftt DAILY 15 Picture Not As Good As Play But May Satisfy Wallace Reid in "THE CHARM SCHOOL" Paramount DIRECTOR James Cruze AUTHOR Alice Duer Miller SCENARIO BY Tom Geraghty CAMERAMAN C.E. Schoenbaum AS A WHOLE Picture version of stage play doesn't contain the real charm of the original but may satisfy star's admirers STORY They haven't gotten as much out of it as they should have DIRECTION Secured some very good comedy but altogether too much time given to small business PHOTOGRAPHY Good LIGHTINGS • Good CAMERA WORK Up to standard STAR Quite as pleasing as usual except when he takes to posing SUPPORT Lila Lee well suited to part; others all very good EXTERIORS Some pretty ones INTERIORS All right DETAIL Some titles are good CHARACTER OF STORY Young automobile salesman inherits girls' school and falls in love with one of the pupils LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,743 feet Somehow or other the picture version of Alice Duer Miller's comedy success "The Charm School" hasn't the charm of the play. One reason is that too much effort has been spent on small business that doesn't mean very much, such as a love affair between Lila Lee and the brother of her room-mate. This is one of the non-essentials that lacks the proper comedy spark. Other efforts at comedy turn out to be nothing more than nonsense. Then again there are moments that register real humor and at the Rivoli the audience seemed to be satisfied generally, although there were times when long stretches of dry detail proved noticeably tedious. Many of the situations in themselves provided fun, and the star's work will attract. The direction is generally all right and the titles contain some humor that got laughs. Those who like Wallace Reid may be amused by the part he is given in "The Charm School," that of a young man who inherits a girls' school and reforms it according to his own ideas. When Mrs. Rolles insists that she will not have Bevans (Reid), for a son-in-law he insists that she will. But then when his aunt dies and wills him her girls' boarding school, Bevans gives up his suit and decides to run the school. Under the aunt's regime the girls studied microbes, etc., but Bevans turns it into a "Charm School," where the girls are taught dancing, fencing, and grace in general. Elsie, one of the students, immediately falls in love with Bevans. but lie fails to respond. Then Elise tries to vamp Bevans, hut he doesn't fall, so she comes right out with the truth and tells hims she loves him. Elise's uncle is very much interested in young Bevans and when Mrs. Rolles hears how well he is getting along she tries to patch things up between Bevans and her daughter and tells Elise the two are engaged. Elise is heartbroken hut in the end all turns out well with Elise and Bevans. "GEVAERT" RAW FILM STOCK Positive — Negative — Colored Positive United States Distributor THE GEVAERT COMPANY OF AMERICA, Inc. HOOVEN BUILDING 1 17 West 46th St., N.Y. City (U. S. Pat.) Manufactured by L. GEVAERT & CO. ANTWERP, BELGIUM