The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, August 25, 1918 jM^ DAILY Routine "Movie" Romance with German Spy Trimmings. Lacks Punch Pauline Starke in "DAUGHTER ANGELE" Triangle DIRECTOR William Dowlan AUTHOR W. H. Sterns SCENARIO BY George Elwood Jenks CAMERAMAN Elgin Lessly AS A WHOLE Very ordinary material that never grips or creates suspense. Things happen obligingly all the way. STORY Everybody's doing it. Routine "movie" romance with German spy trimmings. DIRECTION Let action and happenings become very mechanical and failed to make this more than routine two=a=week program movie. PHOTOGRAPHY Varied but generally satisfactory LIGHTINGS Acceptable though not artistic CAMERA WORK Satisfactory STAR Has appeal but was hardly suited to role and was given little opportunity to register. SUPPORT Walt Whitman good but most of cast impressed as "actors." EXTERIORS. .. .Satisfactory; coast shots rather good INTERIORS Acceptable DETAIL Convenient CHARACTER OF STORY Nothing objectionable LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,500 feet iir~~WH> went tlic fillnm. tra la. Poor Pauline." This ^r is one of those obliging scenarios that lets every^^ thing happen at just the right time, the players do just what you think they are going to do and everything dove-tails in so perfectly thai any audience is going to go out deciding that they haven'1 seen much because they doped out the finish in advance and there ain't no fun guessing at plots when you can guess 'em right every time; it takes the novelty out of the entertainment. Pauline appears in this as the granddaughter of Walt Whitman, who had turned her mother out many years before and had since wished that she would come back to him but had lost track of her. When Pauline and her mother return to Walt's house, the housekeeper, who has designs on Walt's money, turns them away, saying that such were Whitman's instructions. It very conveniently happened that Walt had consented to adopt a French refugee which enabled Pauline to pose as the refugee and install herself in Walt's home. The housekeeper tries to make things uncomfortable for Pauline but not succeeding in this she frames her son to win Pauline's love. Hero then gains admission to the household by an influential letter from Washington, according to a title and. of course, he falls for Pauline and vice versa. Housekeeper's willun son happens to be the German spy Hero is after, but before he can nab him. willun succeeds in making the villagers believe that Hero is the spy and so they dress up in Klu Klux outfits and come to nab Hero. Hero doesn't happen to be in the house and Shero goes to the cave where he is getting a line on spy operalions and warns him. He returns to where the sang have Walt under a tree and establishes his real identity after which willun spy and his associate are captured and Hero and Shero finish with the clutch. Shero's mother is re-united with her father and all ends satisfactorily. Just to make it more intrikut they married Pauline to willun (with a sub-title) so he could claim right to Walt's fortune, but the marriage evidently didn't take; anyway, it was never referred to again. Gene Burr was the wicked willun-spy and looked sufliciently wicked, although he frequently "acted." Philo McCullough was a satisfactory Hero: Lulu Warrenton made you despise her in the role of the conniving housekeeper, while Walt Whitman as Shero's grandfather, was easily the best actor in the cast. Others who appeared were: Myrtle Rishell. Miles McCarthy. Mrs. Mackley and Harold Holland. Charles H®y WID'S YEAR BOOK — Carrying definite and authentic information.