The Film Daily (1918)

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Sunday, August 25, 1918 tMA DAILY Very Striking Exteriors and Personalities Lift Rather Weak Story Elsie Ferguson in "HEART OF THE WILDS" Artcraft DIRECTOR Marshall Neilan AUTHOR Edgar Selwyn SCENARIO BY Charles Maigne CAMERAMAN Walter Stradling AS A WHOLE Exceptionally artistic and distinctive exteriors and lightings together with per= sonalities of players lifted very ordinary plot. STORY Held attention nicely until finish, but died at end. DIRECTION Made atmosphere decidedly distinc= tive and gave strength to dramatic action except in final sequence, which registered very poorlv. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally good. Many wonder= fully artistic and effective exterior silhouettes and cloud effects. LIGHTINGS Some exceptionally effective — gener= ally pleasing. CAMERA WORK. . . .Composition and angles very good STAR Made characterization appealing and con= vincing. SUPPORT Quite pleasing EXTERIORS Gave wonderful atmosphere to pro= duction — some very exceptional shots. INTERIORS Good DETAIL Satisfactory, except behavior of police in final sequence. CHARACTER OF STORY. .Has done service for many years. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,600 feet CONSIDERING the fact that this was a very ordinary plot, the basic idea of which has served for many a production on the screen, it is entirely to the credit of Director Neilan that he has been able to make this seem a worthy special offering because of the atmosphere registered in the first few reels. Unfortunately, in the final sequence, when the climax of the plot was reached, we found a twist which did not entirely clear the shero and her brother from the fact that brother had murdered a man, and this sequence was really ruined by the fact that four mounted policemen were supposed to have pursued the murderer to his home, and yet these four sit downstairs very "THE PURSUIT OF POLLY" With BILLIE BURKE Paramount Comedy -Released Aug. 19th nonchalant and unconcerned while the murderer, his sister, and the man who was attacking his sister, .played quite a long scene upstairs. When the murderer finally came downstairs, one of the mounted policemen reached for his gun, but found that his holster was buckled. The chances are that most any kid will see that this was all wrong and will complain over the careless manner in which the policemen gave up the chase upon arriving at the house in order to allow the characters upstairs to finish their dramatic scene. This is the old story written by Edgar Selwyn and made into a picture some years ago for the All-Star Company, under the title of "Pierre of the Plains." The plot is a very simple one and can be briefly told. An Indian who is sort of a guide for the mounted police, insulted the daughter of a boot-legging trader. Daughter is the shero, played by Miss Ferguson. Her brother played by Matt Moore, was sort of a comedy character and also used as the necessary pivot about which to center the plot. Tom Meighan was the mounted policeman, very much interested in Miss Ferguson. Miss Ferguson's brother went after the Indian in order to get back some whiskey his father had sold the Indian in an unguarded moment, and when the Indian said something about his sister, brother promptly shot him. The rest of the film was devoted to the mounted police trailing the fugitive murderer, with Mr. Meighan stopping to see Miss Ferguson, with the result that father and a friend of his drugged Tommy, making it impossible for him to deliver some orders. Miss FergusoiJ delivered the orders in Tommy's uniform, in order to save his honor, and then learned that the orders were sending men to guard all passes to arrest her brother. About this time Tommy recovered and threatened to go get her brother himself, with the result that Miss Ferguson shot him to keep him from leaving the house. As she was preparing to bind up his wound, the willun returned and attacked her and then brother came back to the house to give himself up. with four policemen on his trail, these being the officers who so leisurely worried about wounded Tommy instead of going upstairs to get the murderer. Then came the twist whereby shero and her brother made the willun give himself up as the murderer of the Indian, under penalty of being killed himself unless he did so. Others in the cast were: E. L. Fernandez and Sidney D'Albrook. "ON THE QUIET" Featuring JOHN BARRYMORE ParamountFarceReleased Sept. 1st "THE HUN WITHIN" Directed By Chet Withey DOROTHY GISH and GEORGE FAWCETT Artcraft Paramount Special Released Sept. 8th