The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, August 25, 1918 AILV Elementary Farce Never Impresses Forcibly But They'll Accept It Billie Burke in "IN PURSUIT OF POLLY" Paramount DIRECTOR Chet Whithey AUTHORS Izola Forrester and Mann Page SCENARIO BY Eve Unsell CAMERAMAN William Marshall AS A WHOLE. . . .One of these mistaken identity things with German spy trimmings; never impresses forcibly and much of comedy forced but may please. STORY Elementary but serves as skeleton for in= dividual hokum touches. DIRECTION. . . .Gave several good touches but allowed comedy to become forced at times and failed to keep this from being obvious all the way. Fre= quently let actions become mechanical. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally satisfactory LIGHTINGS Decidedly varied; some good bits but generally too uniform. CAMERA WORK Acceptable STAR Has done much better work than we get in this. SUPPORT Generally very good EXTERIORS Fitted atmosphere; some beautiful shots. INTERIORS Very good although at times poorly lighted. DETAIL Unconvincing with several minor slips CHARACTER OF STORY Harmless farce LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,700 feet THIS will probably get over with folks who are not particular about things being consistent so long as something is happening on the screen and the individual hokum touches and presence of Miss Burke may slide it by satisfactorily, but it certainly isn't anything to rave about. Of course, this is a farce, which excuses many of the convenient happenings, but frequently the comedy overreached with the result that the action never impressed forcibly. The story starts out with Shero, who had unwittingly accepted three different suitors, devising a scheme whereby she could dodge the attentions of the other two. This being impossible, she proposes the plan of starting out in her car for a certain point, the three suitors to pursue her, consenting to marry the one who reaches her lirst. Deciding, however, that she does not really want to marry any one of them, she frames with her maid to take her place at a turn in the road. Two of the suitors are compelled to pull out of the race on account of car trouble and when the remaining suitor has succeeded in pursuing Shero's car back to her home, he discovers that he has been chasing the maid. In the meantime. Shero has met Hero Tom Meighan, a federal agent, and he takes her to his hotel. A German spy is stopping at the hotel and he having received a code message telling him that a female spy would come there to confer with him, mistakes Shero. for the shespy when she crawls into his room through a window to elude the suitors, who have succeeded in tracing her. This arouses the suspicions of Hero and when willunspy gets Shero to his secret wireless station, Hero follows and arrests them. The suitors and Shero's father arrive in time to clear Shero and as Hero has been the first to "capture" her, according to the terms of her agreement, she consents to marry him and the other suitors are stung. In several close-up shots they featured the dealer's license very prominently on the car that Billie was driving. Also, in the opening reel, a close-up of a bunch of roses registered very plainly as artificial. They introduced the real female spy early in the action and we expected to see her rounded up with the other spies at the finish but the character was dropped abruptly and we never saw her again. We had some rather good business on an elevator in a hotel but much of the comedy became obviously forced and the players frequently "acted." Others in the cast were: Frank Losee, A. J. Herbert. William Davidson, Benjamin Beely and Alfred Hickman. I WID'S YEAR BOOK will be used by producers for data and reference.