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Saturday, September 7, 1918
DAILY
Star's Beauty and Personality Make This Acceptable
Enid Bennett in
"THE MARRIAGE RING''
Ince — Paramount
SUPERVISED BY • Thos. H. Ince
DIRECTOR Fred Nib,°
AUTHOR John Lynch
SCENARIO BY R Cecil Smith
CAMERAMAN John S. Stumar
ART DIRECTOR Q Harold Percival
ART TITLES BY Irvin J. Martin
AS A WHOLE German spy meller with many im=
probable and convenient twists, lifted by at=
mosphere and players.
STORY Shero about to marry when supposedly
dead willun husband turns up but is finally snuffed off and true love triumphs.
DIRECTION Made characterizations convincing
despite improbable twists in story and handled individual incidents effectively.
PHOTOGRAPHY Generally very good with some
excellent bits and stock flashes well handled.
LIGHTINGS Generally very artistic
CAMERA WORK Intelligent
STAR Was well lighted; registered very beauti=
fully and gave exceptional performance throughout.
SUPPORT Jack Holt pleasing; Bob McKim did
usual excellent work and others very good.
EXTERIORS Provided convincing atmosphere
although slips in tinting marred effectiveness
of cut=in volcano stuff.
INTERIORS Very fine; some of them looked real
DETAIL Incoherent spots in story but little
touches effectively handled. CHARACTER OF STORY Routine spy meller.
Nothing to offend. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,800 feet
THIS started out very nicely with well developed characterizations and some of the best work we have yet had from Miss Bennett, but along about the second or third reel the story shifted from Frisco "to Honolulu and from that time on it began to miss fire, with the result that the final impression of the production failed to come up to our expectations and left a rather hazy idea of what the author had tried to get at. Miss Bennett is presented in this as the wife of a brutal husband, who later turns out to be a German spy. Being in need of funds with which to go to Honolulu on a secret mission, he compels his wife to become partner in a badger game frame-up on a visiting Hawaiian plantation owner. Enid rebels, however, and warns the victim when he falls into willun's trap. Willun then tells Enid that it is up to her to obtain some money, even though it becomes necessary for her to ply her traffic in the streets. Outraged at this, she shoots him and escapes, and later we see her on a boat bound for Honolulu, where she meets hero .Tack Holt, a wealthy sugar planter.
When they arrive on the Islands, she accepts the invitation of hero's mother to live with them, and their romance is just getting nicely started when willun, whom we thought dead, turns tip, although we got no explanation of how he got to Honolulu. Willun conveniently finds Enid and commands her to accompany him to a grass hut, which arouses the jealousy of an Hawaiian girl who had been living with him. Leaving her there, willun and Charlie French, another spy, plan to burn the sugar plantations as a blow against the U. S. In the meantime Enid escapes and arrives at the plantation where she and hero find refuge from the flames after which willun meets his doom and the lovers clutch.
We had some wonderfully effective closeups where Enid first meets McKim on the Island. Miss Bennett proved herself a real actress in these and other dramatic scenes. Handicapped as he was by a rather loosely constructed story, Mr. Niblo has shown real directorial ability in this, his first effort. He gave us many ingenious touches throughout which registered effectively. Had the stock volcano scenes been photographed with a standard camera and tinted more carefully, they would have been less easily recognized as borrowed scenes. Maude George and Lydia Knott rounded out the capable cast.
Story Doesn't Impress But Appeal of Star Will Get It Over
The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor
Miss Bennett's followers are going to like her immensely in this and most folks will consider her work in this production the best she has ever done. For that reason they might be interested in knowing that this was directed by Fred Niblo, who became her husband just recently, this being the first film production he has directed.
It seems that about one third of the films I have reviewed this week have either been out and out German spy mellers, or had spy twists worked into the story in some way or other. I feel certain that folks are going to become tired of this stuff when given so much of it, especially when a large percent of them have been very ordinary and with questionable patriotic appeal.
Miss Bennett really does wonderful work and the production will stand considerable boosting on her account. I feel that folks will enjoy her work in this to such an extent that they will overlook the incoherent spots and rather abrupt jumps in the story itself. You might use the spy twist indirectly by playing up catch lines like these: "Which demands first consideration? The marriage law or your duty to your country?" or, "If, you learned that your hxisband was a German spy would you continue to live with him? See Enid Bennett in 'The Marriage Ring'." What would you do if you were about to marry and were suddenly confronted by your former husband whom you thought dead? See 'The Marriage Kins'. "