The Film Daily (1918)

Monday, September 9, 1918 nM DAILY Has Been Given Wonderful Production But Doesn't Fit Star Charles Ray in "THE LAW OF THE NORTH" Ince=Paramount SUPERVISED BY Thos. H. Ince DIRECTOR Irvin V. Willat AUTHOR John Lynch SCENARIO BY R. Cecil Smith CAMERAMAN Chester Lyons ART DIRECTOR G. Harold Percival ART TITLES BY Irvin J. Martin AS A WHOLE Artistically a masterpiece but not the proper vehicle for star and falls short as entertainment for masses. STORY Rather slender plot depending on char= acterizations and atmosphere rather than situa= ations. DIRECTION Made this a triumph technically and provided wonderfully impressive atmosphere and horribly realistic detail but failed to make star stand out. PHOTOGRAPHY Excellent. Blending of title backgrounds to action was wonderfully effec= tive. LIGHTINGS Very artistic CAMERA WORK Exceptional. Composition and angles intelligent. STAR. . . .Personality was lost in role that didn't fit him SUPPORT Excellent throughout EXTERIORS Wonderfully impressive snow scenes and studio sets that defy detection except stockade, which got over as "set." INTERIORS. . . .Excellent throughout and showed care in detail. DETAIL Several gruesome incidents should be eliminated. CHARACTER OF STORY A few incidents will cause women to shudder but can be cut. Other= wise shouldn't offend. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,700 feet THIS is convincing proof of the fad that oft times productions which involve the greatest expense and painstaking attention to detail do not provide entertainment for the masses if the director in developing the technical perfection of a production, has sacrificed the human note and lost sight of the fact that the prime factor of any production is its audience appeal. That's what has happened to this. In the first place, it was all wrong to select this kind of a story for Charles Ray, it isn't his kind of a characterization. In the second place, the bulk of the offering has been centered around atmospheric touches and several horribly realistic incidents to which the personality of the star has been subordinated. The final effect on the audience is very liable to be unpleasant and unsatisfying. The story is laid in the far North where Charlie Ray and his sister, Gloria Hope, live with their father, Charles French, the Commandant of the trading post. Charlie Leaves for the next post and during his absence, willun Bob McKim abducts Gloria after killing her father. At the next post, Charlie meets Doris Lee and learning that she is a relative of McKim's, on her Avay to meet him, he consents to stay over and accompany her the next day. When they return together the next day, Charlie comes upon the gruesome tragedy and learning that McKim is his father's slayer and has abducted his sister, he swears vengenace and after denouncing Doris for being of the same blood as willun, starts in pursuit. McKim holds his pursuers at bay at a stockade and when Charlie and his party threaten to storm the stockade, McKim sends out warning that he will shoot Ray's sister is they approach nearer. When Charlie's party gain entrance they find that McKim has escaped with the fastest team of dogs in the North. Charlie starts in pursuit and comes upon Doris in the snow and giving up the chase, takes her back to the cabin. In the meantime McKim has lost his gun and is attacked by wolves. Ray and his sister are united, and Charlie, realizing that he loves Doris, apologizes for having blamed her for her. relative's crimes and they finish with the clutch. We had many detail bits which were gruesome in their realism and I feel that women especially will resent the scene where McKim kills one of his dogs to keep the wolves away as well as the bit where he finds the blood of a dead man dripping on him during the stockfide battle. They make shivers run up your spine and I am sure that folks don't want to see that kind of stuff during these war times. Won't Please Like Star's Former Work But They'll Accept It The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor After the very apparent care, expense and time which must have been entailed in the making of this, it is certainly to be regretted that this lacks the one important factor necessary to make it a success from an audience standpoint. r am very certain, however, that your audiences will not like Charlie Ray in this production and that they will leave your theatre in a rather gloomy and dissatisfied frame of mind after seeing this. Because it re an artistic masterpiece and has been convincingly handled throughout, you will be perfectly safe in presenting this if vim have it coming, becaxise certainly no one can find f■ nit with the offering from a production standpoint. The rub conies in the* impression left by the horribly realistic details in the story itself. "What I am trying to get at is that possibly folks will not pan you for playing the production, but I feel sure that they will not advise their friends to see it and many wouldn't come in if they knew in advance what kind of a production they were going to see. The care and expense involved in constructing the studio exteriors for this will prove a wasted effort, I am afraid, because the average audience isn't going to figure that they are not the real thing. It isn't the effect of the faked show scenes that is so wonderful as the idea that they were faked so accurately as to defy detection. In other words, I would venture the opinion that the director has figured too strongly on determining how many folks he could fool with these studio exteriors without stopping to figure that the cost of erecting them has added an expense to the production without producing results that will come back via the box office. In advertising this I would play up the idea of Charlie Ray appearing in a virile hero role in a wonderfully realistic production laid in the far North.