The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, October 6, 1918 AILV 21 Bill Hart Takes a Crack At the Kaiser in Well Done Spy Film William Hart in "THE BORDER WIRELESS" H art= I nee — Artcraf t SUPERVISED BY Thos. H. Ince DIRECTOR William S. Hart AUTHOR Howard E. Morton SCENARIO BY C. Gardner Sullivan CAMERAMAN Joe August ART DIRECTOR Thomas A. Brierley ART TITLES BY Irvin J. Martin AS A WHOLE Familiar situations made effective by star and wonderfully realistic atmosphere and settings. STORY. . . .Elementary basic idea dressed up in timely settings puts over patriotic puches effectively. DIRECTION Played a little more to action than characterization with romance developed nicely and good, tense dramatic action at climax. PHOTOGRAPHY Very fine LIGHTINGS Generally very good; few opportu= nities offered for effects. CAMERA WORK Very good. Some scenes could have been helped by more speed. STAR Virile and sincere in fighting Hero role SUPPORT Miss Hawley pretty and appealing; James Mason gave human characterization and Charles Arling very good as spy; others bal= anced nicelv. EXTERIORS Excellent throughout; street excep= tionally well done and convincing. INTERIORS Very fine; detail and construction of wireless station interior commendable piece of work. DETAIL Very well handled CHARACTER OF STORY Combines Hart punch and timely appeal. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,353 feet WHILE this has the elementary basic idea of the reformed bandit winning the "gel" and coming in for a hero finish by busting up a German spy gang on the border, it has all the Hart elements and has been given a careful, well-handled production, with the patriotic punches effectively brought in and worked up to a tense, dramatic climax that carries a timely appeal. They start this out with Bill eluding his pursuers and saving the Shero in distress and then after Bill has decided to locate in Yellow Dog because of the "gel," war is declared and willun Charlie Arling is shown up in his true colors by his pro-German utterances, whereupon Bill forces him to kiss the flag. Bill rides to a nearby fort to enlist and in the meantime willun, realizing that Bill may interfere with his plans, produces evidence that he is wanted for murder and gets the sheriff on his trail. Bill escapes and learns that willun's mine is a secret wireless station and that information regarding the sailing of General Pershing and staff to France is being relayed to Berlin. Bill and Shero Wanda Hawley, who is a telegrapher, gain entrance to the station, Bill holding off the operator while Shero sends a message to the fort. The spy gang busts in and Bill succeeds in holding them off while Shero destroys the wireless apparatus and we have the familiar "cavalry to the rescue" finish with Bill in khaki and on his way to Berlin and Shero watching from the side-lines. I want to comment particularly on the sets in this, which showed unusual care and painstaking detail and must have involved considerable labor and expense. We had a few good comedy touches in this, particularly the scenes where Bill, after watching aeroplane maneuvers at the fort, says he will enlist, "providin' he can ride a horse." The romance bits were also good audience stuff, with Bill in his usual role of the bashful but sincere Romeo. The "Kamerad" title appeared somewhat forced and out of place to me, as it is hardly convincing as the truce cry of a spy gang in this country who speak American. This opened up with Bill as a fugitive and they gave us a rather good suspense twist by not disclosing what Bill was wanted for until the finish, when he was cleared of the charge. The scenes where the cavalry comes to the rescue and where Bill lands a wallop on Leo Willis' jaw would have been helped materially if the cameraman had cranked slower. Have your operator watch for these and speed them up a bit. Others in the cast were E. von Ritzen, Berthold Sprotts and Marcia Manon. "Rebecca of 5unnybrook Farm" "M'Liss" -"Amarilly of Clothesline Alley" 'Hearts of the Wild""Stella Maris'; "Hit -the -Trail Holl'idtey" Supervised and directed by IyIoaaLm a. tux, In preparation: 'The Three Be*rs" Artcraft Special "Out of a Clear Sky'-'The Silver Kin<f' Address: The Lambs Club, New York City