The Film Daily (1918)

DAILY Sunday, November 17, 1918 Decidedly Interesting Crook Play Has Been Given Excellent Production Olive Tell in "SECRET STRINGS" Metro SUPERVISED BY Maxwell Karger DIRECTOR John Ince AUTHOR Kate Jordan SCENARIO BY June Mathis CAMERAMAN Franklin Williams AS A WHOLE. . . .Human characterizations, a decidedly classy atmosphere and intelligent handling make this register with a bang. Will surely entertain. STORY Society crook stuff with excellent twists. Physical resemblance idea of detectives im= personating host and hostess improbable but will escape criticism on account of excellent treatment. DIRECTION Kept this decidedly classy all the way and made characters human with ex= cellent plot development and masterful hand= ling of situations and individual touches. PHOTOGRAPHY Splendid throughout LIGHTINGS Superb with many effective bits registered. CAMERA WORK Very fine indeed STAR Wonderfully appealing and sincere. Very easy to observe and made emotional scenes register. SUPPORT Truly exceptional. Every character, from the smallest bit up, fitted role perfectly. EXTERIORS Very pleasing; many beautiful shots INTERIORS Always impressive and in good taste and lightings helped a lot. DETAIL. . . .Not a jarring note; many excellent touches CHARACTER OF STORY Clean and surely holds interest. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 5,000 feet. I CLAIM this is a bear of a film. The lightings and atmosphere are truly artistic; the handling and direction excellent; the cast, without exception, fitted their respective roles perfectly, keeping this human and real all the way. and the story certainly held your attention all the time you were watching it. The excellent combination of all the elements that go to make a good production, such as this, certainly don't come often and my hat is off to Metro for the way this has boon put over. The story concerned a girl who was unwittingly made partner to a carefully premeditated jewel robbery scheme in the belief that she was helping a friend of her no-good husband's who had been swindled out of some mining property. By a cleverly arranged plan, the husband, through a previously cultivated personal acquaintance with the elderly and wealthy mistress of the home he has planned to rob, gets her a position as companion for the mistress, that she may gain the confidence of the family and learn the secret location, of the private safe. Of course she is led to believe that the purpose of getting this information is to obtain the stolen deed to the friend's mines, not knowing that it is the priceless family jewels that her crook-husband is after. With Shero installed in the home, where she is much loved and respected we have her falling in love with the visiting nephew of the family. On the night selected for the robbery, all the members of the family are drugged and we see them falling asleep while the crooks obtain the jewels unmolested. Then they pull a whale of a surprise kick by having all of the apparently doped folks coming out of it and getting the crooks, it developing that two expert detectives had impersonated the host and hostess while the only maid in the house who was not implicated in the robbery had switched the doped coffee. Shero's worthless husband is killed when he attempts a get-away (and he sure pulled a bear of a flop down the stairs when shot) and after Shero is cleared when it is proved that she had been compromised, we get the happy ending with Hero and Shero. The scenario construction in this was excellent. We had just the right amount of the mystery-suspense element developed without making this confusing at any stage and the surprise kick at the finish, while the physical resemblance idea was rather hard to swallow, certainly gave this a wallop that registered. Seldom have I seen a film handled as well as this one was; every situation was developed logically and naturally with many effective touches registered throughout. Miss Tell is surely going to win a host of followers through her work in this and the entire supporting cast was excellent. Hugh Thompson was a thoroughly satisfying Hero, William Kelly made the willun-crook character convincing and effective, Bert Tuey made the small part of the accomplice stand out and others who did excellent work were: John Smiley, John Daly Murphy, Marie Wainright (who deserves special mention), Hugh Jeffrey, Barbara Winthrop and Edward Lawrence. They'll Surely Like It. Double Your Efforts and Get Them In The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Boys, if you can't take this production and do some real business with it, there's something wrong with the internal equipment of your show shop. The star may be new to your fans but she surely registers and the production will certainly please any kind of an audience. I think it is possible to do big business on any good film that strikes a popular appeal, regardless of the pulling power of the title or star, if you go to it with the knowledge that you've got a bear of an attraction to offer and step out along unusual lines in your advertising. Bear in mind that you make money on state rights attractions because they cost you more and you double your efforts in putting them over because you've got a bigger nut to crack. With this same effort expended on a better than average program attraction there is no excuse for your not doing the same proportionate business if you go after it in a big way. Check back. How many state rights films on which you have made money have been sure-fire box-office bets on the face of them? Can't you name several that pulled because of the additional advertising furnished and the doubled effort on your part? Step out on this. It will stand it. Use the star's photos liberally in your ads and lobby for she is sure going to become a real favorite. You might mention the fact that she co-starred in "To Hell With The Kaiser" because that film has done a whale of a business and her work in that production will certainly be remembered by all who saw it.