The Film Daily (1918)

10 MM *m DAILY Sunday, November 17, 1918 The Hun Within and the Plot "Without" Fails To Stir Anything J. Barney Sherry with Belle Bennett in "RECKONING DAY" Triangle DIRECTOR Roy Clements AUTHOR Robert E. Hill SCENARIO BY Robert E. Hill CAMERAMAN R. E. Irish AS A WHOLE. . Involved plot that never gets anywhere; fails to hold interest and lacks consistent and convincing note to make it register. STORY The Wiihelmstrasse is in again; this time it's a pro=German scheme to appropriate war charities. DIRECTION. . . .Couldn't save this from becoming very ordinary "movie." Failed to keep plot de= velopment logical and let things happen very obligingly. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally very pleasing LIGHTINGS". Soft, even lightings were pleasing CAMERA WORK Very good STARS Their personalities helped this but couldn't overcome handicap of plot. SUPPORT Satisfactory EXTERIORS Very few but satisfactory INTERIORS Very good and lightings helped DETAIL Convenient CHARACTER OF STORY Inoffensive LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,650 feet THIS is one of those mystery things that is so mysterious that you don't know what it's all about half the time and because nothing really startling ever happens to hold your attention, you don't care. At the finish, after they had landed the spy and proved his guilt, the effect was just "Bla-a-a," as far as stirring anything was concerned. The spy what figured in this was conducting an ambulance corps training school as a means of obtaining money for the Kaiser under guise of war charities. Belle Bennett, a shemale attorney, is called in and sets her plans by getting a girl to enter the school and find out what's going on. Barney Sherry is Belle's fiance, and may as well have been left out of this entirely as far as advancing the plot was concerned. He has a son who is in love with the daughter of a member of the spy gang. Willun overhears the daughter spilling the beans to Barney's son and kills her. making his get-away. The son is accused of the murder and at the inquest willun is brought in and confesses, clearing the son and busting up the spy ring. The way that this has been developed will be about as clear as mud to the average audience. The way they planted incidents in this was sure obliging. After Willun had killed the daughter, we had the son pick up the gun which Willun had conveniently left on the scene and go over to the dead girl with it in his hand so the maid could come in and accuse him of the murder. Why he went through the actions as shown, and knelt over her with the gun in Ms hand, I can't figure. Maybe he was asking the dead girl if she had been shot. As a sure way of bringing the real murderer to justice and clearing the son, they had the German coat of arms and "Gott Mitt Uns" engraved on the Handle of the gat. Of course, this made it look like a spy had had something to do with the murder. They had Lee Phelps doing a little "defective" work in this and the way he put on a pair of smoked glasses* and turned up his coat collar for a disguise was sure rich. It was about equivalent to making a Ford look like a Pierce Arrow by changing the radiator cap. Jack Richardson as the willun-spy, was very good; Belle Bennett was very pleasing and Barney Sherry lifted every scene by his mere presence, although they didn't let Barney get mixed up in the plot at any time. The woman who ran the ambulance school insisted on holding a chin-fest with the lens whenever she had anything to put over. Lenore Fair was just acceptable as the girl who got shot and Tom Buckingham was Barney's son. Tom is a good cameraman. Others who appeared were Lucile Desmond, Sidney De Gray, Louise Lester and Joe Bennett. Personalities May Slide It Over, But Is Very Ordinary "Movie" The Box OfSce Analysis for the Exhibitor Outside of the personalities of J. Barney Sherry and Belle Bennett, who are at a decided disadvantage because of the way this has been handled, this has absolutely nothing that I can see to recommend it. From a standpoinl of photography, settings and lightings, this is considerably better than anything we have had from Triangle recently but the final impression left by the story is going to he very much muddled and confusing to the average audience. Consequently it fails to register as. real entertainment. You ought to know if the ordinary spy stuff is getting over in your particular community because we have certainly had enough of them recently. If you figure that your folks are getting tired of so much of the same thing. I would suggest side-stepping this angle entirely in your advertising, concentrating on the names of J. Barney Slurry and Belle Bennett, who should be sufficiently well-known to pull a little at the box-office if you have played any of their recent offerings. Jack Richardson also has enough to do in this to warrant your giving him equal billing with the stars, if his name means anything to your fans. Whatever you do, don't promise anything !< garding the merits of this offering in your advertising.