The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, November 17, 1918 sM^ DAILY is Star's Personality and Pleasing Cast Lift Slow Unconvincing Plot. Mary Miles Minter in "ROSEMARY CLIMBS THE HEIGHTS" American=Pathe DIRECTOR Lloyd Ingraham AUTHOR Bernard McConville SCENARIO BY Dan J. Whittaker AS A WHOLE. . . .Pleasing star and interesting cast in sIow=moving story with melodramatic murder incident that failed to thrill or convince. STORY. . . .Combination of old situations weakened by anticipation of all climaxes. DIRECTION. ... Kept players' personalities sufficiently prominent to offset plot's weakness. PHOTOGRAPHY. .Generally good except too much light on faces in medium and long shots. LIGHTINGS. . .Good in closeups. pleasing as to general effect. CAMERA WORK. .Generally good except high lightings on faces in long shots. STAR. . . .Pleasing personality but handicapped by un= convincing situations. SUPPORT. .Good type who made individual parts stand out. EXTERIORS Some very pleasing, not exceptional INTERIORS Satisfactory DETAIL Acceptable except for story weaknesses CHARACTER OF STORY Has jealousy murder but will hardly offend. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 5,000 feet The average audience is going to accept this because they will like Miss Minter and the supporting cast, which is made up of good types in distinctive characters. The story takes about three reels to get innocent little Mary, a Dutch doll-maker from up New York State into the city, where arrangements are finally made for her to make a fortune from dolls. Up to this time the story has been pathetically slow. Then to provide action and make it very "intrikut" the vamp who has been lurking in the offing looking "wicious" because hero liked Mary, cunningly steals Mary's revolver from an open drawer and theatens to kill her. There was no explanation as to just why sweet little Mary should have a revolver about the house, but the scenario writer needed that faithful old clue to the coming murder. Then, out of nowhere in particular, they dragged in a wild-eyed Russian with a boy who turned out to be the vamp's husband and son. She had sent hubby to Siberia and deserted son in Russia for which hubby killed her. By a convenient arrangement of circumstances hero and Mary had taken refuge in his room to escape from a storm. All the principals lived in the same studio building. When the Russian boy ran from the room where father was cutting up mother he drifted into hero's room, and being unable to speak English, they thought he was only afraid of the thunder. In the morning, the murderer who had hidden under the stairs, stole the boy away and there we had it, with sweet little Mary accused of murdering the vamp. They had a trial scene and everything, but unfortunately, just about the time there was a possible chance of getting you interested as to what might happen, they uncovered the fact that the boy had been located, father having died down the river from wounds received in the struggle with mother, and so little Mary was released to welcome home artist hero who had been obligingly sent to Chicago where his opera had opened to great success while Mary was being tried for murder. Except for the fact that the cast were rather interesting people, this thing never gets anywhere because it doesn't make you believe it. After waiting for so long for something to happen, it is particularly unfortunate that such trite melodramatic situations should have been picked to stand as the dramatic scenes in the story. Miss Minter was very pleasing, particularly in her closeups, but unfortunately, many of the medium and long shots had so much light on the faces of the players that most of their expressions were lost. Allan Forrest was a nice hero despite his funny little mustache; the vamp was very vampy and oh so jealous, and the Russian who couldn't talk English got over as well as any one in the picture. Miss Minter's sister, Margaret Shelby, was quite pleasing as Mary's chum. Other members of the very good cast were George Periolat, Nanine Wright, Rosita Marstine, Charlotte Mineau, Jack Farrell, Lewis King and Carl Stockdale. No One Will Rave But Most Folks Will Accept This. The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor I think you're safe in playing this because the average fan is pretty well satisfied today if he finds one good story in ten, and consequently, the personality of the star and the individual work of the supporting cast is going to put this over sufficiently well to have the gang go home satisfied. I would bet that no one is ever going to rave about this, because it never really gets anywhere and the dramatic scenes miss decidedly. Your average fan, today, however, has become so hardened to the routine stuff that is forced upon him with such great regularity, that he is more or less willing to take the crumbs and be content. When I speak of crumbs I mean pleasing moments resultant from watching a delightful star or distinctive cast, and certainly the players in this little offering did hold your attention remarkably well, considering the motions necessary to go through in order to attempt to make this convincing drammer. The title of this has very little box office value and yet it suggests something sweet and pleasing and fits in with what the average fan who likes Miss Minter will think she should be doing. In advertising this, I would play up particularly the idea of it being the story of a little Dutch girl who won fame through the sale of wooden dolls carved by hand. If your regulars turn out when you have mystery stuff, you might go after this on the mystery angle by using lines like: "Who fired the shot that stopped the clock at 5 minutes past 3?" "Do you keep a revolver about the house? Sometimes it is more dangerous to you than the possible intruder. See Mary Miles Minter in "Rosemary Climbs the Heights." "Do you believe in circumstantial evidence? Are you sure about that? S e 'Rosemary Climbs the Heights.' "