The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, November 17, 1918 tMA DAILY 21 Ordinary "Wronged Gel" Plot Poorly Acted. A Very Weak System Helen Martin in "THE MOTHER AND THE LAW" Super Art Features, Inc. DIRECTOR Jack Gorman AUTHOR Jack Gorman CAMERAMAN Not Credited AS A WHOLE Rather crude "wronged gel" plot evidently chewed up and re-titled but still a very weak system. STORY Combination of "jest happened" coincidences and elementary "you=must=marry= her" mixup. DIRECTION Let them "act" too much and was lacking in approved technical treatment. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally muddy with indica= tion that laboratory work was imperfect. LIGHTINGS Ordinary; generally too uniform CAMERA WORK Fair STAR Failed to impress SUPPORT Ordinary, generally acted too much EXTERIORS Ordinary INTERIORS Lacked distinction DETAIL Some bits rather crude CHARACTER OF STORY Unnecessary emphasis placed upon girl's condition. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 6,ooo ft. I GOT this in one of the Broadway theatres where it was evidently booked because of the present shortage of releases. The print showed evidence of considerable wear so that it is probable that this was a sample print that had been chewed over quite a bit in the cutting, or else this is a subject that h;is been floating about for some time here before escaping yours truly. I have been told that this was originally labelled "Corruption" and was held up in its original form by the censors, thereby causing those who owned it to do some editing. I can't see any reason why this should be forced upon an unsuspecting public except that the people who made it probably have a little money invested and feel that they are entitled to get whatever they can if the theatres owners are willing to be a party to the process. The story was painfully ordinary and decidedly lacking in plot incident that could be fairly called interesting, the chief idea being to present the rather wornout wronged "gel" situation with a lot of titles sprinkled here and there frequently for the purpose of making it possible to sell this as a sex curiosity production. In some places the titles were unnecessarily explicit, although it was apparent that the language had been twisted in an effort to make it seem delicately put. The general atmosphere was surely ordinary, and the photography for the most part was bad, which certainly didn't help any in making this acceptable as entertainment. In a great many of the scenes the laboratory work was plainly at fault and entirely aside from the lack of entertainment value in the story and production itself, it seems to me that this is hardly a fit subject to screen because of this inferior photographic and laboratory quality. The plot had a number of quite convenient "jest happened" incidents and most of the players were painfully theatrical whenever they tried to act. The situation which finally worked around to the point where the no-account son of the wealthy gink was forced to marry the wronged shero, is questionable as to the moral value since it was rather apparent that this pair was not going to be very happy. In the cast were John J. Dunn, Florence Hackett, and Henry J. Sudley. No Reason Why You Should Worry About This. Let Those Who Made It Do the Worrying The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor I cau't see any reason why you should worry about playing this because it lacks entertainment value, is not artistic or well produced so far as dramatic values are concerned, and despite the fact that the title sounds fairly interesting, I'm afraid that you would disappoint so many of your patrons that it would be an unfortunate booking. When "Intolerance" was being made, the title "The Mother and the Law" was used as a working title and it was thought for a time that that might be the title of Griffith's big production. Certainly, the title has a sufficient amount of promise, to pull in a little business, but if you expect to keep the gang playing with you, it is a rather dangerous system to feed them with such ordinary offerings as this, just because you can kid them into spending their money with you, because the thing has a title that sounds a bit interesting. Helen Martin had a certain following several years ago when she was with the Eclair Company before the days of the five reelers, but I'm afraid that those who knew her at that time have long since forgotten her as she was never what can be called a big favorite. If you are running a downtown transient house, where you can get by with murder every so often, or have a seven change a week house in a community that stands for the rough stuff whether it is well done or not, then this can be handled for a night's run without serious difficulty. But certainly if you have a house where you attempt to maintain a standard and really try to make good with your gang whenever possible, it would seem to me to be rather a serious error in judgment to book this sort of offering simply because the title sounds fairly interesting. My advice would be to forget they ever made it. If these fellows insist upon turning out this sort of offering I can't figure how it is the duty of the rest of the film business to try to help them out of their difficulty.