The Film Daily (1918)

22 DAILY Sunday, November 17, 1918 Cute Kids in Crude Meller Marred by Forced Acting Jane and Katherine Lee in "SWAT THE SPY" Fox Film DIRECTOR Arvid E. Gillstrom AUTHORS. .Hamilton Thompson and Arvid E. Gillstrom SCENARIO BY Raymond L. Schrock CAMERAMAN A. Leach AS A WHOLE . . Kid hokum with rather crude spy meller STORY Can hardly be taken seriously because of overdrawn situations. DIRECTION Was apparently forcing both kids and players in attempt to register both comedy and meller drammer. PHOTOGRAPHY Only fair, generally too con= trasty. LIGHTINGS A few good; generally poor CAMERA WORK Varied; generally ordinary STARS Jane certainly cute; Katherine very good, but were apparently being forced by director. SUPPORT Actory types who registered crudely; generally played all over place. EXTERIORS A few good, generally ordinary. Showed carelessness in selection. INTERIORS Satisfactory, not particularly good DETAIL Generally overdrawn, frequently ap= proached slapstick. CHARACTER OF STORY Rather cheapened pa= triotic appeal. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,800 ft. THE Lee kids are funny. No one will dispute that. Jane is a little devil and she is just naturally cute, but unfortunately much of her fun-making in this was marred by the fact that she was evidently following direction which was forcing her to "act." Katherine is a cute youngster, but for the most part she plays a sort of straight to Jane's comedy. The old error which has been made by so many producers of tying together kid comedy and crude melo drama, looms up again here and the result is quite uusatisfactory so far as the more intelligent audiences will be concerned. I believe the day has passed when you can register cheap, crude, patriotic appeal by the use of the ordinary German-spywhostealstheprecious-papers situation. As a sample of the manner in which this was handled, we found the spy making a getaway from the house with the precious documents, followed by an automobile chase and then a battle between pursued and pursuer in rowboats on the Hudson River. The escaping German was throwing bombs at his pursuers and to add a real Mack Sennett touch to what was supposed to be semi-serious melodrama, we found one of the pursuers catching a bomb and hurling it back at the German before it exploded. The point during this scene which demonstrated clearly how little attention was being paid to detail and atmosphere was the presence in one scene of a 11011chalant sink paddling a canoe paying practically no attention to this strenuous battle that was going on. Of course, this guy didn't belong in the picture, but, evidently, whoever cut it didn't think it would make much difference because he was allowed to register very clearly. Inasmuch as this is. of course, supposed to be a comedy, many of the crude inconsistencies and over-acting offenses will be excused, but just the same it seems to me to be a bad mixture. The present war, and particularly the German spy in this country is entirely too serious a subject to present in a way that leaves a question as to whether or not it is supposed to be comedy or drama. If it is shown clearly that the film is a burlesque, then the subject matter gets by satisfactorily. Rut when the spy incidents are presented as if they wer^ to be taken seriously, it is certainly a mistake to have them crudely done. The general atmosphere and photography varied quite decidedly inasmuch as we had some good sets and some good exteriors with others that were very ordinary. The make-up of the characters missed fire in most instances, and never at any time did the action register as anything except a lot of actors being directed in a manner which the director thought would make them seem funny. As a matter of fact there is nothing more discouraging to an audience trying to laugh at a comedy than to realize that the director is trying to make the players do funny things. May Get by Without Serious Complaint if You Talk Enough About Kids >x Office Analysis for the Exhibitor There is enough hokum kid stuff in this to get it over without serious complaint if you will be very careful in properly preparing your patrons for the style of offering they are to sec I believe thai the Lee kids have a very large following because these youngsters have put over sonic great stuff for several years, appearing in different Fox productions with (lie result that they became very well known to the fans of the country long before Bill Fox decided to star them in a scries of productions. The fact that this is called "Swat the Spy" indicates that it is not particularly intended as a serious patriotic offering, consequently it seems t<> me that you will be justified in labeling this a comedy, laying practically all of your emphasis on the comedy element without at any time suggesting that you consider it a melodrama, you would make a lot of noise about the fact that Jane and Katherine Lee are not only real fun-makers, but are also good amateur detectives. Head your ads. with thoughts like "See how Janey double-crossed the German spy." In all your advertising, concentrate more attention upon the two kids, using their smiling faces, than upon the patriotic angle, except to suggest that the youngsters have some rather startling adventures when they accidently mix up with international intrigue. You might head an ad. "Is there a spy in our town?" with a line underneath "You never can tell..' The Lee kids found one. See "Swat the Spy."