The Film Daily (1918)

Monday, November 18, 1918 iMA DAILY Has "Eyes of Youth" Idea Value as Novelty With Varying Merit? Lucy Fox in "WHY I WOULD NOT MARRY" Fox DIRECTOR Richard Stanton AUTHOR Adrian Johnson SCENARIO BY Adrian Johnson CAMERAMAN H. G. Plimpton, Jr. AS A WHOLE Very peculiar combination of dra= matic episodes tied together with crude comedy and topped off with rube comedy finish. STORY "Eyes of Youth" vision construction show= ing four separate stories as visions, with final hick comedy epilogue. DIRECTION Ran rather to extremes with dram= mer violent and comedy painfully crude. PHOTOGRAPHY Varied decidedly with much of it splotchy although some shots were good. LIGHTINGS. .... .Some very good but most of them only fair. CAMERA WORK Generally good as to angles but lacked artistic touch. STAR Fairly attractive but fails to register any= thing startling. Is certainly not the "most beautiful woman on earth," as advertised. SUPPORT General selection of types rather good ; comedy bits overdone. EXTERIORS Good INTERIORS Generally very good; a few rather effective. DETAIL Atmosphere touches good but comedy detail bad. CHARACTER OF STORY Nothing particularly offensive. LENGTH OR PRODUCTION. .About 5,500 ft. (6 parts) THE next thing we know someone will be pulling "Ben Hur" under an assumed name. Before this has gone 500 feet everyone who has ever heard of Marjorie Rambeau's success, "Eyes of Youth," will spot the basic story idea. Of course, they have not lifted the play, they have simply lifted the idea and changed the incidents, but since the play was an idea almost as much as a play, it does seem like getting away with murder. We find Lucy Fox, who is unfortunately advertised as "the most beautiful woman on earth," considering four suitors, with the necessity of marriage for money staring her in the face. She gazes into a crystal ball sold her by a faker, and sees what her life with each prospective suitor would be. These four stories are more or less familiar dramatic episodes such as have been used many times before in the "movies," each one of them terminating as a tragedy. The dramatic episodes, despite the violent acting at times, go over rather satisfactorily except for a horrible jarring touch of crude slapstick comedy which is injected between each episode. After the four suitors have been settled because of the vision of life with them, we find the final incident in which shero and her father try to run a department store in a Hick town without success because everybody charges everything. The silver-tongued salesman happens along and sells electric belts at $100 per for cash, with the result that he is given half interest in the store to become manager, and shero and father are sent away on a visit while he makes the store a tremendous cash success, this culminating in his marriage to shero. This final Hick episode is played very broadly indeed, but some of the types are rather good and despite the very much overdrawn character'/--'' 1 this final bit will undoubtedly register some *\.gns. There is this to be said for the entire offering: It moves so rapidly and contains so many distinct dramatic situations, that I really believe that the average audience is going to consider it rather interesting. A particularly discriminating community will probably throw up their hands in holy horror but the 60 per cent, fans will like the speed of the action and the variety of the situations, and consider this a pleasing novelty. Trick Title and Gatchline Possibilities Make This Good Bet For Action-Loving Fans The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor You've got to give Bill Fox credit for picking up wild titles. I am afraid there will be a comeback, however, on the secondary line, about "the most beautiful woman on earth," because Lucy seems like a nice kid, but she's far from filling the bill provided by the publicity purveyors. It seems a pity that the comedy stuff between the dramatic incidents has been left in, because the elimination of this footage would really help materially in keeping the action running without that terrible jarring note that makes it all seem so ridiculous. If your gang is about 60 to 65 per cent, and seems to have a hankering for action and drammer, in preference to characterization, they may like this thing and certainly it will be a safe bet for you to take a chance on separating them from some of their loose lucre by virtue of the rather tempting title. If you have a gang that is very particular and rather inclined towards the sweet human sincere characteri zation, I would fight shy of this. If you feel that you can shoot it, it would seem to me to be advisable for you to stick to the title and the wild advertising that Fox has provided, and trust to luck. A good catchline to use in conjunction wtih this title would be: "Suffer* and smile with the shero in 'Why I Would Not Marry'." In connection with playing up the title, you can easily hand them some leading questions such as "What if you had to decide between four suitors? See 'Why I Would Not .Marry'." Or "How did you pick your husband? See 'Why I Would Not Marry'." After using that one day, you might come back with: "How are you going to pick your husband? See 'Why I Would Not Marry'." Since the star is absolutely unknown and there Is no present indication of Fox deciding to push his namesake, I believe it would be advisable for you to forget all about her and the cast, depending entirely upon your trick lines.