The Film Daily (1918)

Friday, November 22, 1918 DAILY ■** Hick Comedy with Good Titles Lifts Very Elementary Plot Idea Barbara Castleton and Johnny Hines in "JUST SYLVIA" World Film DIRECTOR Travers Vale AUTHOR Harry O. Hoyt SCENARIO BY Hamilton Smith COMERAMAN Philip Hatkin AS A WHOLE Comedy characterizations helped rather ancient plot of Princess incog prefer= ring love to throne. STORY Obvious and rather unreal, also quite fa= miliar. DIRECTION Made Miss Castleton very easy to look at and played for comedy enough to take curse off story. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally pleasing LIGHTINGS Frequently too uniform on sets, but generally good on faces. CAMERA WORK Varied, but satisfactory STARS She very pretty and appealing; he truly funny. SUPPORT Rather good types EXTERIORS Quite satisfactory, not exceptional INTERIORS Some good, some poor, generally too much light on sets. DETAIL Jarred a bit at times, but will get by CHARACTER OF STORY Nothing to offend LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,630 ft. MANY times and oft has this shop-worn plot been screened. You all know backwards the ancient theme of Princess incog, wandering about in this country trying to be a real American, with the result that she eventually meets a nice young man and gives up her throne when an obliging relative dies in the last reel. True love always triumphs. Of course, with the present market value of thrones, our shero's sacrifice won't seem so much. The chief assets of this offering are Barbara Castleton and Johnny Hines. Barbara is quite easy to look at and was lighted as well in this as she has ever been, with some of the shots giving her beauty full play. Join my Hines is just naturally funny. He is a village cut-up all the time, on and off the screen, and with his very first entrance, walking away from the camera, it was noticeable that he registered a laugh, with a great many in the audience identifying him immediately. That is a mark of merit, because it shows that his work in the past has registered. With a very weak plot to play with, and characters that were rather unreal, it helped a great deal to have Johnny Hines floating through, doing hick comedy with an occasional bashful love scene with pretty Barbara. The rest of the characters didn't matter much, but the father and mother of Johnny helped decidedly in odd moments because they were rather true to type and were given some rather funny titles. We had the well-known willun and willuness, the willuness being a wamp. and. of course, they were crooks who pretended to be nobility, and "jest happened" to pick out the name of our shero for the wamp to assume. There was a guy with a bush and a bald bean who wandered around in a rather mysterious fashion, proclaiming ever and anon that Sylvia was a Princess. Since the title of the film makes her final decision very apparent from the start, there was not much suspense in the plot, so that all we had to look forward to was an occasional snicker registered because of the overacting in the melodramatic moments by the players who were trying to do it seriously, and the rather funny hick comedy registered . by Johnny Hines. and his parents. When they finally got to the theft of the jewels, the director slipped rather badly in lining up six characters across a hallway at about a ten-ft. line, where he allowed them to play a very long scene very much a la "movie" methods of several years ago. Antony Merlo and Eloise Clements were the willun and wamp and played it in an accepted "movie" manner, although I did hate to see the director pulling the time-honored gag of allowing Eloise to leave an iron standing on Antony's clothes while she walked over to the bed to converse with him. This was good in the dark ages, not now. Play Up Boy Seeking Girl Emphasizing Hines and His Comedy The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor If they like Barbara Castleton and Johnny Hines out your way, this thing can sneak by despite the slender plot value, and if they don't like Barbara and Johnny, it is up to you to convince them that they should. A very large percentage of our films these'days are sneaked by because there is a personality in evidence and while I cannot say much for this as a production, except for the few laughs, I believe that most fans will willingly sil through an hour of pretty Barbara and funny Johnny without serious complaint. There is nothing aboul ibis 10 make you reach for it except the stars, bnl if going to play it. I would advise you particularly to label it a light comedy of a. bashful boy whose parents suddenly secured wealth and moved him into a city where he might pick out his Choice of the females. In a way. that tells the story and gets you off the Princess incog, thought and certainly the suggestion of a bashful wealthy youth seeking his mate in the wild city should interest the average cash customer. The title doesn't mean anything in particular, and I would forget it, with all attention concentrated upon Miss Castleton and Johnny Hines, with your cue line rigged to register Johnny's mad flight into society where he became a member of the COUNTRY CLUB, played golf and everything, quick-like. In the billing, you might find that Johnny Hines has been overlooked, but I certainly want to advise that you give him his full attention in your advertising, because lie almost steals the whole show. In saying this I do nol want to have you think that I do not appreciate .Miss Castleton's work, because she is a beautiful girl and handles her part more than satisfactorily, but the story is so slender that the comedy element is the only redeeming feature, and in order to intelligently bring this info its proper position in the limelight, you must of necessity play up Johnny Hines. You need not worry Over the fact that your fans don't know Johnny because he has worked in many good films and has always registered, whether it was a bit or a good part. If you are afraid the name will not register, make good use of photographs showing Johnny's smiling face gazing towards the beautiful features of lovely Barbara.