The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, November 24, 1918 1*4* DAILY Artistic Atmosphere, Intimate Character Touches and Novel Photography Lift Weak Story Mae Marsh in ''HIDDEN FIRES'' Goldwyn DIRECTOR George Irving AUTHOR J. Clarkson Miller SCENARIO BY J. Clarkson Miller ART DIRECTOR Hugo Ballin CAMERAMAN Oliver T. Marsh AS A WHOLE Unreal plot of physical resem= blance made interesting and entertaining by artistic treatment, human touches and excep= tional double exposures. STORY Quite elementary and a real trial for di= rector and star. DIRECTION Gave artistic atmosphere that made offering distinctive and held attention by cen= tering on characters and little bits of business. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally very pleasing LIGHTINGS Many excellent, generally very good CAMERA WORK Angles and composition gener= ally pleasing. Doubles very fine. STAR Dual character kept her busy and manner= isms helped hold attention. SUPPORT Satisfactory EXTERIORS Generally pleasing, some very good composition. INTERIORS Many very good; were helped by lighting and composition. DETAIL Doubles were excellent. Some nice little touches. CHARACTER OF STORY Nothing to offend LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,700 ft. EVIDENTLY realizing that this plot was decidedly unreal, Director George Irving has concentrated his efforts on developing character touches, providing' artistic atmosphere and introducing technical novelty in the form of really remarkable double exposures. He has succeeded through these efforts and through the introduction of human bits and comedy touches in lifting what was an ordinary "movie" plot into the category of satisfactory entertainment that will register with a large percentage of fans as quite interesting and worth while. Whenever an author scratches his nut and then evolves one of those plots which calls for the physical resemblance between two persons who are in no way related, the average fan has a natural right to feel resentful. It is bad enough to have people from the same family looking so much alike that they cannot be told apart, but when an utter stranger is wished into a home and is accepted by the mother of a missing daughter as her own child, it is certainly imposing quite a bit on the good nature of an audience. The plot of this depended upon Miss Marsh playing two parts, with Mae as boss of a news-stand being called in to appear as the daughter of a wealthy woman who was quite ill, her doctor coming to the decision that she might die unless she had her daughter with her. Of course, real daughter who was supposed to have been drowned when a boat was sunk, blew in a bit later, which provided complications, since there were two young men, one in love with each girl. Mae, as the news-stand lady, was kept very busy meeting the two men in turn, but eventually she got everything straightened out and there were three honeymoons, the doctor marrying the mother, so that they might have a triple clutch on the finish. Miss Marsh, in the two characterizations, managed to present by the arranging of her hair and the change in mannerisms a decided difference in general appearance, which helped quite a bit in putting over the very illogical physical resemblance situation. Director Irving gave us a number of the most remarkable double exposures which have ever been screened, and he and his cameraman are to be particularly complimented upon the smoothness of all of this trick work. From the very start it was evident that an attempt was being made to keep this light, since several of the titles suggested a comedy vein. As the story progressed, the comedy romance element was brought out more and more so that it finished very light which is one of the saving points, since they will go out with a smile after seeing the final meeting between the news-stand lady and her lover who is discovered behind the counter in a department store. When this young man is afterwards found out to be the son of the owner of the store which gives the satisfactory romantic finish, much-to-be-desired for the giggle girls who just love romance. The finish was pleasing inasmuch as we found the three couples taking their honeymoon on the same boat, with some interesting double exposures which were certainly no cinch to make, because taking trick scenes on a boat is somewhat different from taking them in a studio. Alec E. Francis was pleasing as the doctor and Rod La Rock and Jere Austin as the two heroes were quite satisfactory. Florida Kingsley was the invalid mother. Trick Advertising May Get Them In. Play Up Comedy Element The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor They may groan when this starts because the plot is ancient, but I have a hunch that before it finishes, the lightness of the comedy romance element will justify it in the minds of most of the gang. The title, to my mind, is negative. I can't see any particular box office value in it, and it would seem to me that you will have to depend upon trick advertising to get 'em in for this, hoping that they will feel satisfied when you do not make any specific promises as to merit. I believe that the best angle to approach this in your advertising would be to concentrate upon the physical resemblance thing with thoughts like these: "Has Mae Marsh a double? If you don't think so, see 'Hidden Fires.' " You might even offer a prize to anyone who can give the best explanation of how the scenes in this have been made, if they think that Miss Marsh is playing both parts. It would be well to label this a comedy romance because the title suggests mysterious "drammer" and I believe that folks are more anxious to see light comedy these days than deep drama. You might resort to the old gag of stating that prominent detectives have claimed that in New York City a double can be found for any person in the world. Then bring up the question as to whether or not Miss Marsh's double has been discovered for use in this film.