The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, November 24, 1918 sfe^ DAILY Speedy "Poipers," "Goil In Trouble" Meller With Well Known Trimmings Herbert Rawlinson and Priscilla Dean in "KISS OR KILL" Universal DIRECTOR Elmer Clifton AUTHOR Max Brand SCENARIO BY Elmer Clifton CAMERAMAN Jack Miller AS A WHOLE Fast=moving meller with well= known plot. May appeal to certain audiences. STORY Quite mechanical action meller that never convinces. DIRECTION Kept things moving, but got more speed than emotion. PHOTOGRAPHY Clear, but generally too hard LIGHTINGS Some attempts for effects, but gen= erally too harsh. CAMERA WORK Used many angles, but lacked artistry. STARS Satisfactory mechanical meller hero and shero; never convinced. SUPPORT Typical types EXTERIORS Ordinary INTERIORS Fair, but had "setty" curse DETAIL Did not worry them much CHARACTER OF STORY Had customary wicked willun and girl scenes, but nothing particularly offensive. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,700 ft. PROBABLY in certain sections where speed counts for more than human characterization, this may get by as entertainment. It has the touch of the serial curse upon it. and moves rapidly from one incident to another without at any time registering as anything except "movie" meller that had to keep moving. The director used a lot of camera angles and mixei up big eloseups with his long shots, but throughout th lighting was hard. There was little that could be calleJI even an approach of artistry and. consequently, the yen eral impression as to atmosphere is quite ordinary indeed. The plot is our well-known situation of hero who i in tough luck and rags, forced to try theft, with th result that he came in contact with a wicked old wilhu who wanted some "poipers" stolen. Quite against hi Avill, of course, friend hero started out to get th . ."poipers" and discovered the beautiful shero being per , scented by a wily, wicked, oily willun who wanted b marry her. We were not surprised to learn that wicked willui who wanted to marry shero had the "poipers" securel] put away, and that shero was an heiress. But, on course, friend hero managed to get the "poipers" am before they had finished five reels he did a clutch and ail elopement with the goil. We finished with both willuns who were related, to make it more "intrikut" doing j "curse him" scene together, which took us back to thi, good old days when they cheered; whistled and hissec from the peanut-bedecked gallery. Herb Rawlinson. as the hero, looks right well in a cap He should wear one all the time because when the ligh hits his face without a cap, he somehow registers no nearly so well. Possibly this is due. to the fact that h< is badly lighted when playing the nonchalant bare headed hero. Fortunately, lie wears a cap through mos of this. Priscilla Dean can be m^de to look like a milh'on dob fars on the screen. Lois Weber has done it for her. Ii this, the lighting is so hard that she really doesn't appeal at any time, and while her features are seen to b< perfectly regular and all that, she doesn't strike you as a raving beauty. This is without question the faul of the lighting. Other characters were the ordinary routine meller types with Harry Tarter doing his wellknown specialty of "curse you. Jack Dalton !" Alfref Allen was the old crook who put hero up against tht search for the "poipers" and Alfred looked like the sort of hard gink that would start such a riot. This kept moving and all that, but I can't believe that the more intelligent film fans really consider this sorl of thing as entertainment. HOBART HENLEY "LAUGHING BILL HYDET The REX BEACH S'iory iii^^cKWTI^POGE^ptai^ (You have read the review) Now 4i?ec4?iii^eiao£he* R<«Be?urK^oi^J^Sca<J^ti .