The Film Daily (1918)

Friday, November 29, 1918 DAILY Theatric Melodrama Dealing with Status of War's Illegitimate Children Grace Cunard and Edward Cecil "AFTER THE WAR" UniversaI=M. H. Hoffman Special Release DIRECTOR Joseph De Graffe AUTHOR Kingsley Benedict SCENARIO BY Harvey Gates AS A WHOLE Rather ordinarily done problem story of what to do with children resulting from soldiers' attacks upon women of invaded country. STORY For most part devoted to ordinary thea= tries with little of presentwar atmosphere and much that will make children ask questions. DIRECTION Allowed overplaying and failed to give artistic atmosphere. PHOTOGRAPHY Fair; lacked artistry LIGHTINGS Generally too uniform or contrasty CAMERA WORK ..Ordinary STAR Failed to convince; overreached her points SUPPORT Types satisfactory, but generally too theatric; extras bad. EXTERIORS Only fair; failed utterly to convey war atmosphere. INTERIORS Very "setty" DETAIL Rather hazy generally, with titles failing to clearly define action. CHARACTER OF STORY Will probably be ques= tioned by reform element. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,800 ft. WE get here an ordinary program picture which, from all indications, was made some time ago. and although the title suggests that it is a subject turned out in order to fit this particular moment, and attempts to solve the problems of reconstruction, it is in fact only a routine eternal triangle drama with the shero suffering as the victim of an officer of the invading forces who saved her lover in order to gain the girl. After much footage, with the vamp of the story finally killing the willun as a means of getting him out of the way, we found that the problem that all the fuss had been raised about, was which woman, the mother or the sweetheart of the willun. should have the illegitimate child. The film is left unended, with the question asked the audience. There will hardly be any difference of opinion and it will seem assinine to most folks that such a question is left open. Certainly, all mothers will know that this mother would not give up her child no matter who its father might be. The general atmosphere of this offering was decidedly mairod by the fact that the interiors were very "setty" and artificial which was made very noticeable by the lighting which was entirely too uniform in almost every instance. Occasionally the lighting was properly arranged to give lights and shadows, but then we found the atmosphere contrasty and splotchy. Generally, the photography was clean-cut in these uniformly lighted sets, but the flood of light added decidedly to the artificial atmosphere of the entire offering. According to the titles, which by the way were rather rambling and entirely too wordy, this was presented as a story of the great war just ended. According to the uniforms, scenes and the general treatment of the war situations, it would seem that this was originally made with no intention of presenting the willun and his soldiers as Germans. They were frequently called Huns in the titles, but the uniforms were certainly not German uniforms. They might have been Austrian, but the Austria ns are not called Huns. The rather rambling, fullof -language titles, planted between scenes which were too theatric, kept this from convincing. It was not direct and simple in plot theme, and because of that lost decidedly in power. Overplaying weakened most of the dramatic clashes, although it is an undoubted fact that exaggerated theatrics in melodrama appeals to a certain clientele. The cast was satisfactory, but nothing to rave about, and many of the extras were very bad and entirely out of keeping with the atmosphere. In the cast were Dora Rogers. Herbert Pryor, Harry Carter. Gretchen Lederer, L. M. Wells and Gertrude Astor. Be Careful. Is Questionable from Some Angles. Much Depends Upon Your Community The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor This preesnts a problem in ethics. It is really up to the exhibitor to decide whether or not he wants to take advantage of the present situation by presenting a film which may get business because of this title, with those cash customers who spend freely to see it, coming in under the impression that they are going to see something entirely different from what has been presented. There is no question but what the story can legitimately be called "After the War," considered from the angle that it presents a situation in which characters meet in dramatic conflict after a war, and this title has as much to do with the film, and even more than many of our titles of special productions, but still there is no question but what the film itself will not be exactly satisfying to those who come in solely because of the title. If you are running a house where you believe in getting the money and not stopping to worry over much as to whether your gang likes what you show them or not, then by all means grab this and try to cash in. But if you are running a theatre where you make a particular effort to satisfy your customers whenever possible, I would go slow about boosting this on the title alone. If you think you can get away with it you might take the sensational streak of advertising along the line suggested by the real problem of this story which would be "What is to be the status of the illegitimate children left in the wake of the war?" I doubt if you can get away with this, but there may be communities where such a line of advertising will get by and it might pull you business. Certainly, it seems to me that you should in some way prepare your fans for the fact that this is a melodrama dealing with the effect of war upon women caught in the clutches of the invaders, rather than a drama dealing with the reconstruction period. It is hardly safe to mislead them into the belief that this film deals with the great problem which now confronts the entire world as to just how a reorganization is to be effected. This film was made by Universal, and the main title still carries the information that it has been copyrighted by the Universal Fim Company, but it is being presented as a special. Most of your fans will know that the players therein are Universal stock players so you should be careful about making any claims which they could catch you up on, as to where and how this was produced. If you have a real theatre catering to the best, my advice would be to pass this. It is questionable from several angles and may offend both from the overacting and cheap atmosphere angles, and from the morality angle. In a house which caters particularly to transients I would say that this would go over on the title alone.