The Film Daily (1918)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Monday, December 30, 1918 iMA DAILY Thoroughly Enjoyable, Human Story With Players That Live Their Parts Bert Lytell in "THE SPENDER" Metro. DIRECTOR Charles Swickard AUTHOR Frederick Orin Bartlett SCENARIO BY George D. Baker and A. G. Kenyon. CAMERAMAN Robert B. Kurrle AS A WHOLE Grippingly human and convincing; sure gets under the skin and has great titles. STORY A bit "different". Combines live wire comedy and touching pathos that registers with sincerity and intense appeal. DIRECTION Treated this in vitally impressive and interesting manner; kept characterizations human and blended nicely with situations. PHOTOGRAPHY Very good LIGHTINGS Varied from poor to good; frequently chalky on faces. CAMERA WORK Some very beautiful angles. STAR Full of "pep" and makes you believe it. SUPPORT Thomas Jefferson excellent; Clara Morris pleasing shero; others very good. EXTERIORS Many very beautiful INTERIORS Restaurant and hotel scenes fine. DETAIL Some great human bits. CHARACTER OF STORY Will make a hit with everybody. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 5,000 ft. Gee, but this is great! All hats off to the author for providing a situation which is decidedly human, logical, interesting, and what's more, different. This thing has all the elements of sure fire comedy and touching pathos that tends to grip forcefully and gets right under the skin. Your folks are going to talk as well as think about it, and it's going to bring a lump in the throats of those who are not completely lacking in sentiment. Too much cannot be said of the splendid portrayal given by Thomas Jefferson of the crabby old miser who realizes almost too late that the greatest joy in life is human sympathy and love rather than the hoarding of riches. He fairly makes this characterization talk — he is so realistically human. The story is big in its theme and concerns the rejuvenation of Thomas Jefferson by his nephew Bert Lytell who works in his uncle's factory at $15 a week. Uncle is a tight hard individual of 70 whose purpose in life has been to pile up and guard every cent in his money bags. The manager of the factory sees in nephew Bert an obstacle to his own bright future at the event of Jefferson's death and gets him in wrong with his uncle by pointing out his mistakes. In the argument which follows Bert suggests to hit uncle that he gain some benefit from his money for the remaining years of his life. He flies into a rage at this, but after thinking the matter over all night, calls upon his nephew and consents to an agreement whereby Bert is to receive a commission for helping him to spend his money in brightening his old years. After engaging a suite of rooms for uncle, in the most expensive hotel in town, and indulging in the purchase of a Packard car, Bert puts sartorial experts at work to deck uncle out in youthful fashion. Next comes the barber to shave off his whiskers, and looking very dapper, uncle's wined and dined in the gayest of places. From morning till night, he has Some tall hustling to do to keep up with the merry pace set for him by Bert. All the while, Hero Bert has been carrying on a nice, little romance with Clara Morris, daughter of an old-friend factory worker at whose home he is staying. Uncle later gets a peep into their little love affair and helps things along by taking Bert into partnership so as to make financially possible their marriage. He also substitutes Clara's father for the thieving manager at a salary that will insure his future comfort. The ending shows an all-around happy family, with Uncle Thomas Jefferson in their midst truly happy as a result of having made others happy. Surely the director is to be complimented in his splendid development of the characterizations in this. Each and every member of the cast gave a truly human and sincere performance that came up to par. You're Safe in Promising That They'll Like it and It's a One Hundred Per Cent Production Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor. Make a grab for this. It's a winner, and the kind of production that cannot fail to appeal to every kind of audience. The story idea is a good one, big in theme, and one that hasn't been done to death, and the director has treated it in a manner which will surely register. In the exploitation of this, play up the name of Bert Lytell who is very likeable and surely has a large following. He will be known for his very good work in many recent productions of Metro. State also that he is a star of the legitimate stage, having most recently appeared with Irene Fenwick in "Mary's Ankle' "* Mention "Hitting The High Spots" and "Unexpected Places" as his latest screen productions, since these were met with general favor. Don't be backward in telling your fans that they're going to thoroughly enjoy this. Tell them it's very human and has a big moral lesson and it'll do^ thens good to see it. Make it clear to them that it has genuine comedy, and at the same time appealing pathos that'll touch their very heart if they have one. Use the line: "If you want to see a production that is charming, funny, human, touching and impressive, and 100% worth while, then don't miss this." You're safe in saying so. For catchlines, something along this fine ought to go: "Do you want to become rich? Why? For the purpose of having and holding money, or to spend it in making others happy?" or "Don't make the mistake of holding onto your money. You have but one life to live. Make the most of it and seek pleasure in spending. Remember, there are no pockets in shrouds."