The Film Daily (1919)

Sunday, January 5, 1919 isi-AA AILV Comedy of Clerk Life Has Humor in Playing and Situations Bryant Washburn in "THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID." Paramount. DIRECTOR Donald Crisp AUTHOR Ida M. Evans SCENARIO BY Edith Kennedy CAMERAMAN Not Credited AS A WHOLE Effective comedy situations based on life of clerk with small income; haj enough human appeal to please. STORY Published in Saturday Evening Post, makes accep'able vehicle for Washburn. DIRECTION Keeps atmosphere natural and registers small incidents which get over. PHOTOGRAPHY Clear LIGHTINGS Satisfactory but nothing out of the ordinary. CAMERA WORK...... Straight stuff. STAR Gets comedy out of natural portrayal ol clerk; doesn't strain for laughs. SUPPORT Wanda Hawley cute shero; Fred Goodwins and others suit characters. EXTERIORS Not many. INTERIORS Conventional but answer requirements of story. DETAIL Titles written in humorous vein; small points contributing to tone of produc. tion are registered. CHARACTER OF STORY Can't offend. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 44*8 ft. Lots of folks will see themselves or some of their friends in this comedy of clerkdom. It's real office stuff and a surefire comedy treatment of the troubles of a shipping clerk who tries to make his twenty-one per. cover the cost of a hall bedroom, eats and other things. Bryant Washburn knows how to put over this sort of a role naturally. He doesn't give the impression or •jtruggling hard to be funny, which is one of t'ie secrets of the success of his comedy method. Given ihe right sort of situation, such as he has here, and Washburn builds up a likable character which might be duplicated in hundreds of offices. They'll like this picture because it deals with every day people in a simple, funny way. Bryant is a happy-go-lucky clerk who has become accustomed »to being broke most of the time. If business is dull and he is laid off lie uses what small change he has to go to a ball game. Some day he feels that he will have a better job, but meanwhile he sees no reason for injuring his health by hard work. Then along comes shero Wanda Hawley, a nifty little stenographer who makes the twenty-one per look terribly insignificant. It doesn't do at all for luncheons and flowers and maltese cats and the other little incidentals that go toward making life complete for the luxurious Wanda. To make matters worse, there is a fat broker just itching to spend his bulging haul; roll on the same girl. Things go along this way for a while and then they pet worse, for even if he has to go without eats, Bryani won't be a piker when it comes to buying presents. They pull a funny sequence in the scenes showing the shipping clerk's dilemma on the day he meets Wanda at the noon hour. He has to take her to lunch althougn he has only a few nickels in his change pocket, so they walk the streets while the depressed youth searches for an idea that will help him out of his difficulty. They wind up at a tea room where after considerable band shaking and persuasion, Bryant gets credit from an old friend, the proprietor. But under the spur of necessity the clerk ts learning for the first time what work really means. He takes on odd jobs that boost his income a bit and presently he gets a raise. The few dollars more a week don't look very substantial, however, when it comes to talcing Wanda to a Halloween blow-out. If Bryant does not take her the fat broker will, so there's no choice. By pledging a large part of his earnings for weeks to come, the clerk secures a sure 'nuff evening wardrobe and is ready to make his debut as the real thing in clothes when the boss summons him to the office for a night's work. Luck suddenly changes. Bryant is informed that as a reward for his increased "pep"* he is to receive $4000 a year as branch manager. He breaks in at the fag end of the Halloween party, shoves the fat broker into the background and taxies off with shero Wanda. Make Clear What Kind of a Film You Have Because Title Doesn't Register Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor. In "Skinner's Dress Suit" and other pictures of the series, Bryant Washburn made a hit as the interpreter of characters drawn from commercial life. This may not be quite up to some of his earlier releases but it is a better-than-the-average program comedy and, especially in cities and towns where there are many store and office workers, it should go well. Folks like comedies that have a bearing on the kind of life with which they are familiar and there aren't any too many that qualify on that score. The human quality is strong in this and the laughs come frequently enough to keep your audience in a good humor. You may promise your regulars that you are giving them something in the way of character comedy which will please. T don't think much of the title except that it may re call the Saturday Evening Post story which, of course, has an appreciable advertising value. For film uses it is too long and doesn't mean anything in particular. Almost any sort of a film introducing a romance might pass under the name of "The' Way of a Man With a Maid" whereas this is distinctly a comedy of business life and would profit by a title indicating that fact. To make clear to your patrons the nature of the film you are presenting, use the lay-outs showing Washburn as a clerk, possibly one with his coat off working over a book of figures and another in which Wanda Hawley appears, for she is a good looking girl likely to attract attention. In your publicity it would be wise to mention Washburn's success in the Skinner pictures and to indicate that he has another role of much the same type.