The Film Daily (1919)

>>i inlay, January 5. 1919 id'AAzz? Human Appeal and War Theme Combined in Notable Film Dorothy Phillips in "THE HEART OF HUMANITY" Universal Special. DIRECTOR Allen Holubar AUTHORS Allen Holubar and Olga Scho.l SCENARIO BY Allen Holubar and Olga Scholl CAMERAIV EN Fred Leroy Grandv.lle, Harold Janes and King Gray. AS A WHOLE Powerful production, strong in human element and pre:ents many vivid war scenes; holds attcnti.n all the way. STORY Mother love theme handled sympathetically: depends upon heart appeal rather than complications. DIRECTION Places Holubar high in the ranks of American directors; equally successful in registering srmall in.idents, or handling battle scenes on a large scale. PHOTOGRAPHY Excellent all through LIGHTINGS A numbsr of unusually artistic effects; cleverly varied to secure atmosphere. CAMERA WORK Always sk llful, largely responsible for fine resvlts gained in trench scenes. STAR One of the best performances Dorothy Phillips has ever given; sympathetic in the extreme, registers points without overacting. SUPPORT Erich von Stroheim stands out a3 ideal type for Prussian officer; William Stowell, Margaret Mann and others satisfactory. EXTERIORS Real enough to have been taken in the actual war zone. INTERIORS Correctly furnished DETAIL A strong po'nt in putt ng picture over; pathos and humor well contrasted against background of -uffering. CHARACTER OF STORY Human quality and magn'trde of production lift it out of class of rrd'narv wpt film. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 8,000 ft. Allen Holubar ^as do"e a difficult thing extremely well. He has made a war picture so big and so human that it pasres out of the numerous company of "just war films" and becomes a genuine feature production of t1ie fir-t class. There's no danger of this being overlooked because peace days are here. It has too murh human appeal for that and too many thrills in the war sequences, many of which are presented on a massive scale. Beyond the pictorial and dramatic worth of the proPlay it up Big and Count Box Office Analysis Don't worry for a moment about this being a war film, hecause. un'ess I miss my guess entirely, it will go over with a bang, even if other war pictures have missed out. Audiences are looking for human appeal and they've got it here. There's plenty of humor and heart interest to offset the tragedy and when it comes to war stuff t'-e p;ct'-re goes over the top and then some. Holubar is a young director, but I want to make it clear to you folks who haven't seen the film, that he has put across .something surnrisingly big which it will pay you to boost to the limit. "The Heart of Humanity" is a mighty good title and I would work my publ'ci'y along just that angle, trying to create the impression that for the first time duction, it has the distinct advantage of meeting the needs of the film market outside of the United States, in that it presents the part Canada played in the war, without, of course, slighting America's contribution. This is an angle that few producers have hit and it sure will be appreciated by Canadian exh.bitors. They start things off in Canada where Dorothy Phillips, the ward of the parish priest, is engaged to the oldect of five brothers, all living with their widowed mother. Into the quiet of the peaceful vi.lage falls the thunderbolt of war and one by one the sons go, Dorothy having become the wife of her soldier-lover. There's nothing extraordinary about the opening reels, but photographically and in the indication of the pre-war life in a Canadian village they have a convincing atmospheric quality. Advancing to the really momentous passages of the story, the audience inevitably finds itself being carried away by the power of what is portrayed with exceptional exactitude. You exhibitors know, and the analytical public knows, how an expert director, equipped with the requisite comprehension of human nature, may play upon the common emotions, but there are few who sense the dividing line between sentiment and sentimentality and between what is truly dramatic and something just sensational. It strikes me that Mr. Holubar, in his handling of the mother love theme, in the use of children as a means of exciting the feelirg always re^dy to re-pond to a screen depiction of appaling youngsters and in his adroit variation of humor and tragedy, so c!o?ely ailed in the lives of many of us during the pist four years, has proven himself a director of unusual attainment. From a technical viewpoint the mo=t remarkable parts of the picture are its war scenes. Tremendous is a big word but it isn't too big 'o use in connect-on with some of the combats shown h;re. They startle, they thrill, they conta-'n the srspen-e of the unexpected and the frightfulness of war. Struggling in flooded trenches and dugouts, bayoneting their way through the streets of a village fortified by Huns, fighting in the air — you see the soldiers of the allies in convincing reality that makes the pulse beat fas'er. There are many scenes in the production bound to score, but I want to mention two in particular that won't be forgotten by anyone who sees the film. The first is that in which a Red Cro=s dog rescues Dorothy Phillips, who has become a nurse, from a wounded German soldier: the other shows Miss Phillips in a state of temporary insanity when it appears tbat she can no longer resist the attack of von Stroheim. on Fans Being Satisfied for the Exhibitor. the human aspects of the world war have been truly revealed. Naturally, the Canadian angle won't mean much to Americans but to exhibitors across the border it will suggest all sorts of possibilities. Running this as an eight-reel feature you won't need much else to fill out your show, so it would seem wise to go to the expense of unusual advertising in order to let your regulars k"ow that you have something out of the ordinary. Get them in and they'll admit that you've played fair. If Dorothy Phillips is well known at your theater, mention "The Talk of the Town." "A Soul for Sale" and other pictures in which she has appeared, promising that this is the best thing she ever did.