The Film Daily (1919)

Sunday, January 5, 1919 TaiiW AIL.Y Out of Date Draft Meller Lifted by Performance of Star Charlotte Walker in "EVERY MOTHER'S SON" Fox Production. DIRECTOR Raoul A. Walsh AUTHOR Raoul A. Walsh SCENARIO BY Raoul A. Walsh CAMERAMAN Not credited AS A WHOLE Meller treatment of response of typical American family to draft law. Rather artificial and for the most part doesn't convince. STORY Based on the 18 to 45 conscription order; doesn't run smoothly and gives indication of having been pieced together. DIRECTION Went in for hectic Meller and permitted a lot of "acting." PHOTOGRAPHY ...Many scenes hazy; for the most part lacks sharpness. LIGHTINGS Ordinary CAMERAWORK Passable STAR Acts with feeling and gives impression of real American mother. SUPPORT Satisfactory in the main. Bernard Thornton, as German officer, over-reaches. EXTERIORS Answer the purpose INTERIORS Conventional DETAIL Doesn't figure very largely. Much stilted English in titles. CHARACTER OF STORY Might have been beneficial during the war. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 5.000 ft. All of you who skim through the trade papers know well enough that William Fox started this production at about the time the 18 to 45 draft order became a certainty. The original intention was to call the film "18 to 45" and exploit it as something out of the ordinary which would have been very appropriate and timely if Kaiser Bill hadn't gone and surrendered Nobody wants to blame Mr. Fox for having a production all dressed up with no place to go, and he seems to be making the best of the situation by cutting the film down and sliding it through his usual releasing channels. Of course it can't be the success it might have been a few months ago, or that it might be even now if the picture were of a. higher calibre. The whole thing appears overwrought and is played at a fast tempo that permits little opportunity for real characterization. The story is a bit episodic and jumpy, giving the impression of a lot of material thrown together without the discrimination needed to get truly artistic results. There's plenty of emoting and superficial excitement, but save in occasional instances when Charlotte Walker does some really appealing acting, they don't get down to the heart of things. The American family dealt with is the kind that would please Teddy. The two eldest sons go off to war without a murmur and the father is more than ready to do his part when the 18 to 45 ruling gives him a chance. Dramatic conflict is obtained by making the mother a pacifist when it comes to giving up any more of her sons to the battlefields of France. The feelings of the woman are sincerely conveyed by Miss Walker. The average audience will experience at least some sympathy for her when registration comes and her youngest son, just eighteen, and much under the influence of German pacifistic propaganda, is unwilling to register. The mother and her boy make a hasty trip to the seclusion of their country home, followed by the irate father. They get some good scenes out of this family rupture, which is about to result in the patriotic parent dragging his son off to the registration booth when the bedraggled victims of a submarine make a landing on the shore near the country home. Their entrance into the house is highly opportune Seeing with their own eyes the consequences of German autocracy, both mother and son have a sudden change of heart and the boy, acompanied by his proud father, rushes off to place his name on Uncle Sam's list. An instance of the exaggeration which characterizes much of this film is found at the registration room where the director presented a struggling crowd of men suggestive of a mob scene, when as a matter of fact no such disorder existed on registration day. Interspersed with the American end of the story are many scenes purporting to show the fighting in France in which the elder sons are engaged. These are for the most part passable but nothing to brag about. The romance between one of the sons and a French peasant girl is conventional movie stuff. tr ^1 Reginald Barkeiy Now completing fot Golowj/tv FotuMrtt Special Production