The Film Daily (1919)

22 laii^i DAILY Sunday, February 2 \<)]9 ■ Unusual Meller Has Suspense and Strong Characterizations Priscilla Dean in "THE WICKED DARLING" Universal Special DIRECTOR Tod Browning AUTHOR Evelyn Campbell SCENARIO BY Harvey Gates CAMERAMAN Alfred Gosden AS A WHOLE Underworld meller that holds suspense and profits by virile types. STORY Well put together and affords star chance for strong performance. DIRECTION Very good; giving continuity to the action and registering telling human bits. PHOTOGRAPHY Remarkably successful in the handling of night effects all through. LIGHTINGS Difficult and varied; accounts for much of the atmosphere in the picture. CAMERA WORK Quite remarkable considering the conditions under which scenes were taken STAR Uses her eyes to advantage and altogether <»ets the most out of the character of a thie: reformed by love. SUPPORT ..Lon Chaney dominant in interpretation of thief; Spottiswoode Aiken also scores; Wellington Playter satisfactory in straight role. EXTERIORS Street scenes at night mostly studio work. INTERIORS Always suffice DETAIL.. So much of it that it becomes one of the most essential features of the production. CHARACTER OF STORY Nothing objectionable LENGTH OF PRODUCTION ..About 5,800 ft. Technically, this is a remarkable film, and more than that it is a genuinely interesting one for those who like crook stories with a liberal element of romance, capably played all through and directed with a fine sense of dramatic values. In putting this out as a special, Universal seems to me to be justified, in that the film has a number of qualities calculated to raise it above the level of program releases. From a technical standpoint it is notable that through more than two reels the action transpires in one night and the complications are dove-tailed in a way that permits no break in the interest, or any indication of superfluous material. This is quite an accomplishment when you consider that many stories covering a span of years have been unfolded in less than two reels. e atmo tWfi f it su The other, and still more distinctive oddity in this picture, is that up to the very close, the entire six reels are comprised of night scenes, either exteriors or interiors. The purpose of this may not be entirely obvious, but at any rate it is much to the credit of the director and the cameraman that they secured effects natural and varied enough to prevent monotony. Another strong feature of the picture is the power of the characterization, in the main figures of the drama as well as in subordinate sketches. Priscilla Dean has more than the usual aptitude for a role such as that of the girl thief whose better instincts are appealed to by \, a man who befriends her, and when it comes to a crool role, Lon Chaney, as you may recall from his previous interpretations, is excellent. The plot is so devised that there is plenty of room for the significant clashes of temperament and feeling, which go a long way toward making a story of this kind seem real. The settings have atmosphere and the whole thing is kept in the spirit of "mderworld. e subject matter in itself is not extraordinary, but rtices on account of the expertness of its arrangement with the wealth of detail with which it is amplified Priscilla is a girl thief operating with Lon Chaney, a professional crook, and Spottiswoode Aiken, whose nominal means of livelihood is a pawn shop. An opportunity for a big haul presents itself on the night of a reception when a crowd is gathered in front of a millionaire's home. Priscilla and Chaney are both there and quick to see the string of pearls dropped on the sidewalk. The girl them, dashes off through the crowd and finds refuge in the house of Kent Mortimer, who, as the audience knows, had presented the pearls to a young woman with whom his engagement had just been broken. Pretending innocence, the girl appeals to his sympathy and begins to feel a real interest in him when he tells her ot his loss of, fortune and how he has been discarded on account of his financial decline. Priscilla leaves, determined to start a new life, which she does by becoming a waitress in a restaurant patronized by Mortimer when he has scarcely enough money to buy a plate of pancakes. Along with the progress of the friendship between these two, we follow the persecution of the repentant girl by her former partners. She sells some of the pearls to aid the man she loves after he has been shot by Chaney, all the while hiding the fact that she has been a thief, for fear, that she will lose h:s love. Eventually, she is able to return the jewels and is accepted by Mortimer at her true worth. Should Get Business if You Boost it Big as a Special Attraction Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor. This will be offered to you as a special and I see no reason why you should not make a satisfactory clean-up, if you advertise in the right way. It isn't a great picture, or one that you can boost on the score of spectacular features costing a lot of money, but it has the qualities of excitement and human appeal that mean more to most folks than a sequence of elaborate sets. Outside of the war films, there haven't been many pictures of special quality during recent months, wh'ch should improve your chances of putting this over as something unusual. It is long enough to comprise the larger part of your program, so you won't need to go to much expense in getting fillers. I would use a news weekly, or possibly a comedy, and let it go at that, making your big splurge on having a notable feature with Priscilla Dean as the star. "The Wicked Darling" is a strange sort of title which doesn't strike me as being a particularly happy choic If Universal doesn't make a change before the film released, there is nothing to do but trust to its oddity excite curiosity. At all events, give Miss Dean a bi| place in your publicity, and if you decide to keep the pic ture for several days, take a chance on some extra adver tising in newspapers, insisting upon liberal treatment the matter of illustrations and advance notices. In calling attention to what Miss Dean has done the past refer to "The Wildcat of Paris," her most rece offering, promising that this is a more interesting pictur with the certainty that no one is going to dispute you statement.