The Film Spectator (Mar-Dec 1928)

Page Ten from nowhere. The whole picture is too much in monotone, a weakness that extends even to the extraordinary photography, of which there were a few too many subdued shots. When the two characters are parted on the eve of their wedding there was a chance to get drama by showing the girl going down to jail and the man going upward to success. But this chance was overlooked; the two remain always in the same station of life, thus robbing the picture of an opportunity to be strong in contrasts. The one weakness of Borzage's direction, admirable enough in most respects, was the characterization of Farrell after Janet goes to jail. Again we have no contrasts. Charlie is drooping as much after a year of it as he did when the blow first fell, which is altogether wrong. I don't know how the original story had it, but I feel that the screen version would have provided a much better picture if Farrell had become successful and famous while Janet was in jail. But the film will do no one any harm. Janet remains the greatest screen actress we have and Charlie takes a long step forward. Street Angel is his picture more than it is Janet's. His performance is really notable. * * * Rowland Lee Has a Few New Ideas ROWLAND Lee always can be counted on to do something different. He has no accepted method of handling a given situation, which lends a refreshing quality to the pictures he directs. He opens Three Sinners, Pola Negri's latest, with a truck shot. The camera travels around a room, pausing for a moment in front of each person in it until there is nobody left, after which it backs up and shows us the whole room. By this time we have seen all the people, but have no idea who they are. Lee makes us acquainted with them by means of spoken titles. Two spoken to a child — "Kiss your father good-night," and "Tell your grandfather you're sorry" — are illuminating. There are no narrative titles in the picture, which, in itself, is a good feature. But in this production some of the spoken titles are distorted or made cumbersome by being written to embrace the narrative. I believe that if narrative titles can not be avoided, they should be presented frankly as such, thus ridding spoken titles of the burden of the story. I blamed Lee for too many close-ups in his two previous pictures. I do not know if I am entitled to any credit for the reformation that the new picture reveals that he has undergone, but if congratulations are not due me, they certainly are due Lee. There are comparatively few close-ups in Three Sinners, and those that are in it are placed intelligently. I believe this picture is going to be the most popular with American audiences that Pola has made in this country. While the locale is in Europe, the theme is a universal one that could be presented with a Dallas, Texas, background as effectively as with a Parisian background. The presence in it of a baby adds a human note that most of Pola's pictures have lacked. Pola gives her usual splendid performance. Even in the sequences in which she is shown as occupying a doubtful relationship with the proprietor of a crooked gambling house, she never lets us forget the fact that she is a good woman, forced into a false position through no fault of her own. She has a splendid scene with Paul Lukas when she reveals to him that she is his wife whom THE FILM SPECTATOR April 28, 1928 he has mourned as dead. This sequence derives most of its effectiveness from the fact that it is piresented in long and medium shots and is devoid of those great, staring close-ups which are shot by unimaginative directors and inserted by unintelligent cutters. In this picture I get my first glimpse of Lukas. He is an acceptable leading man, which he seems to be in this picture until the end nearly is reached, when Warner Baxter steps to the front and gets Pola's hand. The best work that Lukas does is in a sequence showing him searching for the body of his wife who he thinks has been killed in a railroad wreck. He sheds no tears, but registers that he is overwhelmed with grief. It reflects intelligence in both acting and direction. Olga Baclanova, TuUio Carminati and Robert Klein are others who contribute good performances. I am not sure that the titles that were in the picture when I saw it are the ones that will be in it when it is released, but I hope they won't be. They are stiff and stilted, and punctuated terribly. But Three Sinners is a good picture, even with its present titles. Those exhibitors who have the idea that American audiences do not want Negri pictures should try this one on their patrons. I think they'll like it. * • * Why Don't Other Producers Follow the Harold Lloyd Plan? ALL Harold Lloyd's pictures are successful primarily because he is an excellent actor. Speedy is full of hilarious gags that in themselves are funny, but the storms of laughter that they arouse do not reach their peak until Harold, by some little stroke of actor's genius, gives them their final punch. In all his pictures Harold has to compete for recognition with his gags, and the latter always are so clever that they draw the applause and lead us to overlook the fact that all of Harold Lloyd's success is due mainly to the fact that he is one of the best actors on the screen. In Speedy he gives what seemed to me to be the best performance of his career. He gives us a boy that we like, not a frozen-face Buster Keaton, nor a wisecracking pest like Bill Haines; but a regular youth who can't hold a job, and doesn't care, and who is ready to blow his last cent to give his sweetie a fine time. The absolute cleanliness of the Lloyd pictures, of course, has contributed greatly to their success. When I have said that Speedy is very funny and extraordinarily clever I have written my whole review of it. Ted Wilde's direction is flawless. Amusement and hearty laughs are not all that I get out of Harold's pictures. As I watch them I wonder how under the sun the amazingly clever gags are thought of. I make obeisance to their creators! I bow low to the genius who conceived the idea of using the reflex action in a total stranger's knee as a means of getting even with another stranger who trod on one's toes. The brilliance of such inspirations dazzles me. Speedy is full of them. Harold makes one picture a year. I think that's it, but, anyway, they come a long way apart. When we see one of them flit joyously across the screen it gives us the impression that Harold and his gang made it one morning when they were full of pep. There is a spontaniety, a sparkle to them that makes us feel that they were born of a moment's inspiration, and nothing to suggest that they were built slowly and that they progressed painstakingly from idea to idea. And despite the fact that he does not give us a great many pictures, Harold has