Motion Picture News (Sep - Oct 1926)

1012 Motion P i c t H r c N C ct' ,S Fine Manners Nothing Much to Boast About (Reviewed by Laiirenee Reid) GLORIA SWANSON'S new picture which took such a long' time to finish cannot bo catalogued as anything out of the ordinary. While it has been going through the movie iiiacliinery it appears to have lost much of its substance. It is an obvious affair — one handled obviously, with the result there isn 't much to intrigue the imagination. The contrasts are sharply divided. The heroine is poor — while the hero is rich, and anyone with half an eye can spot that the '/\v\ learns how to be a lady. Miss Swanson enacts the part with considerable vitality and enthusiasm, but as clever as she is she cannot overcome the shortcomings of the plot. It is a Cinderella i)attern cooked to a turn. So was "Manhandled" — but that picture had substance and imagination. The poor girl meets the rich fellow and a romance begins. The youth intrusts her to the care of his aunt while he is away for a few months — and during the interim the girl is made over into a liidy. There is a bid for drama toward the finish when the heroine lias a fit of temper and becomes the lowly East Sider for the moment. But it is merelj' a gesture and retreats behind the cloak of hap])iness. The appeal of the picture rests entirely with the star, Avho undergoes her transition from a rowdy into a classy dame witli poise and abandon. Th Cast: Gloria. S^caiison, Eugene O'Brien, Walter Coss, Director, Richard h'ossoii. Tease the title. Play up Swan Helcn Ihmbar, John Miltern. THEME: Cinderella pattern revolving around poor, but pretty girl, winning love of rich youth PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS: The acting by star. The early scenes. EXPLOITATION ANGLES: son and tie up with ladies' shops on clothes, lingerie and hairdressing. DRAWING POWER: Popularity of star should draw them. Suitable for most types of houses. Produced and distributed by Paiuous Plaxers-Laskv. Length, six reels. Released August, 1926. Scenes from the I'nihe feature W estern "The High Hand" Flames Melodrama With a Blazing Background (Reviewed by Paul Thompson) WK doubt the press-agent's "We feel 'P'lames' will prove one of the big pictures of the coming season," but that it will score there can be no question. It has for one asset three featured players, all with their own foUowings: Jean Hersholt, a sort of Danish man-of-all-work, judging by the variety of parts handed him; P^ugene O'Brien, the handsome and debonnair, and lastly — ungallantly without intention— Virginia Valli. For full measure Bryant Washburn, with this season's correct mode in villain moustaches, is an added starter. I insist, however, that the principal honors go to the forest fire, wliich forms a most melodramatic background for the latter part of the story. The man Avith the euphonistic name, Lewis IMoomaw, is responsible for this Associated Exhibitors' picture based on the story and scenario by Alfred A. Cohn. It tells, in brief, of Virginia, for the picture's purposes, the daughter of George Nichols, a section foreman become railroad owner, l)eing rescued from Boris Karloff, a very bad western Jium. Eugene O'Brien does the heroic stuff, carrying Virginia througli a burning forest after a rimgh-and(uinble fight with the villain. Hersholt is a Swedish foreman with a peiichant for clieap love stories who gets Virginia into her troubles through' a mistaken desii'e to help Eugene win the lady. Cissy Fitzgei-ald, she of the wink of the last centurv, is among those present. Oh! Bryant Washburn is the "typical'"' New York society man anxious to marry Virginia. Does he succeed? He does not after Eugene's heroism — how could he? The Cast: Eugene O'Brien, Virginia Valli, Jean Hersholt. Bryant Jl'ashburn, Cissie Fit.-:gerald, George Nichols, and Boris Karloff. The director, Lcii'is H. Mooma^v. cene.s from "I'ri .soMcr.s of the Storm," a Universal 'Northwest Mounted" Ivpe production of the THEME: Rescue of heroine from villain and forest fire. PRODUCTION H I G H LIGHTS: The amazing fire scenes and railroad construction camp. Produced and released by EXPLOITATION ANGLES: Fire scenes, prominence of four stars in cast. DRAWING POWER: Excellent, filled with thrills and action. .■Issociated E..vhib'lors. Inc. I Length. 5.S88 /<-<•/. Released Scf^leniber 15. 1926.