Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Dec 1920)

The Newest Photoplays in Review By FREDERICK JAMES SMITH At first glance, "Suds" might seem to be a grey and shadowy tragedy, but in reality it is told with broad slapstick humor. There is, for instance, an episode where the slavey takes an old cart-horse out of the rain up to her second-story tenement room. Aside from this, there are all sorts of comic incidents in the laundry basement. Personally, we do not believe "Suds" will make the broad appeal of the more popular Mary Pickford vehicles. It runs too strongly in the single key of drab farce. Not that Miss Pickford does not give a very carefully drawn portrayal of the slavey. No other feminine .star would hide herself beneath the fearful makeup of Amanda. And only once does she discard the dirt and grime of the laundry drudge, in the brief flashes of the slavey's imaginary romance built around the shirt. Nowhere, however, does she achieve the poignancy of her Pollyanna. We liked Harold Goodwin's playing of the slender role of the laundry driver. Douglas Fairbanks topped any of his recent productions with the whirlwind, "The Mollycoddle." (United Artists). Here may be found thrills, adventure and a swiftly moving background. Richard Marshall starts off as a spineless individual— until he meets The Girl at Monte Carlo. By the time he has pursued her across the ocean as a stowaway and fought his way across the desert of the Southwest, he is as Top, Dorothy Gish in "Remodeling Her Husband," which was directed by Lillian Gish, who reveals unusual directorial possibilities. Center, Doug Fairbanks in "The Mollycoddle," his best vehicle in a long time. Below, Wallie Reid and Bebe Daniels in "Sick-a-Bed" any The strenuous a hero as maid could desire, whole thing ends in a terrific fight in a Hopi cliff village. The hero leaps from a high ledge ui)on the villain in a tree, and the struggle coii,tinues as they dro]). tier by tier, thru the adobe cliff huts until, on the crest of a landslide, they plunge into river rapids at the bottom. It is as startling a fight as you will ever see on the screen, .\ndif there is a funnier scene tlian Doug's adventures in the villain's fish-house, we would like to observe it. ' In a sentence, "The Mollycoddle" is a winner. Doug has turned out but two or three better comedy melodramas in his whole celluloid career. .\fter observing Dorothy Cish's "Remodeling Her Husb.-md," (Paramount), we are confident that Lillian Gish could easily develop into a director of fine originality.. This is the little comedy drama in which Miss Lillian directed her si.ster last winter. It is the old, old o]5us of the bride who sets out to cure her hubby of his flirtatious tendencies. Of course, as soon as he feels that he is losing his wife, he re])ents — and things end in a reconciliation. There are dozens of touches in which one can recogfiize the delicate and gently lyric hand of Lillian Gish. such as the delicious moment where Dorothy, as the angry Jane Wakefield, hurries thru the jiark and demonstrates how she can attract masculine attention. Dorothy Gish lends her inimitable humor to the proceedings, but Lillian is the real star, even if she does not once appear on the silversheet. Charles Ray gives another superbly human performance in "Homer Comes Home," (Paramount), another tale which would be conventional plus in any other hands. Once again he plays a country lad who goes to the city to (Continued on J>acje 91) (Forty-five)