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Laurence Reid
Reviews
THE New Photoplays
THE Russian Revolution turns out to.be a topsyturvy, harum-scarum, hit-and-miss affair as revealed in "The Red Dance." Those responsible evidently thought it spelled box-office to cram it full of extreme sacrifice, extreme adventure, extreme unction, extreme plunder and all of • the other elements which are generally depicted as the voice of a people in rebellion The mistakes are in the story, for the direction shows first-rate technical qualities — even if the action doesn't build much sequence.
The trouble is too much picture. It could have gone on into next week. After the characters are planted (and none important are forgotten except Kerensky, who, strangely, has to give way to figures bearing a strong likeness to Trotzky and Rasputin), the scenes shift dizzylike from aristocratic circles to those representing the peasantry. And before you know it, you are in the throes of the Revolution, depicted here as the Mad Rush.
The detail is very good, especially in those scenes of peasant life. And Hollywood surely has enough Russian uniforms to go around. Pictorially it is satisfying, but as a genuine treatment of the Revolution it is away oflF the mark. There's a romance typically movieish which has to do with a Grand Duke -falling in love with a lowly peasant and the latter saving his life at the climax. The excursion into the arbor of love gives Dolores del Rio a chance to look picturesque and act with a fair amount of feeling. As for Charles Farrell, he wears his uniform well and his quick stride is all to the military. Ivan Linow, providing comic relief, fails to arouse much mirth after a brief moment or two. He starts out as a wolf and ends up a lambkin.
There's no real motivation here. The Russia | Revolution has yet to be picturized in Hollywoo( i I would recommend it as a task for the RussianJ or Germans. "The End of St. Petersburg" caplB.^ tured the real thing without love interest. '
Blood Will Tell
'T'he dual role bobs up to give Richard Barthel •*■ mess an opportunity to differentiate brothers — and he performs very well in Wheel of Chance," a picture which shapes up a likely entertainment. The idea is an old one but it is developed compactly and with ai eye on building suspense. Barthelmess is discovered as twins one good, the other a disciple of evil Having been separated in infanc)' in Russia, the good one is rearer by his thrifty parents in America while the other becomes a gangster. It happens . that the bad boy is tried for murder and his prosecutor is his brother. You've seen that situation before, haven't you? The psychic understanding of twins is exploited when the sponsor of the law refuses to continue the case. And the love appeal has its innings. And there you are. The court-room scene is the highlight in a picture which doesn't contain very many. Yet it is well con
At top is Richard Barthelmess playing a itn] role in his newest picture, "The '^heel .1 Chance." In the oval are Richard Arlen ird Clara Bow, whose picture, "Ladies of the Mob," is a (:of, J melodrama. Below, Raquel Torres as a dusky South Sea maid shows her interest in Monte Blue in "White Shadow 5 of the South Seas"
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