Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1919)

/TrjViaTioN picxuRr •<lnC)( IL MAGAZINE Across the Silversheet (Continued from page 75) and settings are all fine and some of the photography is great. J. "Camping Out" (Paramount) Roscoe Arbuckle's latest is no better nor worse than his previous releases, and not much different in character. He is the same "Fatty" in whatever he plays. It will amuse and entertain many thousands and disgust many of them. Not many will go to sleep when "Camping Out" is on, for it is a continuous performance of funny incidents, mostly of the slap-stick order. Unfortunately, there is a sameness to all of his pictures, and he never misses a chance to get in a vulgar or suggestive touch. If it is not a surgeon who has just performed an operation, appearing with his white clothes smeared with blood, or a man trying to get into a woman's bedroom, or peeping into her bath-house, or too conspicuously displayed human forms divine, or mistaking rank cheese for his socks, and so on, it is an exhibition of _ vomiting from seasickness as in "Camping Out." It is quite possible and probable that many people enjoy these and other similar vulgarities, and I suppose the more refined patrons of the photodrama must endure them for the sake of the others. At any rate, nobody will accuse Mr. Arbuckle of elevating the film art. Again, there is no accounting for tastes. While I personally seldom get a laugh out of the Arbuckle comedies, and am always stirred hilariously by everything that Chaplin does, some people are affected quite the opposite, because I hear considerable laughter in every theater where Arbuckle is showing. While there are many clever and ingenious devices and incidents in all of the Arbuckle farces, I would say that, while Chaplin is a genius, Arbuckle is merely a clown. J. "Day Dreams" (Goldwyn) The very worst thing about this picture is the photography, which is wretchedly done, while the story, even to the most romantic souls, must fall short. Coming into the theater late, I failed to discover whether little Madge Kennedy was supposed to be completely insane or just a bit queer. After reading the press sheets I discovered that the little duck girl or goose girl was supposed to be a great dreamer. She imagines her Prince Charming is coming and when a flesh and blood suitor woos her she will have nothing of him. So he hires a friend to rig up as Prince Charming — and they live happily ever after — on the duck farm. Madge Kennedy's charm as a rule is natural and very pleasing, but neither the direction, the story, nor the other members of the cast are any help to her in this latest release. "The Hidden Truth" (Select) The much-announced Anna Case, "celebrated grand opera prima donna," at last has appeared upon the screen — from the Metropolitan Opera House to Loew's New York Picture Theater a la Geraldine Farrar. When Farrar was first announced in the film "Carmen," it set the country afire with wonder, hope and expectancy. Everybody had heard of her, few had seen her, and all wanted to get a glimpse of her. Her Carmen was not as good as Theda Bara's, but she scored. A good director might have corrected some of her screen stiffness and let her in on many of the screen secrets so as to make her appear more winsome, but for some reason he did not. However, they gave her a good scenario, for the story is an interesting one and holds the interest charmingly up to within a few feet of the end, when several bad blunders are made. In short, the story comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The support is mostly good — particularly a young woman (unnamed) who plays the part of Myrtle. She has a beautiful classic face and plays naturally and with great feeling — quite in contrast with the star at times. Charles Richman as the lead is fairly good. Anna Case may yet shine on the screen, but not until she finds a director who knows. Was not Marion Davies once beautiful and very promising until she struck a director who did not know? J The Glad Girl (Continued from page 37) to squelch us poor little ingenues. There is no excuse for anyone being up-stage. It is often only luck that makes one player a star and another an extra, and just because fate has been kind to me, it does not make me any better than anyone else. But, I would be silly not to be glad about it, and enjoy it while the going's good . . . wouldn't I?" Miss Leslie's large gray eyes sparkled with a keen sense of Irish humor. A bond of fellowship seemed to bring us close together in that moment. Here was girlhood that was frank and natural. For the first time in ages, I wanted to lapse into a matinee monolog of how perfectly sweet and adorable and But, Gladys Leslie wouldn't like that glucose verbiage, and so my eyes alone complimented her upon the fact that she possessed the unusual combination of being an ingenue with a sense of humor, and a star without a pose. To most interviewers Gladys Leslie admits that her favorite book is her bank book, and her chief joy is watching the columns mount. To me she allowed her eyes to become dream-laden as we spoke of our ambitions. "Some day," she said, "when the columns have mounted high enough, I want to own a farm, Avith chickens and flowers and ducks, and all that — and a husband : most of all I want to be able to afford to take time to have children. I adore babies." So speaks Gladys Leslie, a sun-kist buttercup, whom vagrant chance caught in a hothouse bouquet of screen roses. "I hate photoplays," she continued, "that have the slightest touch of suggestiveness. I never want to play in anything but sweet, clean comedy-dramas. Dont think me a good-goody," she added hastily, "but I believe that only that which is good and clean and beautiful can live." "Do you like dancing and cabarets?" I asked, searchingly. Miss Leslie's clear young eyes looked at me dubiously. "Do you know how many times I have been in a public restaurant in my life?" I shook my head "no." "Exactly five times and that was five times too man}r. I hate that sort of life, and besides," she said naively, "I need eight hours sleep every night or I cant do my work justice." She is in love with life, and life could not fail but return the compliment. Before I left the gladness of her presence, she herself got luncheon for us . . . a delicious one, daintily served. When I departed, she stood in the doorway and allowed the icy breath of Brooklyn to penetrate her filmy garments. "I sure am glad you came," she said. And even in retrospect I am conscious of her pleasing optimism, her Glad Girl friendship. $95 an Hour! "Every hour I spent on my I. C. S. Course has been worth $95 to me! My position, my $5,000 a year income, my home, my family's happiness — I owe it all to my spare time training with the International Correspondence Schools!" Every mail brings letters from some of the two million I. C. 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