Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1924-Jan 1925)

The Wi inners Tke Best Melodrama, the Best Drama, trie Best Comedy, and the Best Costume Picture I THE SILENT WATCHER The Best Melodrama IF ever there was a flesh-and-blood picture — one vivid with life, Frank Lloyd's The Silent Watcher is it. Indeed, it is the sort of picture for which the spectator needs more than anything else his heart-strings. Given a reasonable amount of these, and this fine adaptation of Mary Roberts Rinehart's story, The Altar on the Hill, will do the rest. And yet it carries sound, logical drama — the kind of drama that holds one in a tight embrace thru its very human situations. It is touched with deep, poignant feeling. And, watching it, we feel like trespassers against something sacred — because we look upon the home of young newly-weds crumbling to pieces. But above all, it is the humanities that give this picture such eloquent expression. Frank Lloyd has again demonstrated that he knows pictorial and dramatic values. He keeps his balance — and displays good, common sense. The picture will rank with his earlier achievement, The Sea Hazvk, in its entertaining qualities. Being a student of human nature — and having a knowledge of dramatic form and technique, he brings out one of the most absorbing films ever screened. He seems able to humanize any story — whether it deals with romance out of the chivalrous past, or deals with life as it is lived today. Here he uncovers the hundred and one little things which make up character. He doesn't paint broadly, but uses soft shades. And so we see a story of every-day existence. We look upon Mary and Joe — Joe, a hero-worshiper of his employer, a candidate for United States Senator. It is his loyalty to his boss that starts the house crumbling. Mary is faithful, but she sees in the "chief" nothing less than an ogre. So Joe keeps silent when to speak would bring him into disrepute. And in his silence Mary misjudges him. How keenly, how poignantly Lloyd brings these touches out. There is conviction about it — a ring of truth which is expressed realistically — and with much simplicity. The characters mold under your very eyes. They take on shape as they enter each situation — and these situations are as perfectly dovetailed as the figures in the pattern of an Oriental rug. How seldom it is that one sees a picture with characterization that develops and glows as the plot develops. As a result we have continual surprise and suspense. (Continued on 52 THE CLEAN HEART The Best Drama THE big heart touch is very much in evidence in this picture adapted from A. S. M. Hutchinson's story, The Clean Heart. Like // Winter Comes, it tells a tale of a lovable character who gets out of touch with realities. It lends itself well to picturization because it is unusually strong in characterization, heart interest, pathos, humanity — and romance — typically Hutchinson elements. The author's quaint note of humor is also admirably caught by J. Stuart Blackton whose direction here is remarkably sympathetic and intelligent. Yet it is a story which could have been easily spoiled had the director allowed too much sentiment. He has shown fine appreciation of its humanities, its spiritual note — and its cameolike characterization. Indeed, he has been in entire sympathy with the author. The result is a film which genuinely humanizes its characters as to make them live. The story of the harassed newspaper man who runs away from his work and his worries — who allows the grinding presses to whip him — whose sensitiveness is for cloistered walls instead of the humdrum monotony of a machine-like grind — who suffers a mental breakdown — who finds communion with a happy-go-lucky vagabond and a nurse who restores him back to health — well, it'-s all told in most charming manner. The plot never gets away from the characters, and the characters dominate the action. It conquers thru its charm, simplicity and the appeal of its romance. It is the picture in which the story is the thing. The spiritual tug of // Winter Comes is just as finely suggested. And like that memorable film, it points its central figure very forcefully, very sympathetically. Yet there is nothing mushy about it. The editor temporarily loses his mind and lives a Peter Pan sort of existence. Yes, it has its drama. Poignant and dramatic is that scene wherein the vagabond willingly sacrifices his life that his new-found friend may live. And before the great sacrifice we are offered the quaint humor as the friends tramp the English countryside. The Clean Heart always tugs at the emotions. There is page 89)