Motion Picture News (Jul-Aug 1923)

550 Motion Picture N e zv r Opinions on Current Short Subjects " The Green Cat " I Pathe— Two Reels) SNUB POLLARD goes into the restaurant business in this one and discovers his onlv guests are the employees on the premises. When he protests their prodigality with his food supplies they promptly threaten to leave him flat. A fire insurance salesman wanders in to sell, not to cat. although he eventually accepts the hospitality of the soda dispenser and puts away a dozen or so ice-cream sodas on the house. Next enters a family of six, but, just as business seems to be lightening, the head of the household orders one cup of coffee to go with the picnic lunch in their valise. In desperation, Pollard resorts to various schemes of blocking the auto traffic on the highway in front of his emporium, but his efforts result only in disaster to himself. Then comes the "grand idea;"' he ties a pig, adorned with a pair of spectacles, outside the restaurant, and the place is promptly swamped with parties looking for contraband liquor. The nearest thin;; to a bottle of kick that the restaurant holds is vinegar, but this, with the help of Marie Mosquini, masquerading as a constable, serves magnificently until some prohibition officers arrive. These sequences arc especially funny. The fun culminates in a real thrill when the restaurant burns down and collapses just as Pollard puts his signature to a fire insurance policy. A cleverly constructed comedy with some genuinely humorous touches in it. Ought to go well in any type of house. — E. F. SUPPLE. " In Wrong Right " ( Pathe — Two Reels) THIS subject is one of the most entertaining two-reel Western dramas that we have seen recently. It is really a comedy-drama laid in a Western setting, embodying more laughs than thrills. The humor, which proceeds from a series of misunderstandings that set the principal characters working at cross purposes, is very well brought out both by the action and by the titles. The ranch is blessed with a very capable, but homely and fractious, cook. The ranch owner would like to see her married to somebody on the ranch just to insure her permanency in the kitchen. He even considers proposing himself, but always falters at the crucial moment. Now he also has a pretty daughter (Josephine Hill) who is admired by several of the cow-punchers. When two suitors approach the ranch owner to ask for daughter's hand father, pre-occupied with thoughts of the cook, interprets their intentions as being directed towards the mistress of the kitchen. To the suitor employed on the ranch he gives a willing consent, even proposing an abduction to make the marriage of the cook more certain. So daughter is promptly seized, bound up in a table cloth and carried away to the hills to await the minister's coming. Father approves enthusiastically of the rough treatment until the hero (Leo Maloney), who has given chase to the abductor, overtakes the kidnapper and discloses the true identity of the victim. There is the customary hard riding and a lively fistic encounter at the close, but it is the laughs that will furnish the major portion of the entertainment in this one.— E. F. SUPPLE. " Post No Bills " i Pathe — One Reel | HERE'S one that carries its own exploitation suggestions. Paul Parrott is featured as an enterprising theatrical press agent, whose task it is to "snipe" the town in behalf of the Bijou theatre. He starts out by nailing one of his posters to heavy plate-glass window. Before he finishes he has plastered his snipes on the backs of most everybody in town, including the police force. Even the solemnity of the marriage ceremony is violated, and when the groom delivers to the minister what he believes to be the marriage license it proves to he but another snipe announcing the performance at the, Bijotl. The comedy business is unadulterated hokum from start to finish, but it will furnish a satisfactory measure of laughs to the average audience. — E. F. SUPPLE. "The Host" i I ni versa 1 — One Reel i A N'OTHER tramp comedy with N'eclcy Ed** wards in the featured role. Whatever humor is found in this one proceeds from the presentation of a tramp in the role of social master of ceremonies at a high-class hotel. The reel starts with an incident of mistaken identity in which " a gentleman of the road " finds himself unexpectedly elevated to the post of a professional host. Of course, he knows nothing about the niceties of meeting the first families or directing a ballroom function, and some of his blunders of etiquette become laughable in a sense. To make matters worse, he gets chewing gum stuck all over his hands early in the action and all over the guests in subsequent sequences. The reel closes with the arrival of the real professional host and the pursuit of the imposter by the angry hotel guests.— E. F SUPPLE. " Spring Fever (Universal — Two Reels) AN action comedy with a bunch of "old stuff" gags and a few new ones. The action transpires in rustic settings, with a wild bull taking the featured role in the first of a series of lively incidents. Fred Spencer, in the leading part, had no sinecure in acting in the same scenes with this bull. Only the actor's agility saved him from the flying hoofs and horns more than once, to all appearances. The director deserves a citation; he has a character, who has been catapulted into a well, reach the top of the well without once falling back into the waters again. Spencer is next called upon to play ladies man at a local function. In the preparations for the festivities a trick bow tie that refuses to go straight is used to provoke some fun. At the function Spencer's success with the female element incites his rival to dastardly plotting. In removing the first spadeful of dirt for the old ladies home, Spencer dislodges a chipmunk. The rodent breaks up the party, and a wild chase ensues. The rival has removed the nut from the rear axle of the wagon which Spencer is driving. When the wheel falls off as the wagon is crossing a bridge the entire party is precipitated into the stream— all except Spencer and his girl who continue safely on their way on the driver's seat. A lively slapstick comedy not without some original touches.— E. F. SUPPLE. " NohooVs Darling " I Universal — Two Reels) THE men folks in your audience will probably call this " clever," while the ladies will very likely wax enthusiastic with, " Isn't she just the cutest thing!" The reason for the predicted remarks of approbation is Baby Peggy in her -latest Century offering. There isn't any story to be found in this one, but this omission doesn't detract a bit with Miss Peggy registering appcalingly in a series of amusing gags and situations. In the beginning, Peggy has a lot of fun with a ' Keep off the grass" sign. By slyly planting the sign in unexpected places she keeps picknickers and police continually on the hop to avoid violations of the law. She is next precipitated into the midst of a party of colored orphans out for a ride and gets in some more fun before her identity is discovered. By far the best sequences in the picture are those showing Peggy in a toy shop trying to pose as a mechanical doll and doing it quite effectively. The little lady's make-up here is superseded only by her clever acting. After she is bought by a delighted customer and shipped to a swell residence, she terrifies the family and their eolored servants by antics quite beyond the ability of the most ingenious of mechanical dolls. These sequences are highly amusing. Here's an enjoyable kid comedy that ought to go well in any type of house. /:. /•'. SUPPLE. " The Festive Haul " (Pathe — One Reel I THIS Riser Artfilm reveals some of the action and humor that accompany the famous run of smelts in the rivers of the Northwest. At the beginning there arc some striking scenes of seagulls in flight, heralding the annual run of the smelts up the Sandy River. The subsequent views show the townspeople of all classes hurrying to the river's banks in all manners of conveyances and with a varied assortment of fishing appurtenances. Even the well-known skillet, tied to the end of a pole, is commandeered from the kitchen for the occasion. Xor is any rank immune from the contagion once the news gets around. Even the church deacon deserts his post temporarily to wade astrcam in his B. V. D.'s with his fishing net in hand. Two of the boys, accompanied by their girl ce»mpanions, steal up on the deacon and make away with his trousers, which one of the youngsters dons and converts into an effective net by tying the bottoms of the trouser legs. The closing scenes, showing the hordes of fishermen still hard at work along the river banks as the sun sinks behind the hills, are especially good. — E. F. SUPPLE . " The Marathon Dancer " (Pathe— One Reel) THIS Aesop's Film Fable satirizes in thoroughly amusing fashion the endurancedance craze, which was recently featured in the pages of the dailies. The cartoonist's facile pen sets the cat and dogs and mice shuffling and strutting, much to Farmer Alfalfa's disgust. When Farmer discards his boots the better to creep upon the dancing mice and smite them, his boots succumb to the prevailing fad and set out to establish an endurance record of their own. Engagingly funny from start to finish.— £. F. SUPPLE.