Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1915)

September 18, 1915. MOTION PICTURE NEWS 87 peacefully, a tramp makes away with his clothes and leaves his own, which are hardly worthy of that dignified appellation. Arriving at the dam, unwillingly incognito, Dukane is laughed at when he informs the superintendent that he is the boss's son. However, he is given work. But Dukane's disguise serves him in good stead, as he discovers that the superintendent employs crooked business tactics. At length he succeeds in convincing half of the employees that he really is younk Dukane, and then follow some exciting battles for possession of the dam. Dukane finally wins out and is able to turn the rascally superintendent over to his father. Of course most of the comedy happens while Dukane meanders about attired in the tramp's raiment. He is very funny nursing his sore foot and his sweetheart's hat, which he carries close to his bosom. And that reminds us that there is a little love story thrown in with the comedy and the melodrama, all of which combine to make "The Incorrigible Dukane" an enjoyable feature. "JOE MARTIN TURNS THEM LOOSE" (Rex-Universal — Two Heels) REVIEWED BY PETER MILNE THIS is an animal picture, but not an animal drama. It is a comedy and one of the most startling forms of humorous amusement that we have ever laid eyes upon. Many dramas featuring carnivori become vapid as time goes on, chiefly because their principal players refuse to enter into the spirit of the thing. But such is not the case with "Joe Martin Turns Them Loose," for the wild beasts allowed to freely ramble about during the exposition of two thousand feet of film, do so with an unusual display of ferocity, which strikes terror into the hearts of the poor humans in the pictures but makes the spectator heartily laugh and wonder who had the nerve to do it. A pet orangoutang bearing the dignified name of Joe Martin perpetrates the deed that is responsible for the confusion and laughter that lies in the two reels. Joe just for diversion opens the gate of every animal cage in the circus and consequently the wild beasts wreck an entire town. An elephant shoves the police station in the river, tigers enter a milliner}' establishment and completely devastate its contents as well as petrifying the occupants, several bears wreck a delicatessen store, an entire boarding house is thrown into pandemonium by the unheralded entrance of all varieties of animals. All this and a lot more that is both thrilling and funny. Paul Bourgeois, the noted animal trainer, prepared the scenario and produced the picture with the assistance of Rex de Rosselli. It is evident that Mr. Bourgeois fully understands the whims and eccentricities of the inmates of the jungle, but even so it is a wonder that he and all the rest of the players who dared poke their heads within camera range are alive today. "Joe Martin Turns Them Loose" is really one of the most novel pictures that have ever held the screen. It will please the public because of the wonderful daring of the humans who appear and its many humorous incidents, each one of which is as novel as the picture itself. "NO ONE TO GUIDE HIM" (Keystone — Two Reels) REVIEWED BY HARVEY F. THEW MANY a true word is flashed upon the screen. In this instance it is absolutely true. He had no one to guide him, and so he wandered from bad to worse, into the frying-pan; he lost all moral sense, sense of location, proportion, his grasp on known cosmic properties, his watch and his equilibrium. Automobiles whirled him from the scene of his domestic infelicities, and from the retribution for his commercial peculations ; panel doors opened before him, trap doors sprung under him ; minions of the law rose up around him, tattered and dog-bitten; but Fate spread its pinions over him like a borrowed umbrella, and a sword and pistol are thrust into his hands, together with a knowledge of the workings of the trap door, so that the pursuers are confounded. If, from this, it be inferred that there is a certain amount of "rough-house," let it pass. If knocking one man down seven separate times with a bung-starter, and giving nine other persons a taste of the same experience once each ; if stabbing men through curtains with an ancient sword; if filling men and women full of bullets from convenient revolvers, and then dumping them down secret slides ; if interrupting a dining party by clearing the room of diners, table and dishes, be "rough-house," make the most of it. •The plot is outlined above with the same incisive clearness that it is on the screen, but there is too much action to make a plot necessary, anyway. Incidentally, this is the last Keystone comedy to be released on the Mutual Program. "THE MONEY MASTER" (Kleine-Edison — Five Parts) REVIEWED BY OSCAR COOPER THIS picture is a drama of big business and modern tenement conditions — a subject that is, to be sure, not new, but nevertheless is of perennial interest both on the screen and the stage. Cleveland Moffett's play, "The Battle," forms the basis of the piece, which is concerned with the career of Haggleton, a domineering, criminally-successful capitalist who ruins all his rivals, and alienates his wife because of his cold-blooded methods, driving her into poverty on New York's East Side. Many years afterwards, he finds there his son, grown to yodng manhood and become a deep-sea diver under the tutelage of Gentle, a picturesque character of the Ghetto. The discovery leads Haggleton to take a hand in the betterment of his own unspeakable HAGGLETON WARNS GENTLE NOT TO REVEAL HIS IDENTITY tenements, and to a reformation that involves the gift of a million dollars for alleviation of the condition of the poor. Romance is abundantly supplied in the love that springs up between Phil, Haggleton's son, and Margaret, who becomes a tenement-worker after her father, ruined by Haggleton, commits suicide. The producers of "The Money Master" have done well not tomake the picture a sermon on tenement-evils for the picturegoer is not interested in preachments. He wants to see stirring narratives, clever comedies, or anything else that flashes with life. And this last is what he will see in this picture. Frank Sheridan, as Haggleton, vitalizes the plot, and keeps it from becoming too much of an uplift affair. Sheridan has, first of all, the necessary physique for the popular conception of the capitalist, and what is just as important, he has an understanding of the fine art of restraint that does not need to resort to ranting or violent acting in order to accomplish its ends. Especially effective are his moments of remorse after finding Phil, his own son, a victim of his own greed and ruthless disregard of the necessities of the poor. Paul McAllister gives an entirely lifelike impersonation of a Russian anarchist, and Fania Marinoff is pleasing in the role of Jenny Dvorak, his daughter. Of the other members of the cast, all of them capable, Sam Reid's Gentle merits especial notice. A careful eye for detail was exercised in the interior settings, particularly in the Ghetto hovel scenes. A judicious use of the pruning-knife on subtitles will probably be made by the producer before he shows the picture to the public, as there are too many of these to permit the action to move as quickly as it might. The production was directed by George Fitzmaurice.