Motion Picture News (Nov 1915-Jan 1916)

December 11, 1915. MOTION PICTURE NEWS 93 MARY MILES MINTEE, STAR OF "BARBARA FRIETCHIE," AND TWO SCENES FROM THAT CURR,ENT METRO PRODUCTION "BARBARA FRIETCHIE" (Popular Plajs and Players-Metro — Five Reels) REVIEWED BY HARVEY F. THEW TWO generations have been brought up on the story of Old Barbara Frietchie and the third is just beginning to merriorize Whittier's famous lines ; and yet the tale has lost none of its charm. To the second generation Clyde Fitch gave a second and younger Barbara to add romance to the patriotism of Dame Barbara, and this second Barbara comes along in the person of Mary Miles Minter to lay the story before the third. Altogether charming is Mary Miles Minter in this subject. It is doubtful if she has been so well cast before, and it is certain the play has never been better cast. The dainty little Metro star carries the burden of the story along, together with a sympathy which springs from the first view of her winsome face. There is laughter in her smiling moods, and there are tears in her pathos. Only in a child are there such sympathetic routes from the heart to the face — but they tell us that Miss Minter is only a child. Her girlishness is balanced by the stately dignity of Mrs. Thomas W. Whiffen, whose years are many, but whose grace of manner is such as we have been taught to associate with the original Dame Barbara. Guy Coombs does some of his best work as Captain Trumbull, young Barbara's Union sweetheart, and there is some excellent character work by Fraunie Franholz, Louis Sealy, Frederick Heck and William A. Morse. The others in the cast, which includes Wallace Scott, Anna Q. Nilsson, Myra Brooks, Charles Hartley and Jack Burns, show an able grasp of the subject. The Fitch play has been followed in detail in the picturization made by Clarence J. Harris. The meeting between Barbara, the Southern girl, and Captain Trumbull of the Union forces, quickly results in a romance. Trumbull is shot in action by Barbara's brother, and is taken to her home, where he dies. During the episode where the elder Barbara stands by the flag, Jack Negly, a rejected suitor, shoots from the street, and the bullet strikes young Barbara. She is carried from the balcony, and dies with her liand in that of her dead sweetheart. There is stirring action when the Confederate forces descend on the town of Frederick, and rout the Union army, and when sharpshooters are placed in the preacher's house, where Barbara has gone to meet Captain Trumbull. Battle scenes give a vivid picture, and the street of Frederick is especially well done. "VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS" (Kalem — Two Reels) REVIEWED BY WILLIAM RESSMAN ANDREWS THIS is the second episode in the "Stingaree" series, founded on the novel of the same name by the English author, E. W. Hornung. The scenes representing life in the Australian wilderness, "the bush," are vividly presented by clear photography and a careful selection of locations for the exteriors. True Boardman continues in this release to give a satisfying characterization of the popular conception of a "gentleman-bandit." The girl who, engaged to Irving Randolph, afterwards known as Stingaree, the outlaw, repudiated him in London when he became the scapegoat for his younger brother's indiscretions, goes to Australia, and by chance meets her former lover in a house where she has become the companion of the owner's wife. Ethel still thinks him guilty and spurns his overtures toward a reconciliation on hearing him confess to being the notorious bandit terrorizing the countryside. Though, her manner in the interview,!' indicated irreconcilable coldness, her heart prompts the girl later on to make an effort to save her former lover from possible capture:. Shortly after Stingaree's departure, the head -of the hodse, "ire'j announcing that he would take his wife and Ethel to a concert, to be held in the town that evening, declares his intention of going armed with a revolver, as he had heard reports of the bandit's presence in the neighborhood. Ethel stealthily removes the cartridges from the weapon, and her employer puts it into his pocket without suspecting that the pistol had been tampered with. . The concert is suddenly interrupted by Stingaree and his partner, a long-whiskered individual, bristling with revolvers. Stingaree makes all the men throw up their hands and announces that he intends to run the concert. The man with Ethel whispers his wife to take the pistol out of his pocket and hide it in her shawl. Grabbing the weapon just as Stingaree leaves the hall, after the bandit felt that he had skylarked enough, he rushes outside, hoping to prevent the bandit's escape. Of course, the empty weapon is useless, and Stingaree, laughmg at his discomfited pursuer, vaults into the saddle of his horse, tied to a nearby tree, and gallops beyond reach. A posse starts in pursuit, and the audience is treated to a thrilImg chase over rough country, but Stingaree outwits the men bent on his capture. THE HUNGARIAN NABOB" (Biograph — Four Reels) ,^ REVIEWED BY PETER MILNE T^HIS drama, sprinkled with a goodly number of humorous ^ scenes, is an adaptation from a novel by Maurus Jokai a Hungarian author. Like many things Hungarian it is unconventional, with regard to its construction and its absence of any stirring climax. In the case of "The Hungarian Nabob," wherein the action IS at all times slow moving and often repeated, the lack of a quick denouement is felt. The characters of the story are all clearly drawn and some of them by their very unusualness create quite an air of interest The Nabob himself, for instance, is a most eccentric individual with a personality strongly defined by Charles H. Mailes. Franklin Ritchie as his profligate nephew and Louise Vale as Fanny, a girl whom he wickedly desires for himself have the other principal parts. Irma Dawkins, Madge Kirby, Herbert Barrington, Laura LaVarnie and Hector V. Sarno complete the cast. The very original atmosphere of the story is responsible for a little disappointment. The spectator expects and even hopes for the rounder's reform, but instead he keeps on going down and the heroine marries his aged uncle just to spite the nephew. There is an abundance of comedy in the first reel, and whoever prepared the scenario knows the value of contrasts of comedy and drama for this merit in the construction of the piece is always pleasingly pronounced. In many respects the subject is modern, though sometimes the costumes and settings suggest a period some years since. Biograph photography seldom merits criticism, and in this picture it is of the usual high order.