Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

September 30, 1916 MOTION PICTURE NEWS ■"■I' llllllliililllillllllllllllilllliM 2053 iiiiiiiiiiiiiminmii SCREEN EXAMINATIONS — ^ "THE COMBAT" (Vitagraph — Five Reels) REVIEWED BY THEODORE OSBORN ELTONHEAD <<' I 'HE Combat" conforms to all of the well known rules of A a good, acceptable melodrama. It has an intricate well worked out plot, the action is exciting, the interest well sustained, and the suspense well carried out. It depends entirely on the interest created by the plot action rather than upon character development for its success and this is as it should be in an offering of this kind. The story was by Edward J. Montague and was produced under the capable direction of Ralph W. Ince, with Anita Stewart in the leading role. The direction was beyond cavil. Mr. Ince has again demonstrated his ability not only to stage a picture in the most effective and picturesque manner but to incorporate unique and unusual features. In order to obtain a purely incidental effect he causes a fast moving railroad train to jump the track and become wrecked in the ditch. It was not so very long parture for the gold fields to make a fortune. As he is about to return to civilization he is arrested and accused of murder. The train on which he was to depart for the east is wrecked and he is reported killed. At the trial seeing that things are going against him owing to the false testimony of Slade, a renegade lawyer, and one of his partners, he escapes by jumping through the window. Far in the wilderness he eludes pursuit and finally reaches the border. In the meantime Muriel, reading of his death in the paper, at last accedes to her mother's coercion and marries Philip Lewis, a wealthy lawyer and the district attorney. Her maid steals her former marriage certificate and Slade, who has returned to New York, blackmails her. Burton, who has also returned, by a mere coincidence appears at the meeting between Slade and Muriel. He forces a confession of murder from the former and turns to go when Slade attacks him with a knife." Muriel picks up a gun, kills Slade, and then escapes from the house. Burton is arrested and keeping silence, is convicted of the murder. Lewis as prosecuting attorney obtaining the conviction. Before the trial, however, he has obtained information enough to force a confession from his wife. Later he is elected Governor and Muriel on the eve of Burton's execu^n accuses her husband of being his murderer. Then follows the battle of conscience. The better self finally wins, Burton is pardoned, Lewis consents to a quiet divorce and Muriel and Burton enter upon their delayed cycle of love and happiness. "HER SURRENDER" (Ivan — Five Reels) REVIEWED BY PETER MILNE TVAN ABRAMSON in the writing of "Her Surrender" has *■ departed quite radically from the style of production that he has heretofore adhered to. Here Mr. Abramson ventures intothe fields of medical science, basing his picture on a theory of his own. He claims in his picture that with the transfusion of blood from one body to another, love can also be transplanted. Scientifically, Mr. Abramson admits that he may be all wrong, but dramatically, he says, such a theory is powerful. Muriel Meets Her Purchaser ago that a mechanical sensation of this kind was made the outstanding feature of a whole production. Now, however, it is used merely as an incident. He obtained another good effect by the manner in which he showed the battle of conscience in one of the leading characters. This he achieved by means of triple exposure photography, showing the character, his better and his evil self, the two spiritual entities striving for control of the physical. His locations were particularly well selected, especially those in the northern part of Canada showing the hero battling for life in the rugged Canadian wilderness. All of these scenes were of great scenic beauty. His interiors were equal to the standard set by his exteriors and the lighting and photography were up to the accepted Vitagraph standard. Taken as a whole it is a mighty well staged picture. Anita Stewart has gained such a well deserved reputation in her screen work that further comment on her well known ability seems more or less futile. Sufficient to say that in this production she lives up to that reputation in every way, shape and manner. John Robertson plays opposite as Phillip Lewis, the district attorney, and Richard Turner is Graydon Burton, the other man in the triangle. Winthrop Mandell as Herman Slade is acceptable in the heavy role, and Virginia Norden plays a minor part well. The story develops a tense dramatic situation. Muriel Fleming and Graydon Burton are secretly married previous to his de The Momentous Question In passing we might call Mr. Abramson's attention to the fact that a drama gains its power through the picturization of life— by the setting down of things as they are. The farce is the one sort of play that can be unreal and still entertain. So it might