Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

February i 8 , 1922 1155 “BOOMERANG BILL” (Cosmopolitan-Paramount) Human Interest Crook Story Excellently Acted THERE is revealed in this crook story by Jack Boyle, author of the “ Boston Blackie ” tales, as fine a sample of human interest as has been shown in some time. It is a picture of a criminal’s redemption from an unusual angle, the ordinary development of which would have made it a conventional photoplay. Since it is told in narrative form the moral can be caught that the ways of crime do not pay. A detective with humanitarian instinct, observing that a youth is about to leave the “ straight and narrow ” talks to him and his object lesson is a broken-down peddler who come under his vision. Perhaps it is largely due to the captions that the moral is so well established. But after watching Lionel' Barrymore live the title role you feel that the interpretation provides the lesson as well as the human interest. Bill, the gunman, is keeping under cover in New York’s underworld. He attends an East Side “ racket ” and meets a girl who influences his life. She does not know that he is a crook — not until he has robbed a bank to enable her mother to find health and peace in the country. He well realizes that a “ last job ” is always a jinx and when he is arrested and sent up the river the old superstition bears fruit. Bill has three big moments in his life. The first is when he resolves to go straight through his love for the girl, the second is, when he renounces his claim upon her when she comes pleading to be released from her engagement. For the girl has had an offer of marriage which will prove a blessing to her mother. Bill is broken. Reason nearly leaves him in a pathetic scene. The third moment arrives when, after a long imprisonment, he steals upon the snug cottage and noticing that Annie is happy, turns away. He journeys, down to Chinatown and pours out his love upon the little Chinese girl, who is also friendless and alone. The pathos is felt throughout this compelling story, particularly when Bill understands the hopelessness of his love. That the girl denies him eventually does not bring any scoffing from the spectator, for anyone can appreciate that she could not have acted otherwise. You only feel immensely sorrv for Bill. From a fine specimen of manhood he becomes a derelict. As the detective points out, the pathetic peddler tried to mix the good and the bad. He tried to build a foundation of love upon a life of crime. The cards were against him. Barrymore feels his situations acutely and he conveys that feeling to the spectator. I It is fiction but it sounds mighty like truth. The agony of his lost happiness is expressed with dumb, mute emotion. Marguerite Marsh plays the girl with fine restraint. She has caught the true pathos. Tom Terriss has handled his scenes remarkably well. His atmosphere is genuine. The East Side with its Chinatown teems with* local color. Jack Boyle can write a crook story. And Barrymore can humanize it. — Length, 5 reels. — Laurence Reid. THE CAST Boomerang Bill, a gunman Annie Annie’s Mother Terence O’Malley, a policeman Tony, the Wop, a gangster Chinaman Chinese Girls By Jack Boyle. Scenario by Doty Hobart. Directed by Tom Terriss. Photographed by Al. Liguori. Lionel Barrymore Marguerite Marsh . Margaret Seddon . . .Frank Shannon . . . Matthew Betts Charlie Fong \ Miriam Battista 1 Helen Kim PRESS NOTICE— STORY A picture that is said to reveal eloquently the heart of a reformed gunman is “ Boomerang Bill,” featuring Lionel Barrymore, which will be presented at the theatre next . The role of Bill, the gunman, is played with the finished artistry characteristic of this star. Boomerang Bill, is a Chicago gunman hiding in New York. He is a crook but when circumstances take him into pleasanter fields he turns honest. Then comes a great dilemma. The girl he loves is in dire poverty. Her mother requires expensive medical attention and a change of climate if she is to live. Bill decides to do one more crooked job for their sakes. He is caught and goes to prison. The girl pledges herself to await his release. But she cannot because her mother is rapidly failing and an admirer wishes to marry her and provide for them both. Bill tells her to accept. Months later, when he is free, he sees her happily caring for the baby and happy in her husband’s companionship. He steals away silently without letting her know of his presence. Adding charm and character to the production is Marguerite Marsh as the girl. Margaret Seddon makes a sympathetic mother. The picture contains vital dramatic moments and is excellently staged. PROGRAM READER Lionel Barrymore, the eminent actor of stage and screen, is the star of the vital drama, “ Boomerang Bill,” written by Jack Boyle, creator of the famous. “ Boston Blackie ” stories which reached the screen as rich entertainments. The picture will be presented at the theatre next . It is a story of the underworld of New York and a love that touched its shadows with glory. It tells of a bad man’s love that is finer than any king’s. The hero commits one more crime for the sake of humanity. He is arrested and sentenced to a long imprisonment. But he has the satisfaction of knowing that his sacrifice is not in vain. SUGGESTIONS This is a crook melodrama written by Jack Boyle who will be remembered as the author of the famous “ Boston Blackie ” stories. After you have acquainted this fact to the patrons — tell them that Lionel Barrymore comes to the with the best picture of his career. It is a sure-fire drama because of its rich pathos and heart interest. Just give an inkling of the plot — not enough to acquaint your crowd with the contents. Follow up with the title and suggest that it is rich entertainment. Playing up the Barrymore name would prove to advantage also. Mention that he has contributed some first rate offerings. Use catch lines. “MORAN OF THE LADY LETTY” (Paramount) Rip Roaring Sea Story That Should More Than Please AS good old-fashioned melodrama, “ Moran of the Lady Letty ” is seldom surpassed. The picture has plenty of action, a dependable if not exactly new theme, fine atmosphere of the sea, likable leads and a sufficiently despicable villain to satisfy even the hard boiled. The story told concerns a young lounge lizard, born and bred to idleness and luxury, but realizing nis uselessness, who is shanghaied aboard a San Francisco schooner captained by a modern pirate where in the course of many melodramatic events he woos and wins a sailor-girl daughter of a long line of sea-faring ancestors and quite the opposite of the sort of wife he would have picked out if he had remained a land lubber. Reduced to plot the offering would be pretty much the same story as most of the sea yarns. The young man is transformed from a “ softy ” by his experiences into a rough-and ready two-fisted guy and is proud of his new status. He protects the girl from the villain, thwarts a plan to murder the crew and otherwise proves himself a man’s man. However, it is the way the picture is developed that brings it out of the ordinary run. There is a fight or two that won a hand from a Sunday afternoon Broadway crowd. The picture is splendidly acted by a fine cast of types. Rudolph Valentino, as the hero, demonstrates once again that he can act. Dorothy Dalton is an ideal selection for the role of the heroine. Walter Long is a villain worthy of the name. “ Moran of the Lady Letty ” is an adaptation of a popular novel of the same name by Frank Norris. The book has made good picture material and been handled with skill and understanding. Any place that melodrama has a chance this ought to go over for a ten strike. — Length, 6 reels. — J. S. Dickerson. THE CAST Moran Ramon Laredo Captain Sternersen Captain Kitchell Nels . Josephine Herrick Bill Trim “ Chopstick ” Charlie From the story by Frank Norris. Scenario by Monte K. Katterjohn. Directed by George Melford. Photographed by William Marshall. . . . Dorothy Dalton Rudolph Valentino . . Charles Brindley Walter Long ...Emil Jorgenson . . . . Maude Wayne Cecil Holland George Kuwa PRESS NOTICE— STORY A complete Mexican town, supposedly peopled by renegade Mexicans and murderous Chinese and located somewhere on the Mexican coast, was constructed at Paradise Cove, on the shore of San Francisco Bay, for scenes in ” Moran of the Lady Letty,” the George Melford production for Paramount which will be presented next at the theatre. The town was laid out with streets and twenty buildings of adobe, plaster and wood and thatched over the roofs with straw were erected. Thirty carpenters and scenic artists labored for two weeks to build the village. The village is the scene of some of the most thrilling dramatic episodes of the new sea picture, which is an adaptation of the novel by Frank Norris. Dorothy Dalton plays the featured role, and Rudolph Valentino plays opposite her. PROGRAM READER Fighting on the fore top of schooner with the vessel rolling and pitching and the mast swaying, is no pleasant job, according to Rudolph Valentino, playing the leading male role and Walter Long, the villainous captain of the hell-ship in “ Moran of the Lady Letty,” a Paramount picture which will be shown at the theatre next for days. The fight scenes were filmed aboard the ship in San Francisco Bay. The two men were at least sixty feet above the deck. The fight started on deck and continued on up the rigging until they reached the fore top. From there they fought on out to the end of a spar. After a final struggle, the villain drops into the ocean. For this latter shot, a camera was lashed to another spar, and thus a close-up view of the knock-out punch and the fall was obtained. Dorothy Dalton plays the featured role of “ Moran.” The picture is an adaptation of the sea story by Frank Norris. SUGGESTIONS Promise your patrons plenty of thrills, action, sea stuff and splendid acting on the part of a fine cast. Use a sea song for a prologue with the singer costumed as a sailor and an appropriate drop. Lobby displays are suggested by the type of picture also. In newspaper ads use action stills rather than extended selling talk. Give Valentino equal credit as star with Miss Dalton. He has the best role of the two. Play up the theme rather than the plot. CATCH LINES A story of the sea in which the son of luxury and idleness is shanghaied aboard a rum smuggler and learns to prefer a sea faring life to that of a cotillion leader. And the romance of a girl who had always lived on the sea and who thought that she didn’t like being a woman. From leading the cotillion to scrubbing decks was a big jump for Ramon, pampered son of an old ’Frisco family but strange to say he liked the change and the girl of the sea whom he met aboard the “ Lady Letty.” A rip roaring sea story, with a fight that will bring a thrill to the most sophisticated. A romance that brought a cotillion leader and a girl born and reared on a ship together never to be parted on earth. A picture with scenic qualities that are no small part of its entertainment values.