Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

214 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIV, No. 5. "The Mating" Reviewed by John C. Garrett uTHE MATING" is a five-part Mutual Master-Picture, re1 leased through the New York Motion Picture Corporation on July 22. Bessie Barriscale, who has become very popular for her very good work in former master pic Thc pajama party. tures, takes the leading part, that of Doris Willard, the pretty daughter of a village minister. Miss Barriscale does even better work in this production than in any of her former productions and establishing herself as one of the best emotional actresses on the screen. The story is from the pen of G. Gardiner Sullivan, who also wrote "The Reward," one of Miss Barriscale's late triumphs. There are a great many dramatic moments in the play and the director, Thomas H. Ince, deserves credit for making this picture one which will be a milestone in photoplays. The scenes in the girls' dormitory, the college campus and at the 'big football games are most realistic. Miss Barriscale is supported by a good cast, J. Louis Cody playing the part of "Bullet Dick" Ames. Dorris Willard, the daughter of a village minister, realizes her greatest dream — a year at college. She is a very pretty girl, but her dresses which were made by the village dressmaker handicap her, and when she arrives at college the girls eye her with amusement. She is soon made to realize that she "doesn't belong" there and she is snubbed at every opportune moment and becomes desperately lonesome. On the day of the big Princeton-Yale football game the girls, more to taunt Doris than anything, go to her room and ask her to accompany them to the game. Doris real pushe th Di, is one of the girls who delight in snubbing Doris and is in love with Ames and well acquainted with his sister Eleanor. At last unable to stand the snubs and ridicule any longer, Doris conceives a desperate plan. She writes herself a letter in which she declares love and proposes marriage, signing Dick Ames' name to it. She manages to drop the note in front of one of the girls, who picks it up and reads it, and it is not long before everyone is a friend of Doris. When the news is brought to Daisy she tells the girls she does not believe it, and sits down and writes to Eleanor, telling her of Doris' saying that Ames had proposed to her, and finishes the letter by asking Eleanor and Dick to spend a few days at the college. Ames happens to see the letter and reads it. Poor Doris is shakingly standing in the center of a group of girls when Daisy proudly takes Dick Ames up to her. Everyone is surprised, but no one is more surprised than Doris when Ames says that Doris and he are old friends. Then taking her arm he leads her out onto the campus. After meeting Dick Doris is unwilling to carry out the deception, but he insists and before long they are very much in love with each other. The girl refuses to marry Dick, believing that he has asked her out of pity, but through Eleanor's efforts he makes her understand that he really loves her. Metro's "Marse Covington" Reviewed by Thomas C. Kennedy THE southern gentleman, whose character is so truly depicted in George Ade's light drama, "Marse Covington," has, for many years, -been the favorite role of Edward Con izes she is not wanted and refuses the invitation, but cries herself to sleep wishing that someone like "Bullet Dick" Ames, the football hero, would like her. Daisy Arnold, the undisputed ruler of "the beauty squad," Covington. nelly. In the five-part screen version of this engaging theme, which was produced by the B. A. Rolfe Company, for the Metro Program, Mr. Connelly has a wider scope for his art of character delineation than was afforded him in the play which was his most popular vehicle on the legitimate stage. The cultured Marse Covington, of Virginia, who lives up to the traditions of his family, in poverty, as well as prosperity, is the central figure in the storj' which contains an attractive romance. The production is of distinctive merit, -being ably directed and splendidly photographed. The horse race, an important element in the development of the plot, is particularly realistic and exciting. In prominent and capable support of Mr. Connelly are Adelle Barker as Martha; John J. Williams as Uncle Dan; Lyster Chambers as Walter Lewis; Howard Truesdell as Edward Bantree; and Paul Dallzell as Jim Daly. Colonel Covington Halliday, known as Marse Covington, refuses Walter Lewis' request for his granddaughters hand in marriage. The colonel's only objection to Walter is that he is a Yankee. He relates the incidents of his early life as a soldier in theConfederate Army to Martha in explanation of his hatred for the Northerners. Jim Daly is also in love with Martha. Daly, who holds a mortgage on Halliday House, plans to embarrass Marse Covington financially. He and another gambler, Bantree, swindle the colonel by "fixing" a horse race. As the gambler's attentions are unwelcome to Martha and her grandfather refuses to in