Motography (Apr-Jun 1916)

April 22, 1916. MOTOGRAPHY 943 least offensive in it, because of the skill in handling the theme. It is simply the tragedy of one girl, Dora, whom June Daye has made very real. "The Iron Claw" Chapter Seven of the Pathe Serial, "The Hooded Helper." Reviewed by Thomas C. Kennedy A MEETING between the Iron Claw and the "mysterious righter of wrongs," or the Laughing Mask_ brings about a highly interesting devolpment and coupled with the scenes in which Manly frustrates the plan to kill Margery and his struggles with an unknown enemy, it makes "The Hooded Helper" one of the most entertaining chapters released so far. In the preceding chapter Margery had cause to conclude that her own mother was the Laughing Mask. In this she was wrong and we feel that she is again mistaken when she, in this release, expresses her belief that her n-ew acquaintance, Count Espares, is her mysterious benefactor. Margery tells Manly that the hooded man who aided in the escape of the butler could not possibly be Espares, and the energetic young secretary looks rather puzzled when Margery says this. The Laughing Mask recovers the map in the opening scenes. He discovers that Legar and his men are about to make prisoners of Margery and her mother and hurries to their house. There he makes a copy of the map in disappearing ink and offers it to Legar for Margery's release. The Iron Claw agrees after a debate with his men, during which the Mask is locked in a closet with his chauffeur. While Legar investigates the map he commands his able opponent to remain in the room and when he learns that he has been tricked he seizes the Laughing Mask. But when he removes the mask Legar finds he has been tricked still further for his captive is the chauffeur, who changed clothes with his master while they were locked in the closet. The rest of the action is laid in Golden's home, where he is reconciled with Margery's mother. Count Espares is a visitor there. He has made a present to Golden of a suit of armor. This armor nearly causes Margery's death, but Manly intervenes, shooting the dagger from the suddenly animated hand, operated by a concealed person. Manly suspects Count Espares, but Margery does not share in this conclusion. In acting, production and photography, "The Hooded Helper" is up to the standard of its predecessors in this continued photoplay, while the incidents visualized are, if anything, more interesting than the last few chapters. The interior settings of Golden's home are so tasteful that they are a source of pleasure every time the action is placed there. "April" American Mutual Masterpicture Released April 10. Reviewed by Genevieve Harris A PRETTY picture, which contains an interesting story **■ is made still more attractive by the charm of the featured player, Helene Rosson. As "April," Miss Rosson has a role calling for unaffected sweetness and winsomeness and she is able to meet the requirements fully. "April" will win her many friends. The complications of the story are plausibly presented and are interesting. The settings are attractive, the views of the mountains and woodlands very lovely. April, the supposed daughter of Tim and Martha Fagan, mountaineers of Kentucky, is an imaginative, sensitive girl, out of place among the rough backwards people. In ragged dress, feet bare, hair flying, she is presented throughout the play. A mass of uncombed hair has become almost conventional for this type of character. Miss Rosson would have been as attractive and her role of an eighteen year old girl more realistic if she had had her hair combed. A discharged nurse kidnaps the baby daughter of Judge De Voe, taking her to the home of Martha Fagan, her friend. Before she has a chance to tell of the child's parentage, she is_ killed in an accident. Martha, whose own baby has just died, while her husband, Tim, a brutal mountaineer, is on a hunting trip, takes the child in place of her own, telling no one of the substitution. April, as she grows up, shows refinement and a love of beauty, characteristics which antagonize her foster father. Doctor Jenkins alone sympathizes with the child, and brings her books, among them a volume of poems by a young writer, Jerry Gordon, who later visits the mountain region and meets April. E. Forrest Taylor has a very fitting role as the romantic young poet. Gordon falls in love with the girl, and when there is danger of her being forced into marriage with Casper, a mountaineer whom she dislikes, he marries her. The news of this marriage shocks his aristocratic friends, the De Voe's, who visit him at his camp. April, overhearing part of the conversation, runs away. In the meantime, Martha, dying, tells Doctor Jenkins April's story, and gives him the baby clothes which she had worn and which are marked with her name. So the De Voe's learn that the poet's bride is their own daughter, and the story ends with a happy reconciliation. Donald MacDonald directed the play, which Clifford Howard wrote. The various characters are clearly drawn. Louise Lester wins sympathy as Martha Fagan. Harry Von Meter and Harry McCabe play Tim Fagan and Casper, the mountaineers. Contrasted with them is the kind hearted Doctor Jenkins, played by Charles Newton. Al Fordyce and Marie Van Tassell are the Judge and Mrs. De Voe. FRIARS TO FROLIC More News About the "Whirlwind Tour" of Eighteen Cities to Be Made by a Company of Stage Stars Twenty — Authors — Twenty. Count 'em ! That's the way the billboards might read advertising the great "All-Star Friars' Frolic of 1916." The Friars' Club of New York, which is composed of actors, are to build a new clubhouse, and for the purpose of raising the necessaries, are to give a whirlwind show tour of eighteen of the large cities of the east. The opening performance is to be held at the New Amsterdam theater, New York, on Sunday, May 28, and the trip will begin immediately. It is claimed that twenty authors will work on the thrilling melodrama which will be a part of the bill. There will be "three carloads of scenery and properties." Irving Berlin, the writer of popular rags, has written his first one-act revue for the tour, and Rennold Wolf and Channing Pollock are to furnish the libretto. The last Friars' Frolic, in 1911, introduced one of Berlin's first hits, "Alexander's Ragtime Band." Albert Spalding, violinist, will be one of the galaxy of entertainers to make the tour. The Friars will frolic in the following cities : Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Boston and Providence. A. L. Erlanger is the booking agent and advisory director of the frolic, Sam Harris is general supervisor, and George M. Cohan is general stage director. A coming Metro — "The Come Back," with Lockwood and Allison.