Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

February 9, 1918. MOTOGRAPHY 273 Announces "Blue Ribbons'* for March President Smith Prepares Program That Includes Alice Joyce, Harry Morey, Earle Williams and Nell Shipman the case of "The Flaming Omen," one of the most artistic productions Vitagraph .has put forth in a year. THE March list of Blue Ribbon Features to be released by Vitagraph is announced by Albert E. Smith, president of the company, as follows: March 4 — "The Song of the Soul," featuring Alice Joyce with an all-star company. March 11 — "The Desired Woman," featuring Harry Morey with Florence Deshon. March 18 — "An American Live Wire," featuring Earle Williams with Grace Darmond. March 25 — -"The Home Trail," featuring.Nell Shipman with Alfred Whitman. This promises an unusually strong program, presenting as it does several of Vitagraph's most prominent stars. In addition, the Vitagraph announcement states that each of the plays contains a strong story, with the stars in exceptionally appealing roles. In the first of the March releases, "The Song of the Soul," Alice Joyce has with her an excellent company, including Walter McGrail, Percy Standing, Barney Randall, Stephen Carr, Edith Reeves and others, and Tom Terriss, who directed the picture, is said to have produced one of the best pictures of his career. "The Desired Woman" marks the advent of Will Harben as a motion picture author. The play is from the book of the same title and exhibitors are promised one of Harry Morey's best efforts. This picture will mark the second appearance on the Vitagraph program of Florence Deshon, the Seattle girl who was lured from the legitimate stage into pictures and scored such a sensation as the adventuress in "The Auction Block." Prior to entering motion picture ranks, Miss Deshon had gained favor in several successful Broadway plays, among them "Seven Chances." Pretty Jean Paige, heroine of many O. Henry pictures, in this picture will make her first appearance in five-reel features. Paul Scardon is directing the picture, many of the scenes of which will be made in the hills of Georgia. "An American Live Wire," in which Earle Williams is to be starred, is the first picture the famous Vitagrapher has made on the Pacific coast in more than five years. It is an adaptation from the O. Henry story, "The Lotus and the Bottle," which, as O. Henry fans will recall, is one of the group of stories included in the "Cabbages and Kings" volume. In this play, Mr. Williams plays a role somewhat different from anything he has been seen in for months, that of an American consul, and he does it with all of the art and individuality that has made him one of the screen favorites of the world. Grace Darmond, the magnificent girl who was seen opposite Mr. Williams in "In the Balance," plays the leading feminine role. All of the atmosphere and humor that make O. Henry's stories so palatable will be present in this picture, because it is under the direction of Tom Mills, who made many of the O. Henrys for Vitagraph and left off the short reel subjects to take up the direction of Mr. Williams. "The Home Trail" is the third of the pictures with Nell Shipman. and Alfred Whitman as a team. Their first was "The Wild Strain," by George Randolph Chester and Lillian Chester, and the second "Cavanaugh of Forest Rangers," which is to be released in February. The mysterious Mojave (pronounced Mo-hah-ve) desert supplies the locale for the story of "The Home Trail," which is laid in the early seventies, and William Wolbert, who is directing it, is said to have picked his locations with the same remarkable care as he did in Billie Burke's Play Completed "Eve's Daughter," starring Billie Burke, has been completed and will soon be released on the Paramount program. The subject is a comedy drama in which Miss Burke as the willful Irene SimpsonBates manages to become involved in many difficulties, some of them amusing and others quite serious. She finds ultimate happiness with an obscure lover whom she does not appreciate when she breaks the shackles of home restraint and plunges into a life of gaiety, but whose intervention at the opportune time to save her ijrom seriously blighting her life brings her to a realization of his worth. The play was written by Alicia Ramsey, and was a starring vehicle for Grace George on the speaking stage. It has proved an excellent vehicle for Miss Burke, who has done her best work in vivacious roles, and gives her an opportunity of accentuating her attractiveness by the wearing of beautiful costumes, in the role of a young society girl. Her next production will be a play in a high vein of comedy, to be directed by Joseph Kaufman, who has just completed "The Song of Songs," starring Elsie Ferguson. The supporting roles in "Eve's Daughter" are played by Thomas Meighan, Lionel Atwill, William Riley Hatch, Florence Flynn, Harriet Ross, Lucile Carney, Mary Navaro and Harry Lee. Mr. Atwill and Miss Flynn appeared in the stage production and have the same parts in the photoplay adaptation. Mabel Normanl in Golduyn's star production, "Dodging a Million." Good Bushman-Bayne Cast RANCIS X. BUSHMAN and Beverly Bayne, the popular co-stars, are supported by a cast of favorite picture players in "The Brass Check," a screen version of George Allan England's story of the same name, which appeared in the All-Story Weekly. June Mathis of the Metro scenario staff made the screen adaptation and the production is being directed by Will S. Davis. Frank Currier, a Metro favorite, is cast as Silas Trevor, father of A. Richard Trevor (played by Francis X. Bushman) and head of the rubber trust. Currier has just completed another "father" role, playing Pharos, the parent of Azah, the gypsy girl portrayed by the great Nazimova, in her second Metro picture. He has supported many of the Metro stars in picture productions, including Nazimova in "Revelation," Emily Stevens in "Outwitted," and Emmy Whelen in "The Trail of the Shadow."