Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

842 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIX, No. 18. Earlc Williams has a surgeon's rule in "The Seal of Silence," a Vita graph Blue Ribbon feature for April 29. Strange Plot in "The Seal of Silence" Picture Is Third Vitagraph Blue Ribbon in Which Earle Williams and Grace Darmond Have Had Leading Roles AN Earle Williams Blue Ribbon Fea Loring's hobby is heredity and his de f,,™. "Th. cal nf «;nPT1rP" ,'c an sire for a child is equalled only by his wife's aversion. He broods over the subject and evolves the theory that to the 29 by Albert E. Smith, president of the c]ose student some slight trick of manner Vitagraph Company. Grace Darmond is or some mental peculiarity of the child N Earle Williams Blue Ribbon Feature, "The Seal of Silence," is announced for release the week of April featured in support. The picture was made at the Vitagraph western studio under the direction of Tom Mills. "The Seal of Silence," which was written by William Addison Lathrop, is declared to be the strongest story in which Mr. Williams has been presented in many months. Its theme is somewhat daring, but it has been handled by Director Mills with a great degree of finesse. This will be the third feature in which Miss Darmond has been seen opposite Mr. Williams, their others having been "In the Balance" and "An American Live Wire." Kate Price, long a member of the Vitagraph stock company, will also be seen in support of Mr. Williams. The part which Mr. Williams has in "The Seal of Silence" is that of a surgeon, a type of role in which he is at his best, and it is said to give him more opportunity than he has enjoyed in some of his recent pictures. The story is that of an eminent surgeon who propounds the theory that in some manner a child reveals the parent, but he disproves his own theory by failing to recognize his own child. Hugh Loring is young, wealthy and stands high in his profession of medicine and surgery. Mrs. Loring is beautiful, cold, irreproachable in character. In the family lives Ruth Carden (Grace Darmond), a young woman, loyal friend and confidant of Mrs. Loring and indispensable laboratory companion of Loring. reveals the parent. Mrs. Loring has an admirer whom she tolerates and who takes her ostensibly to the theatre, but in reality to a gambling house. Loring learns of the deception and admonishes his wife, who leaves him for the home of a nurse of her babyhood. She first reveals to Ruth that she expects to become a mother, enjoining an oath of secrecy that she may in revenge rob her husband of the greatest joy that could come into his life. Weeks pass and Ruth is summoned to Mrs. Loring's side. The baby is born and the mother dies, both events being kept from Loring. Ruth, who has not explained her absence, returns to the Loring home and the baby is left with the nurse. Three years pass and it becomes necessary for the nurse to give up the child. Loring hears the telephone conversation — a child and Ruth's unexplained absence still fresh in his mind. He is stunned, for he has come to love Ruth, and he receives the child without question as hers, while she suffers under his suspicion, but hoping that his heredity theory will be -proved in this supreme test and he will recognize the boy as his own. The child falls desperately ill and Hugh, inspired by his love for its supposed mother which he always has suppressed, saves its life. As they stand by the crib, he says simply: "I am glad for your sake." Then in Ruth's eyes he reads what heredity theories had not told him — that the child is his and the wife's who had run awav and died. Makes Burlesque on "Cleopatra" Vitagraph's Big V Comedy companies on the Pacific coast are breaking all safety first rules turning out two comedies which they aver are 100 per cent thrill and frenzied fun and with a slant that is quite different. Lawrence Semon is producing a burlesque on "Cleopatra." He says he hasn't detracted a bit from the historical version and that his Cleo, as he familiarly speaks of her, is a dream of a comedy queen. Marble halls were built for Cleo on the Hollywood lot and the famous carpet purchased for the arrival scene, which he states is really elevating. Montgomery and Rock meantime are putting finishing touches, with the assistance of six crazy motorcyclists and a racing motor car, to "Love and Lavaliers," their next Big V. Incidents leading up to a final collision with a brick wagon and a wild dash through the sides of buildings into a police station, are said to guarantee gasps of wonderment and many laughs. The comedians are happy in having discovered in downtown Los Angeles a new girder — higher and more dangerous and narrower than any used so effectively in their last stunt of a hand-to-hand fight between two buildings. In "Love and Lavaliers" they don't fight, they simply walk in their sleep on the edges of this girder and are likely to cause nightmares to those with nerves who see them do it.