Moving Picture News (Jan-Dec 1911)

14 THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS SEEN ON THE CURTAIN By Walton The Spy — (Selig). — This is a fine specimen of a well-told tale worth the telling. It deals with a Confederate spy who, though wounded, is saved by a boy of the South. The scenes in the negro hut and his home are not only fine specimens of photography but are realistic, and show thv; care that has been given to detail. They are fine examples of the life of the period and vivid glimpses of the South of the war time. The negro women lighten things up by their antics. The last scene of duty successfully done, through toil and suffering, rounds out a notable reel. Father Love — (Lubin). — This is a sombre production. A rich girl marries her violin teacher and is forbidden her father's house. She sickens and dies; her husband has a paralytic stroke; in his misery he leaves his baby on the grandfather's doorstep. Long years after father and child meet in a music store. Through the girl her father and grandfather are reconciled. Her father at once dies. The agony is too strenuous. Robbie and the Redskins^ — (Kalem). — A mischievous boy holds the center of the stage. He teases everybody; the father and mother go to help with a neighbor's sick cow; they go at a speed that would indicate a terrific catastrophe. While gone the Redskins raid their hut'; they are the most extraordinary Indians I ever saw. Whfle they pile in and are eating, the girl, who is behind the door, slips out and gives the alarm. The boy is hidden in an eight-day clock. The Indians stream off into the pantry and the boy locks them in. How on earth that pantry door withstood the onslaught of a party of Indians with muskets I know not, but it did — till the rescuers came. The two squadrons met and the Indians fled. The boy in the clock case is the hero. In my limited wanderings amongst Redskins I never met any of this brand — or heard of them. Modern Light Battery in Action — (Kalem). — A filler. Bertie's Bandit — (American). — The hero is a "sissy" boy, ad dieted to botany. He goes west with his sweetheart and her mother to pick up manliness. He certainly is a wonder, for his first escapade is to tackle a notorious bandit and knock him silly with, his fists. He didn't know-it was the bandit. There's a terrific row amidst some fine rock scenery, and just as the bandit is about to get the best of things the young lady appears with a pistol. The bandit is "potted" and when the posse in pursuit arrives he is duly taken care of. Bertie gets the $5,000 reward. His sweetheart is convinced that after all he is a man, and that bandit is the most disgusted bandit that ever graced a screen. The reel is full of action, the scenes are fine, and the story is unique. The Revenging Picture — (Itala). — Bad translation — ought to be avenging. The scenes are laid in the troublous days of the French Revolution. A Marquis hides a friend in a secret room that has a spring in the floor opening upon a well. Whilst in hiding "the aristocrat" paints his Marquis friend on the wall. A lying steward betrays his master and his friend, and gets the palace — the outside is not a palace on the film — as a reward. Long after the steward in a drunken fit hurls a bottle at the wall, which reveals the secret room. He sees the picture of his master and stepping back to gloat, touches the floor spring and is shot down to a horrible death. The costuming and the interiors are meritorious. Only in the Way — (Thanhouser). — This theme is getting threadbare; a foreign film is almost identical. The son's wite acts brutally to her husband's mother; things are_ set right bj' a child. Compare Gautnont's "Twilight of a Soldier's Life," etc. The acting of a child is charming, and of the old lady a womanly concept — even to details. The wife's grabbing the old lady's bag, umbrella, etc., was, as one said who sat next to me "a bit too rushed." For His Pal — (Powers). — A pal's loyalty is the theme; mighty few pals would measure up to this standard. One of them IS blinded in a mine and when the other one tries to get him married to his sweetheart the blind one nearly throttles him, in a ghastly screen picture.. It's not the actor nor actresses who are in fault. Who in thunder passed that scenario or faked the scenery? A Tough Tenderfoot — (Bison). — All that need be said is that a "tenderfoot" is douched, ducked, and a few other things and gets even. He dopes some whisky and gives the boys a drink. The scene on the rail convulsed the house. The last fellow fell slowly. Saved by Telegraph — (Pathe). — I have not the slightest intention to deal with the "plot." I simply wish to ask a few questions. Films have passed the babyhood stage — now they are not fairy tales, they are real life. As a matter of education, the film is meant to be presented before all sorts and conditions of folk. I, in the most friendly spirit, ask these questions: Did whoever wrote this scenario ever really know a telegraph oftice? Go to lower Broadway and ask, five minutes' walk will cover the information bureaus. A general manager's daughter interrupts a man at the key. (Holy Moses!) She comes down for lessons at that key (Jehoshaphat ! ) Pass the getting locked in the safe (ask Biograph about that) but please explain to a poor, blundering, yet withal somewhat practical critic how these two people existed so long in that safe. A telegraph operator in that swell evening get up. (Say, boys at the key — I very nearly wrote floors and addresses), why, what are you giving us? And then inside the safe the general manager, the "G. M." can't telegraph', and the little girl, a "ham," has got to do it! Isn't there anybody writing scenario or arranging stage settings who can and will stop this rubbish? WifHe's New Sleeve — (Pathe). — The safe appears again with sundry presumedly funny happenings! The Secret of the Still— (Kalem).— The scenery of this film is an education. The moss gathering, turpentine getting and the still end are most interesting. This is of the best. The story does not call for special mention, except that I have long wished to know how it is that young ladies who live in the backwoods wear such fashionable, high-heeled shoes! The setting is A-1, better without the tortured yarn. The Jilted Joker — (Essanay). — A series of far-fetched jilted mix-ups that may, or may not — it depends on the weather and the liver — be deemed a joke. Hank and Lank Make a Mash — (Essanay). — The outset is foolish, no girl would go with that object; the end funny when Hank gets mixed up with the masquerader. With such a company as this firm has can't it do better than copy — feebly copy — what is on the breakfast table every morning? The Last Curtain — (Gaumont). — If ever there were an educational film this is one. A great actor bids good-bye to Paris with flowers and eclat. Afterward, those who bowed and scraped, now see nothing to get, and so, in a store, etc., ignore him. In his country life, his heart is ever in Paris. A strolling company comes to the town; he is interested. An accident happens and these poor, obscure players apply to the Master. Though ill, he plays in "Ernani," and is accorded a splendid triumph. The work was too much for him, and the last picture shows the weeping, country troupe in his death-chamber, with their tribute of love. Was ever a nobler lesson put on the screen than this? The greatest triumph of a great man was to help the obscure and poor, in the hour of their necessity; yea, more, he gave his life for them. At Eventide — (Gaumont). — Scenes of peaceful beauty on the lake when the sun was low. Magnificent mountains, ciuiet homes resting at their feet, while on the rippling waters boats speed home to rest. An entrancing commentary on the old words, "At eventide it was light." The Girl In the Film — (Vitagraph). — A young fellow goes out with a camera and gets all manner of love scenes, but he falls asleep and two young ladies passing, in fun, take a snapshot in which one appears. When developed the lady appears; this is a mystery, but the young fellow falls in love with the photo and eventually finds "her." The fun is their swift love-making and long leave-taking. At seven they bow, at four a.m. they've kissed, etc., and he's still saying good-night — outside. It's all a live joke. See the sleepy heads next morning, though! The Brass Button — (Reliance). — A lady at a social gathering, shows her fine necklace to the hostess and her husband. Shortly afterward a maid finds it on the floor and determines to keep it. She hides it at the bottom of a stick of shaving soap on a bedroom dressing-table. When the loss is discovered there is a terrific fuss, but no trace is found. Before the loss the husband has received a letter from a bank threatening to close down upon him, without he at once makes good. This letter — strange to say — he carelessly left upon the table. Next day when the husband is at the office the wife finds the letter and forthwith suspects her husband, so that when he returns with the glad news that a change in the market has saved him, he faces a tempest. On top of this the other woman and her husband burst in like a cyclone, with two detectives. Thus the unhappy broker is m a cul de sac. (A change in the market is easily proved, but not in the story.) The guilty maid appears and one of the detectives who has found a piece of soap with the impress of a button upon it shows it is that of the maid's cuff button. She is arrested and the necklace restored. I am glad to notice an improvement in the manufacturer's end, so that one can see and enjoy the acting of those concerned. The Return from Seaside Bathing — (Ambrosio).— A gentleman while in the sea is seized with such a terrific toothache he rushes off in his bathing suit, and a medley of cloth