The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

-THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLV l.S Grows with Each Episode rfect that even a change of ig part of the terial cannot tpeal. The serial since the large of the veteran, Henry 26 realized the nature of the horrors that they were going to avenge? Looking at these events in this light it appears that the Universal Film Company has done nothing short of a service to the whole land in vivifying these scenes and in making them popular and appreciated by the millions who see Universal pictures. For here are actual raiders shown in the actual act of pillaging homes, stealing and robbing all that they could lay their hands upon. There is an actual reproduction of the raid on the peaceful town of Columbus, N. M., that is not the fond imagination of a frenzied movie director. The scenes that were made were taken under the supervision of men who had seen the raid that Villa and his men made, men who knew the ground perfectly and who were familiar with all the details of that horrible affair. It would be possible to give a long list of actual events that have been roomfull of his followers. incorporated into this film. If it were for nothing more than bringing home to the minds of the American people the awfulness of it all and the weakness of this country at present, the Universal Company could feel more than repaid for the effort that they have expended upon this serial. But great as is the good that it has done, "Liberty" is in no sense an educational or propaganda film. It was designed primarily to entertain and in this it succeeds admirably. One has only to look at the business that the exchanges have done on it to get ample proof. It started off with a rush that was fast and furious, even for serials. But as the picture has progressed it has all the time improved so that the last few episodes have been the best of all. And now, as the end approaches, there is no one who has even the slightest idea of the final outcome. Volumes could be written about the way the players in "Liberty" have covered themselves with glory, although knowing the players as the public did beforehand, there was never any doubt on that score. Marie Walcamp was chosen as the leading lady mainly because there is nothing in the world that she wouldn't do if the director asked her to. The list of the things that Marie has done is so long that it would take a special issue of The Moving Picture Weekly to enumerate them all in full. "Liberty" has given her plenty of opportunities and she has made the most of them all. Fighting real battles with big, husky men has been nothing to her, and the men were not trying to give her a chance, either. After each one of them her opponents knew that they had been in a fight. In the fifteenth episode she fairly outdid herself. A little incident that happened in one of the earlier episodes is typical of her intrepidity. There was a particularly dangerous fall that had to be taken and the director was loath to ask Marie to do it. He knew that if he asked she would jump at the chance to put a thrill in the film, but he feared that she would be hurt and partly out of consideration for Miss Walcamp and partly for the remaining scenes that were yet to be filmed, he thought it best not to ask her to perform this particular stunt. But somehow or other Marie got wind of the affair and would not hear of ' "a substitute. Argue as they would, it was impossible to show her why she should not perform the fall herself. So in the end the director had to give in, and after a doctor had been summoned and all the other preparations made the fall was accomplished. That Marie Walcamp at last has a chance to wear a feminine gown. it was a thriller in every sense of the word goes without saying. As the film was first shown in the projecting room of the Universal Company in New York there was a gasp as this particular scene was shrown, a thing that very rarely occurs among such a hardened lot of spectators. Just as remarkable as the showing that Miss Walcamp has made has been the work that Eddie Polo has accomplished. Polo has long been known as one of the strong men of the coast, but in this film he does feats that are nothing short of phenomenal. In one of the recent episodes he takes a man up bodily and uses him a a battering ram to break through a door of solid oak. This gentle little act did not seem to tire Eddie in the least, although one is led to wonder at what hospital the other man sojourned for the following few days. In the same episodes he has a couple of other thrilling encounters, one with two men on a staircase, where he throws one man down on top of the other and the other with Raymond Nye, who weighs about two hundred pounds and is almost as strong as Eddie himself. Recently Eddie was asked what he thought of the serial, and his reply (Continued on page 25.)