Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1913)

THE AIOMXG PICTURE WORLD 343 Two Vigorous Vitagraphs Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison. I>I these days of rubber stamp banalities, it is refresliing to come upon a pictured story of daring adventure that does not resort to those wornout mechanical devices, the motor car, the telephone and the revolverr "The Strength of Men," from a bit of fiction by James Oliver Curwood, is a version of the eternal triangle without silk lingerie and dress suits. It breezes along from start to ti.nish witn outdoor virility. It is a running hght in the open between two powerful men of evenly balanced grit and pugnacity through scenes of danger so real that weary audiences at the little shows will sit up and take notice, while that portion comprised of little fighting males will become pop-eyed over its thrills. Ned Finley and Herbert L. Barry are the two men in the case, and their feats of daring, strength and endurance are exhibited in Alaska, where a struggle is set up for the favor of Edith Storey. Tefft Johnson plays the part of her daddy, but he has very little to do beside smoke his pipe and philosophize on the ways of his sex. The younger men have not attained his philosophy. They are lioth in love with the the men so effectively that they join hands in ownership of the mining claim. High qualitj' of suspense characterizes the society ilrama "Red and White Roses." While the first play is lusty and robust, the second exhibits another form of active force in the intense characterization and energy of action of a more complicated plot. The finest work is done by Julia Swayne Gordon, a lady whose acting has long been -in need of repression, but who has found an outlet for her natural powers in this production. She is probably of a nervous and spirited type, one of those who find it difficult to assume self-effacing roles, eager to exhibit emotion by pronounced methods, but she now gives more attention to the plausible and convincing in the part she assumes. There is a wide difference between the conventional imitation of a character, however skillfully and carefully it be made, and the modern and natural revelation of personality in a part, the difference between artifice and art. Keen tension in the story and the admirable impersonation by Miss Gordon hold interest in spite of the "high curse" of theatricalism thrusting itself out here and there in both plot and action. It is difficult for the director of this drama Scene from "The Strength ol IVlen ' (.Vuagraph;. girl and are not particularly scrupulous in their rivalrj'. Barry is first in the field and maintains his priority by force. Finley is a good second and is aided by the wavering affections of the young lady. She stands in the situation usually occupied by members of her sex. She regards the desperate struggle between the men with complacent satisfaction and is ready to become the priceless possession of the one who wins. She invariably accepts the suitor who excels in purposive tests if she follows her first instincts. The girl remains undecided during the minor combats of her suitors, but a new condition is set up when Barry finds rich traces of gold in the bed of a mountain stream, stakes his claim and sets out in his canoe on a perilous voyage to the recorder's office. Finley is close on his heels. He locates the same claim while prospecting and follows exactly the same course. The men arrive at the same moment, and the recorder decides that' both will have to set new stakes. The two men are given an even start in their canoes, each with a native Indian to help where a portage is to be made. They are seen in fascinating views of mountain and stream, shooting impossible rapids and fighting desperately through burning forests. One thrilling episode follows another in an actual forest fire, with hairbreadth escapes innumerable, until the inevitable clash comes. They are in a death struggle when a giant of the forest that has become a great torch falls upon tlieni, blinding one and breaking the legs of the other. ^\'e hark back to one of the stories of Arabian Ni.ghts when the bUnd man carries the one who can see but is unable to walk. They stagger through ever-increasing perils of the burning forest, to the cabin wdiere the girl and her father live. They sink down together, both helpless and become dependent upon the exhaustless sympathies of womanhood. The girl nurses both back to a condition of convalescence. Finley suddenly discovers that his blindness is only temporary, while it appears that Barry may be crippled for a long time to come. The girl's heart goes out to the less fortunate man, and she is at last able to manifest the natural choice so long in abeyance. She accepts Barry and reunites Scene from "Red and White Roses" (Vitagraph). to shake off his theatrical training. He is imbued with tradition now being eliminated from advanced methods of stage presentation — they are only weeds in the motion-picture garden — but he is so earnest and amenable to criticism that he disarms unfavorable comment. Technics and medicine may be studied in order to know what to avoid as well as what to take in an emergency. A director is none the worse off for his stage experience the moment he makes up his mind to discard the "high curse" of artificiality. "Red and White Roses" is a success in sustained interest because it exhibits the gradual evolution and revelation of dual personality in the leading character, "Red Rose" is an adventuress, who is emploved by a villainous politician — the American kind — to entangle a rival candidate in a scandal that shall cau^e the rival's wife, the White Rose, to leave him on the verge of election. The adventuress does her work for pay and succeeds so well that the vacillating husband of White Rose falls into the net she spreads for him and loses the election. An intricate complication results. The defeated candidate learns that he has been the victim of a plot and tries to make amends when it is too late. White Rose has lost faith in him and has listened to the silent wooing of a more deserving man. She tries to solve her problem by suicide, but is saved by the timely interference of the one she loves. The defeated candidate believes she has taken her life and immediately destroys his own. The real cause of his death and disaster, the villainous politician, becomes abhorrent to the adventuress he employed and paid. Her better nature asserts itself. The. bitter revulsion of feeling that purifies her brings no reward. She has broken up a happy married relation, has sent an ambitious politician of high ideals to defeat and disgraceful death and merely solved the problem of the superior woman she sought to irretrievably injure, yet she rises out of the mire in a simple and sincere tribute to her dead victim. Xew happiness for young hearts is the main consequence of the traged}'. hut its most impressive moment is that of the meeting of widow and wastrel at the bier of him most loved by the least worthy, an affecting climax.