The Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1251 Comments on the Films Licensed "LAW AND THE OUTLAW" (Selig), June 4— This is very truly a feature offering: and justifies its length (two reels) very creditably. It is a story of the cattle country by Tom Mix and J. Edward Hungerford and was produced by William Duncan. In the first part, we find the outlaw coming to the ranch and being "taken on" by the foreman. Soon, a love affair begins between him and the ranch owner's second daughter, who has seen his dare-devil riding; but this her people discourage. The love story as it is carefully developed in the first reel is sincere and strongly convincing. The best things in it are the simple, natural and realistic glimpses of ranch life. including some big pictures of the great herd; but there are one or two thrills that made the audience here gasp and shout out. One of these is the rescue. of the heroine from a mad bull by the hero, who jumps upon it from his horse and bull-dogs it. Tom Mix plays the leading role with skill, verve and nerve, regardless of breath or even of personal safety. Myrtle Stedman plays opposite to him. After the rescue and while the hero is lying breathless under the horns of the bull he has just thrown, the sheriff appears and puts the bracelets on him in front of the girl. In the first scene 01 the second reel, the outlaw escapes from the sheriff and a desperate manchase follow?, during which the outlaw, whom the sheriff calls "some man," shoots the handcuffs off his wrists. At the end the girl says she will wait. It is a desirable offering for most places. "WHAT THE GOOD BOOK TAUGHT" (Patheplay), June 5.— A story of the lonely plains in which a girl has an adventure with some bad men. Seme what as in "The Great Divide." one of them is not so bad as the others and 1:1 his chest he has a copy of the Bible, given to him by his mother. The girl, who is taking her sick mother across the plains alone, knocks at the wrong hut for assistance and is captured. In the inner room, her prison, she finds the Bible and has it in her hand when the man ccmes in to her. This is a good situation, but it is not well acted and doesn't convince as strongly as it might have. The backgrounds suggest the loneliness of the place powerfully, and the photography is clear. It is a creditable production. "THE: SUWANEE RIVER" (Selig), June 5— A story of the South with some Northern scenes to give contrast and suggest the longing for home that the old song carries. The cotton planting colonel doesn't like his new neighbors, because they are Northerners and, when his son falls in lovs with the daughter of the newcomers, he disowns him. The lad goes North and makes a fortune on the market out of conditions that ruin the old colonel, but comes back after learning from a darkie, of conditions at home, in time to buy the old homestead. Harry Lonsdale, as the colonel, and the player who takes the role of his wife act in a very natural and convincing way at most times; but all the leading players do fairly well. Jack Nelson and Winnifred Greenwood have the romantic roles. The offering stands best on its special views, darkie cabin scenes, river vistas with quiet waters end grey beard moss hanging over them, etc. Its author is Gilson Willets and it was produced by Hardee Kirkland. The story is not wonderful and seems insensible of the finer points, but the picture makes a very likeable offering. "THE HEART OF MRS. ROBBINS" (Vitagraph), June 5 —A wellacted picture, produced by Van Dyke Brooke and in which it is plain that the finer things have been felt and provided for. Vitagraph seems fond of the picture where a child is sick for love and is being neglected by its parents. In this case, it's the mother, Mrs. Robbins, a widow, charmingly played by Leah Baird. The kiddie makes the acquaintance of Leo Delaney, a chemist, and writes a note, in childish hand and orthography, telling his absent mother that he has found a "new daddy,'* to which Leo adds a line of his own. This provokes the mother at first; but. of course, the ending can be foreseen. The story is convincingly acted rather than convincingly written. It has charming scenes. Marie Jackots is the writer. The child, "Bob! flayed by Addison Sargent Lathrop, a five-year-old. "SLIPPERY SLIM REPENTS" (Biograph), June 5-— A burlesque with a comic temperance lecturer who persuades a couple of queer characters to empty their whisky into a spring. Later, he drinks of it himself, and others of the community also imbibe with not unexpected results. There was a good amount of daughter. "JUST KIDS" (Biograph), June 5. — A picture of a co-educational college and, like the other on the same reel, a mixture of burlesque and rough farce. T'lere isn't much story to this and it is a bit vulgar. "THE LAST SHOT' (Essanay), June 5.— There is plenty of good atmosphere in this picture that in its story and in the way it was handled reminds us of a Biograph of some months back. It is set in very well chosen mountain scenes and deals with a feud with its climax in a rough cabin. The wife of the leader of the attacking party has gone to the cabin to warn the victim, who happens to be her brother, and through the window she is shot by her husband's rifle. When this is made known, it brings the fst-d to its close. It is played by one of the Essanay's western companies with vigor and has been fairly photographed. A pretty good offering. "KATE, THE COP" (Lubin), June 5. — A farcical burlesque that made a good deal of laughter. It shows us a comically, timid cop (Walter Stull) with a touch of Dogberry in his dealings with a doughty burglar; it also shows us the cop's sweetheart (Mae Hotely), a very fearless cook. The Missis finds the burglar (Robert Burns) up stairs, while the cop is in the kitchen. The cook goes up and manhandles many funny tumbles out of the burglar and when the chief of police finds how things stand, he makes her cop and makes the cop a cook — everybody satisfied. The script is by Epes Winthrop Sargent and was produced by Arthur Hotaling. "BOB BUILDS A CHICKEN HOUSE" (Lubin\ June 5.— On the same reel, is this, which is really too slight to be much of anything. There was just a little laughter. It is short. "NATIVE INDUSTRIES OF JAVA" (Melies), June 5.— There is freshness of interest as well as value in this offering. It shows us how the queer, elaborately decorated dresses of Java are designed; how that strange flame-like sword, the kriss, is forged and engraved, and how Javanese pottery and brass work is manufactured. Most of this stuff is new, though there is no difference in the way pots are moulded on the wheel, whether in Babylon or Thebes or Bangkok. The photography is clear enough to be acceptable. "THE ARMADILLO" (Eclipse), June 4.— A worthy picture of one of the queer but well-known little animals of South America. We have good pictures of it and with them perfectly clear and very instructive sub-titles. We feel sure that the full explanation given by these has added greatly to the value of the offering. "DELIVERING THE GOODS" (Eclipse), June 4.— On the same reel, is this rough and tumble comic, in which we see how a piano is delivered to its purchaser. These pictures with no meaning, but taken in the queer streets of Old World cities and well photographed, make acceptable offerings as occasional lighteners. This also seemed to amuse. "THE FLAG OF TWO WARS" (Selig), June 3.— A picture that needs good music to make it go wi 11. It has several scenes that, when followed rightly, are thrilling; they are battle scenes and especially a group of scenes showing Americans besieged by Spaniards in a block house (rather flimsy in construction) until they are r< scued by the main force It happens that the hero has taken the C. S. A. Stars and Bars to Cuba with him and when the Stars and Stripes are shot away, Uncle Sam's boys raise the other flag and fight under it. It has not been strongly acted at all points. The photography is fair. "BUNNY AS A REPORTER" (Vitagraph). June 3.— A Bunny-graph lhat made a good deal of laughter. There are other queer characters in it — suffragettes whose secret conclave he attends in disguise; but the fun comes from Bunny and the things he does. It is a good Bunny picture, written by Mrs. Bre'iil and produced by Wilfred North. "THREE TO ONE" (Vitagraph). June 3.— On the same reel is this farce, a very slight yet fairly anvising offering played at Atlantic City, by Lillian Walker, James Lackaye and Hughey Mack, with the help of boardwalk attendants, etc. "THE VALUE OF MOTHERS-IN-LAW" (Essanay). June 4.— A pleasing little picture of a quarrel and its ending. The two Newly Hitchcds have each been flirting an I have caught each other and so the spat begins. It takes two mothers-in-law to patch things together again as good as new. Billy Mason and Dorothy Phillips play the young folks v. ith Eleanor Blanchard and Clara Smith as the mothers-in-law. It is gracefully acted, the scenes are pretty and well made and the photography is clear. It is an offering to give amused enjoyment rather than laughter. It will be liked. "WlfEN FATE DECREES" (Kalem), June 4.— The story is conventional, especially so is its having the hero go on a hunting expedition and get wounded by an accidental shot. It is pleasingly played and Alice Joyce is very pretty in the leading role. When the heroine has married the wounded hero to console his dying hours and the villain, who has persuaded her to take the step that he may marry the rich widow, calls too often, her note to him is one of the most natural of its kind we have ever seen. Indeed, all the scenes that fall around, the time of that note aie as natural as can be. There are some pretty sets and some perfect photography. "THE SAVING LIE" (Patheplay). June s.—A very trashy story along entirely conventional lines It isn't acted with much vigor. There are some fine sets and, in part, the photography is excellent. "A MODERN PSYCHE" (Vitagraph), June 4. — A charming picture whose story is prettily contrived rather than deep or true. In such offerings, fancy takes the lead and there is little or no imagination: they entertain surely, but do not stir the soul. It is a little love story of an author who has written a book called. "The Modern Psyche," and of a girl just home from college whom he chances to meet in a Grecian costume. The producer (Van Dyke Brooke) has been very careful in getting his atmosphere. The rickety house and musty library of the girl's father and the quality shown by the way her friends live, make it a delightful offering. Its story would only be possible in just this cultured world, refined and scholarly. There are many lovely scenes and the photography ij dear and in some scenes perfect. Eliza G. Harral is the authoress and the leading roles are taken by Dorothy Kelly and Earle Williams with Van Dyke Brooke as the old father.