Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1914)

290 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD in the leading feminine roles. The artist's model induces Bruce to marry her so she can leave him her money. Later she comes to life at the undertaker's parlors. He marries agrain and later his second wife deserts him. He then finds happiness with the first, whom he meets at the studio. This struck us as a rather made-to-order plot, though it possesses enough novelty to hold the interest. It does not get hold of the emotions very strongly. "A SHOT IN THE NIGHT" (Kalem). January 5.— A two-part picture giving a variant of the husband-burglar story. In this case, the husband is shot by his wife, who mistakes him for a thief. Added interest is given by a more human, but, in this picture, secondary story — made so by lack of real dramatic interest — of step-mother and step-child, a little boy who is jealous and unconciliating. These two are brought together by the tragic accident and then the husband and father gets well. There is only one serious trouble with the offering; it should have been done in one reel. The scenes, though pretty and natural enough, give little action till the second half of the second reel and fail to waken interest till that point. The acting is good, though there are moments when it doesn't quite hit. "UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION" (Selig"). January 5. — A two-part offering that is more of a preachment than a drama. It is not skillfully pictured and is weak in its transitions. It jumps over a hundred years without warning or* explanation — none was needed by the story, it is true, but the jump is a jolt none the less. We leave in one scene the coast of Ireland and come up against the scoreboard of a college football game. Another scene early in the picture shows an aristocratic squire's family going in to dinner and on the table are four wine glasses. Three of them are soiled with the dregs of wine and one is half full. We don't believe the squire came in early and drank what had been poured out. One heroine, a fiancee of the squire's son, points at dinner to the roast as soon as it is brought in as asking for some tit-bit to be saved for her. and this is also very unlikely among well-bred people. These would hurt any story, but this one is not strong at best. W. E. Wing is the author and Edward Le Saint the producer. There is no brilliant playing in it. Independent "HOW MOTION PICTURES ARE MADE" (Keystone). January 15.— This very interesting film gives a bird's-eye \'iew of the immense plant of the Broncho, Kay-Bee and Domino moving picture companies, said to be the largest in the world. Then closer views are given of the wardrobe rooms, scenario department, truck garden, developing room, arsenal and other interesting sights connected with the manufacture of films. The reel winds up with some characteristic nonsense by the Keystone Company. A pleasing number. "A SORORITY INITTATION" (Majestic). January 10.— :^Iary's father is in prison and when the girl's fraternity decrees that she shall spend a night in the haunted house it develops that she gets evidence sufficient to free him. A light offering, with a dash of excitement toward the close. "THE LOAFER" (Reliance). January 7. — In this number George Siegman gives a pleasing bit of character work. He appears as a young loafer with pugilistic tendencies, who learns a lesson from the young doctor. The plot is rather slight, but very well handled. "SOME ROGUES AND A GIRL" (Reliance). January 3.— This film starts out with an interesting story of the dramatic type, but later it drifts off into a mixture of comedy and burlesque. There is so much coincidence and improbability in it that the purpose of the story is not cle^r: it contains too much excitement to be a comedy and too much comedy to be a good drama. '*THE TALE OF A SHIRT" (A00II0I. January 4— There are some laughing moments in this burlesque comedy number, Fred Mace appears as Count Nothing and Bud is his valet. The search for the missing shirt in the Chinese laundry proves very hilarious, the humor, of course, being of the **rough house" order. The scene on the bridge was also good. "MOLLIE AND THE OIL KING" (Majestic). January 4-— A pretty love story with Lamar Johnstone and Francelia Billington as the young couple. The girl disregards business ethics and hires out to her father's rival as stenographer. When she has obtained the information she desires she confesses and is forgiven. Not very probable or very new. but pleasingly presented. "THE TEN OF SPADES" (Majestic), January 6.— Muriel Ostriche here appears as a young girl left alone in the world in a Western minin^: camp. She is trained up for the dancing halls. The scenes carry a certain convincing atmosphere and the girl's sad end, after reading her fortune in the cards, bring the story to an appropriate close. Just a sketchy bit. handled pleasingly. "A ROMANCE OF THE RURAL ROUTE" (Princess), January 2.— The miserly uncle puts up a job on the young mail carrier, who wants to marry his niece. In the end the uncle's scheme is exposed. A light subject of about average interest, "TOO MANY COOKS" (Powers). January 19. — Donald MacDonald produced and plays the lead in this domestic comedy which depends for its fun on the difficulties of a small family in getting a proper cook. "THE MYSTERY OF A TAXICAB" (Joker), January 17.— Max Asher and Harry McCoy in this burlesque have departed from their usual stunt as "Mike and Jake" and appear as the chief advisers of a most wicked looking Sultan who has a harem full of very pretty girls. Bob Vernon plays the part of the Sultan. The story is very fantastical and. on the whole, the film is a pretty good burlesque. "THE CIRCLE OF FATE" (Kay-Bee), January 16.— A story of revenge. which gives it a decidedly grim windup. The opening scenes are laid at Naples, where the villain, John Strom, lures the girl away from her father. Two years later he deserts her. The girl dies, after returning to her father, who is a mountain guide. Strom joins one of his parties, and the father. learning his identity, pushes him into the crater of a volcano. The scenic effects in this film are worthy of a more uplifting story. The flaming crater of the volcano was well suggested. "THE OPTION" (Rex), January 18.— Edna Maison and J. Francis McDonald appear in the cast cf this film story. The plot follows familiar lines, the girl stenographer holding up her employer with a revolver while she buys an option with money obtained from him. The business ethics of this offering are open to criticism. The photography and construction are good. "MABEL'S STORMY LOVE AFFAIR" (Keystone). January 5.— An eccentric comedy offering, with Mabel Normand in the leading role. She has a world of trouble with her rival lovers. Not quite enough plot at the beginning of this to make it as successful as some offerings of the kind. "SAVING THE CHILD" (Joker). January 14.— A farce buriesque that is astonishingly funny. Its feature is the surprises in it. very funny and plentiful as well as fresh. A desirable release, clever, clean and enjoyable. "THE IMP ABROAD" (Victor), January 12.— This story has the unique distinction of beginning in the nether regions. From this place the devil's son pays the earth a visit and after getting a g^irl who is anxious for a title, and a barber, who palms himself off as a count into all kinds of trouble, he returns to his proper abiding place. The settings are interesting. "SHE WROTE A PLAY" (Eclair), January 18.— The heroine of this burlesque, like many another playwright, wrote a play but could not get anyone to produce it. She was finally fortunate enough to get it favorably considered at an insane asylum in which she landed at the end. "A FATHER*S DEVOTION" (Crystal). January iS.— The father, who decides to sacrifice himself for his daughter's happiness, is well characterized in this drama. As it happens, the sacrifice proves unnecessary and the whole ends satisfactorily. Pearl White and Chester Barnett play the leads. "PERCY_ NEEDED A REST" (Imp). January 15.— Walter Morton produces this story of a city man in the country. It ought to make a lot of fun. There is quite a bit of "rube" business which is novel. "TRUST BEGETS TRUST" (Powers), January 16.— This is one of Edwin August's dramas, produced by him and he plays the leading part, that of a crook named Marx, who is reformed as the result of a bet, becomes mayor of a small town and marries a very pretty girl. The play opens with a spirited chase, many of the scenes are laid in the underworld of a big city, and though the production as a whole is rather melodramatic and at times fails to convince, it will be favorably received in many show houses. Mr. August is sometimes at too great pains to achieve an effect. "CUPID'S CLOSE SHAVE" (Nestor), January 16.— We have here a bright little comedy portraying a war between two barbers, one of them the sweetheart of a very pretty girl; and the other, the father of that girl who does not want her to marry that sweetheart. The trouble begins while the sweetheart is assistant to the father and falls in love with the daughter; failing to get the old man's consent, he opens a barber shop and out of this situation springs the fun, a lot of it. Independent Specials "THE POWER OF LIGHT" (American). January 5.— This two-ree^ number features Sydney Ayres as a youth raised in the mountains, his father being a moonshiner. The photography is pleasing and the story exerts a strong pull on the interest, despite the jerkiness of certain scenes. The mountain boy proves an appealing figure and when he goes to the city does not forget the girl he left in the hills. Vivian Rich has the latter part and Charlotte Burton appears as the city girl. The photography is pleasing and the settings well chosen. "THE RUNAWAY PRINCESS" (Thanhouser), January 6.— A threereel offering, featuring Maude Fealey as the princess who runs away and comes to America, where she works as a maid. The opening part of the stor>* is simply a variation of Channing Pollock's play, "Such a Little Queen," which has been worked over before in pictures quite frequently. The later scenes possess the most originality. The acting of Miss Fealey and Harry Benham was pleasing, but the settings were rather scanty and did not seem to carry the atmosphere of the continent in the opening scenes. "WATCH DOG OF THE DEEP" (Imp). January 8.— A two-part special offering with a fresh story by George Edward Hall and produced by Herbert Erenon. Its most interesting portrayal is a disappointed lover bitten by a mad dog and willfully drifting into hydrophobia. This makes an impressive situation though not of the most healthy kind. The picture was taken on an island with a lighthouse and has some vevy good backgrounds. The story chooses the old light keeper as its center of interest and then lets the focus of attention stray from him to the love story in which Leah Baird plays the girl, adopted daughter of the keeper, and William Shay, his son. in love with her. She loves a sailor, played by Edward Mortimer. Leah's dog gets bitten on the shore and goes mad, biting William, who goes crazy. The old man, William Welsh, says that now his son is dead he will mind the light no longer and so imperils a ship with the girl's lover on it. There is a sort of "Shore Acres" with the mad son before he dies. "TH:E MAN WHO LIED" (Victor), January 19.— This is rather an unpleasant picture. It is a story of a man who in trying to shield his brother is accused of cowardice and dismissed from the police force. When he goes to the Northwest and obtains a place on the Mounted he again tries to protect the brother, and by his former chief, who has come in pursuit of the evildoer, is again accused of cowardice. In the latter affray he is fatally shot. The brother, from all we can see. escapes justice. Warren Kerrigan plays the one who suffers in the attempt to shield the brother.