Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1914)

8io THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD beau has already turned into a sleuth, who is of service to the regular detectives trying to arrest the **count" for smuggling. The picture ends with the scoundrel's temporary escape after leaving the gems where they will probably be found in the girl's muff, but she doesn*t know it yet. Sights of the great city are included, with glimpses of Laurette Taylor, of Tetrazinni. the opera singer, and also of some famous hotels and houses. We also spend more time in the studio of the modiste, whose showrooms occupied so much space in the first installment. "TWINS AND A STEPMOTHER" (Thanhouser), February 3.— A likeable little picture that is not at all pretentious, but wholesome, cheery and pretty. Thanhouser has turned out a good deal of work of this kind and we have found it fairly popular. "THE JANITOR" (Reliance), February 4.— This picture may be a sore trial to some who, it may chance, have burdens something like it shows, to carry. At least there is something of real experience about it. It powerfully convinces and it is, even with its happy ending, a tragic story. It, like all really tragic stories, is hard on the spectator for the moment, but like medicine to cure pain with hope, later. The horrible drunken father, .who is a janitor, is like a defacing smutch on the clean sweet robe of a love story. Love finds a way to conquer even it. The acting is very serviceable and we count it a strong release. "MY WIFE'S AWAY" (Komic), February 5.— A rough farce with comical situations in which, now and then, there is a touch of newness. It is played in a speedy way. "THE SLEEPY HEAD" (Komic). February 5. — Sharing the same reel ■with the foregoing is this, also a farce with an old joke. Every experienced entertainer knows that old jokes are often very acceptable. It will please a good many. "IRENE, THE ONION EATER'S DAUGHTER" (Victor), February 6.~ This number, written by Walter McNamara, has quite an ingenious plot of a burlesque sort, though the humor is somewhat forced in places. The villain in the piece buys up all the onions in the world and the girl's father is driven insane because he cannot get an onion to eat. The photography is very good and the production quite novel. "TRUE WESTERN HEARTS" (American), February 7.— There is passion in the way it is brought out in this picture that the father and son who had toiled for five long, self-denying years for money to buy a farm would die rather than give it up to outlaws, but finding a widow and her baby in need, think little of giving it all away to her. The faces of the players tell in bringing this human fact home to the spectator, especially does that of the old father, whom the roughs were torturing to make him reveal where the gold is hidden. The picture makes a powerful impression. It is well put on and a worthy offering in every way. Such pictures are worth while. "THE ELIXIR OF LOVE" (Imp), February 12.— This picture is a number of only ordinary interest. Some of the situations have in them an element of humor, but the story of the rival lovers is not consistent enough in development to hold the interest strongly. The outdoor scenes are attractive. "SLIM TO THE RESCUE" (Frontier), February 12.— Molly. Slim's sweetheart, is tied near a keg of dynamite, with a burning candle in it. Slim comes to the rescue just in the nick of time. This is well pictured, but the burlesque situation is very old and is not very strongly handled here. "THE HEART OF SMILING JOE" (Frontier), February 14.— Smiling Joe was a road agent who came to the aid of some helpless girls. His wound should not have been made so serious, as it made his gallant work seem too improbable. This is a story of the ordinary Western type. "THE MONEY LENDER" (American), February 4.— A picture with the situation once more common in commercially-made offerings — that in which a doctor bargains for a fee before he will lift a hand to help a sick child. In this case the father of the child is rich and a ruthless money lender, and the fee is to be a restitution of a house which the broker had taken from the doctor's friend, but there is little popularity in such a situation. The story is not made convincing and it depresses. "THE CHICKEN CHASERS" (Joker), February 14.— A burlesque having for its basis the misinterpretation by the wives of two chicken fanciers of an innocent business letter. Two chickens are pretty roughly handled in the ■ making of the picture. The subject will have appeal to those liking the more pronounced slapstick stuff. Independent Specials. "THE PORTRAIT OF ANITA" (Majestic), February 3.— A pretty, pathetic story with love followed by after-marriage coldness on the part of an artist husband and then contrition when it is too late and the lovely Anita is asleep in the graveyard. Lamar Johnston plays the artist, with Francile Billington as Anita, the beautiful girl of the mission village. It is produced in the costumes of early days in the Southwest and is graceful and well acted, although there is no real passion or anguish in it. Perhaps it will be the better liked for that. A certain amount of sentiment is all right, but we are seeing a good deal of tears and sorrow in pictures this week. "JANE EYRE" (Imp), February 9. — Frank H. Crane is the producer of this two-reel adaptation of the famous novel of Charlotte Bronte, first printed in 1847. Irving Cummings and Ethel Grandin have the leads. At times there is an atmosphere of suspense, due in a measure to the spooky situations. It is a picture that will probably be liked by the average house. "THE LOST TREASURE" (American), February 9.— This three-part picture, although it tells a story very much like that in a single-reel picture of a year or so ago, is a fair offering. It is a good story, exciting in action, if not wholly convincing, and has a pleasing sentiment. The players act naturally, as is expected in releases of this brand, and the photographyclearly sets it forth with semblance of life in an interesting country. The story deals with outlaws who cleverly manage to extract from a large invoice of gold four bars. They get access to the express office the night before and fix things so that it is possible. In the developments that follow there is a good deal of padding, but interest is very fairly maintained. "MYSTERY LADY" (Domino), February 12. — A romance very Cinderella-like in the method bringing about the happy ending. The place is Jamestown in the days of the first settlement. The heroine is a girl made an orphan by Indians and made a drudge by her adopted mother. The fairy god-mother is a dutchess (the lady of mystery) in hiding in America, who sends the poor girl in fine clothes to the governor's ball. Because this story is a bit too closely like its portotype, the suspense suffers, but the atmosphere is interesting and well maintained; the acting fair, the photography good. "THE ARROW MAKER'S DAUGHTER" (Kay-Bee). February 13.— A vigorous two-part picture of the Western plains that will stir the house, even if they have seen every one of the other Indian picturs that licensed and independent makers have turned out — it will seem to them as good as any of the others. It is introduced by a few scenes, giving a Crow Indian love story and soon the lover is a part of a small hunting band that is overwhelmed by the Sioux. The lover is wounded by an arrow and, helped by a comrade, takes refuge with a caravan of white people crossing the plains. The Sioux attack this and there follows a savagely pictured, grim and terrible battle taken close up and well handled so that the spectator is made to hold his breath. It is a popular picture most surely. "THF: LAW'S DECREE" (Victor), February 13.— This two-reel film at once sets in motion an interesting story. Florence Lawrence appears as a shop girl, who takes the blame for her mother's theft. The scenes during and after her imprisonment hold the interest unflaggingly; the plot is original and the action and photography gojd. H. L. Solter demonstrates again a correct knowledge of ]>roportion in directing this number. A desirable release. Flickers. ROMEO said; "What's in a name." You and I have probably not given this much thought, but go up and ask \y. Milligan (of the Billboard), if he is W. Milliken, then give him ten minutes to identify himself and watch his complexion change. This happened to him last week in the Candler Building, when two city detectives, who are trailing a W. S. Milliken wanted by the police for larceny, heard our friend called by name, and he being in the film business they nabbed him. The different spelling of his name did not satisfy the sleuths, and not until some of the boys, especially Joe Farnheim and Charlie Feature Abrams, positively identified him, did the gum shoe men relinquish their hold. * * * Harry Lande, proprietor of the Feature Photoplay Company, is putting over a good three reel comedy; a burlesque on the "Traffic In Souls" picture. The comedy is being directed by Sidney Golden and will be called "Traffickers In Souls." The story is said to be one continual laugh from start to finish. * * * R. F. Mundstuk, until recently one of the owners of the M. & F. Feature Film Company, in Chicago, after selling out his interest in that concern, has opened new ofifices in the Long Acre Building, Broadway and Forty-second Street, and from now on will handle only large productions of foreign manufacture, mainly Italian made pictures, among which the Savoia brand will take a prominent part. The pictures will be marketed on the state rights plan, and all buyers will be protected by the U. S. copyright laws. * * * W. E. Greene, one of the pioneer film renters and known to every exhibitor "Down East," has given up his office in that part of the country and will now be found in the World's Tower Building, no West 40th Street. Mr. Greene will import and sell only feature subjects. It's in the air. * * * Miss Jeanette Cohen, city representative for the Metro Lithograph Company, after a week's illness, has left for her home in Nashville, Tenn. The doctors think that a rest for two weeks will be sufficient to restore the young lady to her former self, and she has promised to be back among us by that time. * * * If any of you film manufacturers are in need of a leading lady, and will treat the information confidentially, I will give you the name and address of a well known dramatic picture actress looking for a change of position. MAC. DEATH OF JOHN KENNY. Mr. John Kenny, aged twenty-five, a brother of Miss Mae Kenny, secretary of the New York Motion Picture Corporation, died Monday, January 26th., in St. Luke's hospital where he had been taken to be treated for an injury received some time ago. Mr. Kenny was very well known in New York City and Brooklyn on account of his connection with the municipal government. The funeral was from the young man's house, and the body was escorted by a dozen uniformed policemen, who also acted as pall bearers.