Moving Picture World (April-June 1915)

240 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD April 10, 1915 drowned, marries the poet and tries love in a cottage. The poet tires of it first, pretends to take the water route into the next world, and the twice widowed lady become united to number three. For such a chain of events only one denouncement is possible: the minister and the poet both show up at the hotel at which Mrs. Smith and the latest edition of, or addition to. the Messrs. Smith are stopping. The claimants of the first and second degree attempt to embrace the wife they had sworn to love and cherish, and a lively chase through the rooms and halls of the hotel follows, with a wild-eyed and madly jealous claimant of the third degree bringing up in the rear, as the terrified Mrs. S. tries to escape the consequences of her trigamy. Thanks to the generosity of the Reverend Smith, the club man retains his wife. Such a series of comedy complications and the shitting scenes of the story furnish excellent material for a film drama that grows steadily in humorous interest until the climax is reached. Scene from "Pretty Mrs. Smith" (Bosworth). Miss Scheff's debut upon the screen is attended with gratifying success. The vivacity and charm for which her stage work has always been noted will be found in the film version of "Pretty Mrs. Smith." The three husbands are capitally played by Louis Bennison, Forrest Stanley and Owen Moore. "The Curious Conduct of Judge Legarde." Dual Personality Provides the Life Photo-Film Corporation With Material for an Engrossing Drama. Reviewed by Lynde Denig. OIUGINALLY, "The Curious Conduct of Judge Legarde" was a play written by Victor Mapes and given a brief run on Broadway. It impressed Jesse J. Goldburg as being good motion picture material, and having verified its scientific background he wrote a five-part scenario to be produced by Scene from "The Curious Conduct of Judge Legarde" (Life Photo). Will Davis for the Life Photo-Film Corporation with Lionel Barrymore in the character of Judge Legarde. The picture is unusual in the treatment of the dual personality theme, and still more out of the ordinary in its physical aspects. Street scenes at night were made in a studio for the purpose of getting novel effects in which the light values are correct, and in other respects the camera man displayed a quite daring ingenuity rewarded by success, for photographically the film is notable. Time and again the dramatic worth of incidents in the story is appreciably strengthened by the artistic quality of the scenes, toned and tinted with evident care. The story opens with a capitally realistic court trial, serving to bring out the argument on which the drama is based, or rather showing how Judge Legrande refuses to countenance the plea of a dual personality, one good the other evil, offered in defense of a young woman accused of crime. Knocked down by an automobile, the judge is so deranged that he leads a double life, remaining an upwright citizen by day and becoming a thief and a gangster at night. His unconscious shifting from good to evil, the dovetailing of the life of the judge and the gang leader, with its limitless possibilities for dramatic complications, is made interesting. Needless to say, there is an abundance of action in a story of this description, the better for the scientific foundation explained in the sub-titles, some of them direct quotations from a treatise on dual personality. In both phases of Legrande's character, Mr. Barrymore acts with authority and power, delightfully free from unnecessary exaggerations. The unaffected sincerity of Edna Pendleton in the role of Amelia, wrongly accused of theft and finally an outcast among thieves, lends distinction to the part; William H. Tooker is a perfectly natural figure as the detective, and a vivid piece of acting is supplied by Arthur Morrison as one of the crooks. The production is certain to take a high rank among Life Photo-Film subjects. "The Outcast." The Fourth of the Mutual Masterpictures a Reliance, and Based on a Well-Known Story by Thomas Nelson Page. Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald. OF the Mutual masterpictures thus far reviewed, none has been more noticeably well made than "The Outcast," produced in four reels by John B. O'Brien. That Page's story has lent itself well to the screen, goes without saying, but that a seer has guided its conversion into film shape is an J0^4A ^ A Ik >^:.^|*tt > ^^ >^^ r ^1 1 ■ A WMis^A M ^^^^^^ \^^H Scene from "The Outcast" (Reliance). undeniable fact. To use a common phrase, O'Brien has lost no tricks in making the production truly a master picture. Mae Marsh and Robert Harron are featured in the picture, by courtesy of the Majestic Motion Picture Company, so says the screen. There are others also appearing in the production who add not a little to the general effect. Among these latter are Mary Alden. Spottiswoode Aitken, Jack Dillon, Jack Conway and Ralph Lewis. First and foremost, after acceding that the human interest and sociological principles upon which the story is based have been presented with forcefulness, attention is due the remarkable manner in which the court proceedings have been handled. A quickly changing camera acquaints us with the impressions made on all parties concerned, including the onlookers. The story is told on the screen simply, and one would almost say, quaintly. Evidently attention has been paid to the choosing of types, and even of the men in the jury box. it can be said that each has a distinct individualit>' of his own. and proceeds to act it out to the last letter. If there is a lack of realit>' apparent in any of the scenes of the production it is in those which in the recital of the story of the "Outcast" by the old grandfather, picture the meeting of father and daughter and the nameless baby with the gossips of the village. Here the shaping of the incidents is not as natural as it might be. This portion of the production, how