Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

December 31, 1927 29 Th hrough Box Office Windows Looking at the week’s showings with both eyes on the ticket selling angles The Enemy Charming Pollock’s Impassioned Appeal for Peace Offers Interesting Study to Better Class Patron /"'HANNING POLLOCK’S idealistic and somewhat hysterical diatribe against war and its horrors has come to the screen to teach the lesson intended by the author and also to point the unintended moral that after war things go on pretty much the same until the next one. The effort to make the de Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents Lillian Gish in “The Enemy” From Channing Pollock’s play Directed by Fred Niblo A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture THE CAST: Pauli Arndt Lil ian Gish Carl Behrend..— Ralph Forbes Bruce Gordon Ra’ph Emerson August Behrend George Fawcett Prof. Arndt Frank Currier Mitzi Winkelmann Fritzi Ridgeway Fritz Winkelmann Jchn S. Peters Jan Karl Dane Baruska Polly Moran Kurt Billy Kent Shaefer Carl Behrend, a German, and Bruce Gordon, an Englishman, are graduates of the University at Vienna in 1914 and pledge eternal friendship. War is declared and the erstwhile chums become bitter enemies. Carl is called to the colors on his wedding night, leaving Pauli Arndt to the care of her father, a Professor in the University, a kindly old dreamer, whose pacific teachings cause his dismissal. Reduced to dire want through a quarrel with Carl’s father, a profiteer, the child dies and word comes that Carl has been killed. Eventually he returns and once more Professor Arndt teaches tolerance as the one cartain cure for war. manded happy ending almost entirely nullifies the propaganda of the author. The story has been carefully brought to the screen by Agnes Christine Johnston and Willis Goldbeck, and has been staged with every care by Fred Niblo, but it is to be questioned whether the play will make appeal to the masses, and even its Broadway success is somewhat doubtful. “The Enemy” is a play of words and thoughts, not of action, and dramatic as the underlying thought may be, the silence of the screen reveals mostly the action. The action in itself is vivid, hysterically so, for the director has sought to achieve this quality which is the essence of the story itself. There are a number of impressive sequences, and the most impressive of these is perhaps that in which Carl, on brief leave, comes to his home only to find that his wife and her father are gone. The bleak desolation of these untenanted rooms with their unwashed dirt and cold emptiness has been made finely pictorial, and is far more impressive than other scenes which are intended to have stronger effect. For the screen, the story is weakened by the happy ending, which may send the spectator out in a cheerful frame of mind, but which does not leave him impressed. The logical ending would be the extinction of them all. It would perhaps hurt the ticket sales, but probably not as much as might be supposed, for this ending is not convincing. Most of the interest goes to Lillian Gish, who never has done a more honest bit of acting. It is earnest, sincere, and save where the author grows over hysterical, convincing. It rises superior to her “Hester Prynne” and atones for “Annie Laurie.” Ralph Forbes, as the young husband, is given less chance, but is straighforward and appealing. Frank Currier does his best to make Arndt human, but the character sketch is almost too saccharine. George Fawcett, as the profiteering father of the boy, fares much better. Karl Dane and Polly Moran look after the comedy relief competently, and Dane has one brief moment in which he is permitted to get away from the comedy and show he can do tragic work. It is brief, but effective. The settings are excellent and did this come from some German studio, it would be acclaimed a cinematic triumph. Coming from Hollywood should not alter its status. “The Enemy” is strong food for better minds. — SARG. The Gay Defender Richard Dix, as Picturesque Californian Cuts a Dashing Figure In a Well-Worn Tale 'T'RYING a new role for Dix, Paramount presents him in the guise of a dashing young Spaniard, son of one of the early California settlers. It gives the star opportunity to swagger around in picturesque costumes, thinly disguised in moustache and sideburns, and to perform prodigious feats of skill and valor in attempting to rescue his people from the opression of the gangster who has usurped the function of the Land Commissioner he slays. Dix wields the stock whip skillfully, tosses knives with unerring aim, fences, fights, rides and performs a profusion of acrobatic stunts and still manages to escape more than a passing comparison with Douglas Fairbanks, who earlier made this type of play his own. It is a thin plot, saved only by skill in planning and directing situations of intense movement. It may not please the critics, but it will be a wow in the second run houses, and probably interest a majority of the first run patrons, though there is no strong appeal of sentiment. In the last analysis it is just another Western, but a Western in its Sunday best. The burden of the plot is carried by Dix, with some assistance from Fred Kohler, who as the villain gives a very faithful imitation of George Bancroft. Working with the latter in many plays, he has caught exactly the tricks and mannerisms, but he does not quite attain the underlying personality. Thelma Todd is a cold heroine. The others are competent but negligible. “The Gay Defender” should ride to fair success. — SARG. Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky present Richard Dix in “The Gay Defender” Story by Grover Jones Directed by Gregory LaCava A Paramount Picture THE CAST: Joaquin Murrieta Richard Dix Ruth Ainsworth. Thelma Todd Jake Hamby Fred Kohler Ferdinand Murrieta Robert Brower Comm. Ainsworth Fr:d Esmelton Chombo -. Jerry Mandy Length, 6,376 feet Joaquin Murrieta, son of one of the old Spanish California land barons, falls in love with Ruth Ainsworth, daughter of the U. S. Land Commissioner. As he goes to gain her father’s consent to their marriage, well set up through the congratulatory drinks he has received, he is framed by Jake Hamby, who has killed Ainsworth, planning to usurp his position and strip the people of their gold. Joaquin escapes, turns a sort of Robin Hood to alleviate the distress of the settlers, and of course wins the girl.