Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD .33 ^ he following article, which we advise you to read, appeared in the 7™^^t^^^^™^MZZm^!KuI?^fofid^,wZ~^ advance view this week of a three-reel subject, produced by the Great Northern Company, of Denmark, entitled 'The Temptations of a Great ( aI he American rights for this excellent picture have been secured by Mr. P. P. Craft, of the Monopoi Film Company. The picture is one of the best-acted films that it has ever been our pleasure to witness. To those of our readers who remember that excellent Pathe picture, 'The Hand.' we would say that this Danish picture is on a par with that sterling little drama of some three years ago, which was acted by three persons in a way that has probably never been surpassed. The entire three reels of 'The Temptations of a Great City,' are acted by four strong characters with no other characters, except an occasional lackey or policeman. The part of the waiter, who is also a money-lender to the gilded youth whom he serves is really a masterpiece of character work. 'The Temptations of a Great City' is melodrama, pure and simple. It does not claim to be anything else' It can be caued high-class melodrama. In it there are no shooting scrapes, or sensational situations of the stereotyped kind. It is a simple drama of cause and effect, well told with surprisingly few sub-titles. The four nrincipal characters are the money-lending waiter and his simple daughter, play ing at cross purposes with a society matron and her prodigal son. The film tells, in a way, the old story about a fool and his money, or in this case, other peoples m ney; particularly his mother's money and the money-lender's money. He gets his spending money from the money-lending waiter — The The young spendthrift pays it back by wheedling it out of his mother. This keeps up until financial mat ters between the families are so hopelessly snarled up that it leads to a crisis, climax, which nothing on earth can settle ex cept an elopement be tween the prodigal sot and the waiter's daugh ter. There are many strong situations throughout the piece The staging and pho tography are perfec t i o n, therefore we need not dwell on that subject. In one scene there is an ingenious mirror effect, and later , in the same scene wonderful moon light effect. The pic ture is entirely a stu dio product, but the scenes are so interest ing that the time and the place are forgotten by the spectator, whose interest is held every moment of the time. We noticed one thing very particularly in this European pic ture, and that is the fact that the Europeans are 'stealing our stuff.' Ordinarily in a Danish picture one would expect the foreign style of acting such as the shrug of the shoulders and the drag of one foot after the other, and all the rest of the stereotyped ityles of the European chool. The Europeans are getting wise to facial expression. If it -were not for a tele phone that looked like wedding cake and policeman with a brass kettle on his head, no one would know that it is a foreign film Not only that; if the Americans do not watch closely, the European actors are going to beat them at their own game of facial expression, be cause the four actors this Danish film were certainly going some in the gentle art of suppressed emotion. It reminded the writer of the palmy days of the Biograph Com pany, when tense situ ations were worked up entirely with the eyes and slight movement. This film came as near to being one of tht old Biograph masterpieces as anything that ever came from Europe, and it is good to observe that the Europeans are begin ning to see some merit in the American school of acting. America is heartily sick of C^f® A "STATE RIGHTS" PICTURE TEMPTATIONS :OF A: GREAT CITY Passed by the National Board of Censorship — Three Reels — Attractive Posters A HIGH CLASS MELODRAMA No Suicides, No Murders, No Hold-Ups, No Kidnapping, but still a good strong Melodrama. A self explanatory picture showing that money is the root of all evil. Be wise. Buy the state rights of your state for this picture and you will get plenty of that root. Remember, a "State Rights" man is not necessarily an exchange man. WARNING!! $500. REWARD Our films tected by right law, which is a are fully prothe new copy a violation of criminal offense. For information which will lead to the arrest and conviction of any person, or firm violating our copyrights. MONOPOI FILM CO. P. P. CRFT, Gen. Mgr. 145 W. 1 >t h t., N.Y. Write to-day for territory. 88 reader will per ceive in the four con trasting characters z wealth of dramatic possibilities. A pie b e i a n, domineering waiter contrasted against an aristocratic widow; her college bred son eloping with a bourgeois' daughter The contempt of the aristocratic widow for her son's plebeian wife, which is further complicated by the riches being on the plebeian side and the poverty on the pa trician side, and all these conditions stirred up nicely together make 'The Tempta tions of a Great City me of the strongest melodrama reels thai has 'come across' in a long time. The terest is so strong thai one actually becomes impatient while th< reels are being changed. We woulu advise exhibitors to use two machines, i. possible, when showing this film." The above article from The Moving Picture World is an unbiased opinion. It is reproduced herewith word for word without any attempt to "blue pencil" the weak spots nor to underline the strong points. There were one or two points not touched upon by the reviewer that it might be well to add. The tinting throughout the scenes imparts much life to this pic ture and makes it "snappy" all the way through. The scenic effects are natural. By natural is meant that there is no straining to appeal to the eye with a plethora of gaudy "ginger-bread' interiors made on the style of circus wagons Where the plot calls for a "parlor fancy" the demand is met with refined taste and original arrangement. The other scenes are normal in proportion. As to the acting of the picture, there nothing that can be said on that point that has not been already covered by the reviewer, except to say that 'the actors are four of the leading players of Denmark whose names in that country stand among the highest rank ir their profession " Temptations of J Great City" is a film that advertises well It is one of those features that will jus week's booking. tify the shoulder-'shakers, and it is possible that Europeans are sick of it themselves. We have not said a great deal about the story, because in our opinion it is not the strongest plot that has ever been written, but it is ordinarily good. It holds the interest like a vise all the way through, which in itself is a very strong recommendation for any film. It is not an immoral film, and yet it preaches no great moral sermon, except the old stand-bys sucn as the moth and the flame, the prodigal son, wine, woman and song, and all that sort of thing. But withal it is good — very good; and as those subjects never grow old, it is necessary, from time to time, to have good, fresh ma terial touching on and appertaining to. The story is about a young man whose spending ability is as large as his earning ability is small. He spends every cent he can get on gay dinner parties with the weariness that stays awake for hire. All this takes money, and he finds that it is easier to borrow money than to earn it; therefore his close connection with the fawning waiter, whose part is so very well played. In the cold, gray dawn of the morning after, the fawning waiter of the night before is an independent, arrogant Shylock. He assumes the airs of a banker, and to him it is the young man's turn to cringe and beg for time. Were it not for the fact thai the money-lender has a daughter, whom he houses like a bird in a cage, the spendthrift youth would probably have gone to jail. The picture shows how the miser made his great mistake by being miserly even with his daughter. He locked the door and the bird flew out of the window. When thf young man came to beg for time he found opportunity to make a conquest of the money-lender's simple-hearted daughter, which later ended^njnarriage.