Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1912)

n;8 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD "The Black Chancellor." (Three-Reel Great Northern Feature.) Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison. THIS is one of a large and interesting class of plays of the "Prisoner of Zenda" type, whose charm resides in its ingenious and entertaining improbability, the author not despising truth, but making it subsidiary to delightfulness. There is an infusion of fantasy in "The Black Chancellor" tliat holds from beginning to end — it is just like reading a good story, and if the story is good mighty few care whether it is true or not. It is so like the "Prisoner of Zenda," which Edwin Rose fashioned out of Anthony Hope's famous novel in the wealth of its perilous adventure, in its diplomatic intrigue, and in its chivalrous defense of true love that it exercises much the same fascination of visual appeal as the play that drew all New York to the theater. The scene is that of one of those imaginary sovereignties which are supposed to exist in or near the Carpathian mountains and invariably have for nominal ruler a lovely Princess, but are actually dominated by a military despot in the person of a Chancellor. The Black Chancellor, a gentleman by the name of Rallenstein, is only formally respectful to Princess Irene and rules with an iron hand both the military and the people. Arbitrary with officers, impatient with court servitors, a tyrant wherever he can exercise his power, he the hateful evil spirit of the piece. Princess Irene is in truth a beautiful woman and a patrician to her ringer tips. Quite in the natural course of things she is beloved by a real man, splendid Lieutenant Parlow, and she responds in full, but the Chancellor has many cards to play against her heart's desire beside the good of her country and the honor of her house. He has the military at his disposal, he enjoys the blind devotion of a clever young officer of the Hussars named Captain Rocowitz and has made him his aide de camp in deviltry, and he is conspiring with a powerful neighbor, Prince Zoba, to further the latter's suit with lovely Princess Irene. The Princess is really enmeshed in a net when the play opens, but is so unsuspicious of the scheming and plotting all around her that she receives Lieutenant Parlow at her palace apartment in the presence of Theodora, her maid of honor and most intimate friend. Parlow is a magnificent specimen of young manhood, so far as physical appearance goes, but is so wedded to military life and discipline that his heroic qualities are those destined to shine most brilliantly on the field of battle. He is too good-natured and simple of purpose for court intrigues, and he is so trained to the hour in the profession of his choice that he is willing to accept any form of, death imposed by the interests of the country he has sworn to defend. He and the Princess Irene are billing and cooing in her reception room when the keen-eared Theodora hears the steps of the Chancellor without — he is lame — and Irene rashly induces Lieutenant Parlow to hide behind convenient portieres. Enter the crafty and observing Chancellor. He brings the written proposal of Prince Zoba and smilingly awaits its acceptance Princess Irene declines with such emphasis that an explanation becomes necessary, and she informs the Black Chancellor with childish simplicity that she loves another. He thus learns what she might have concealed. He waits outside the door when the interview is closed and hears a man's voice. He knocks again. When he is admitted no man is present. Under the pretext that he dropped some trivial object, he reaches beneath the portieres and discovers what he suspected. On his return to his own rooms in the palace the Chancellor sends his handsome aide de camp, Captain Rocowitz, to the chambers of the Princess for Lieutenant Parlow. When the latter is brought into the presence of his superior officer he is made the messenger to carry the Chancellor's reply of acceptance to Prince Zoba, a morsel of fiendish cruelty that completely upsets the honorable Parlow. He is made aware that the Princess is not for him. Worse, he is marked for death as an officer who dishonored his profession. Under the servitude of military discipline his career is virtually at an end. Irene now becomes informed of the status of affairs and goes at its solution with the direct simplicity that has characterized her conduct from the outset. She calls upon her religious adviser and arranges with him to marry her to Parlow during the time when the court ball is in progress. While she is dancing with the man she loves at the ball she feigns sudden illness and is conducted by her partner to where they are to meet Theodora and Parlow's intimate friend — a real hero — Lieutenant Growblewsky — it might be well to leave off the "steins," "vitzs" and "skys" in pictures for this market. These four go to the church, but they are shadowed by the Chancellor's aide de camp. He returns and informs the Chancellor. They are temporarily outwitted by Cupid, for the young couple are united in marriage before they can interfere. The arch-villain is foiled, but he resorts to an extreme measure in military discipline. He not only decides that all witnesses to the marriage of the Princess must be killed, but sends Captain Rocowitz to Lieutenant Parlow with a military sentence of death. The young officer who has clandestinely married the Princess must destroy himself according to the code. He is encountered in the corridors of the palace and offered a vial of poison at the point of a revolver. He takes the poison and sinks down in the preliminary throes of death. Rocowitz hurries away to report the fatal incident. The crime is, however, witnessed from a gallery by Theodora and she sends the heroic Growblewsky to the aid of his friend. It thus happens that the Chancellor is not afforded a chance to witness the final death struggles of the newly-made bridegroom, and his rage is frightful to behold. Rocowitz is accused of treachery and sets out in pursuit of the two lieutenants — they have gone with a physician to Growblewsky's castle. He sees them through his glasses and sends a messenger to the dreadful Chancellor relating what has occurred. The Black Chancellor now resorts to extreme measures. He has the coachman of the Princess drugged and in this way has her conveyed to the castle of Rocowitz, a stronghold having the outer characteristics of a veritable fortress. The exteriors have all been fine up to this point and they now assume a romantic interest rarely seen in plays of any description. The aspect of the moats and walls of an old castle lends powerfully to the imagination in both interiors and exteriors that follow. With the groom disabled and the bride incarcerated a Scenes from the Great Northern Feature, "The Black Chancellor."