The Moving picture world (December 1920)

December 18, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 911 Newest Reviews and Comments Conducted bp EDWARD WEITZEL ,j%ssociate Editor ' 'Sideligh ts and Reflections ' ' SECOND SIGHT and ' the Beautiful Heroine" is a subject that has forced itself on my attention during my last three months pursuit of fun, folly and wisdom, as they are found in the films. No mere man has ever succeeded in becoming used to the marvelous intuition which is the natural birthright of every woman and which is nowhere so awe-inspiring as in the matter of dress and personal adornment. The Cinderellas of the stage and the screen, who, born to poverty, are able to throw off their rags at the wave of a. magic wand and assume not only the raiment but the air and graces of a princess, have had many a rival in real life. So remarkable have some women been in adapting themselves to social conditions of which they previously knew nothing that it has appeared necessary to credit them with second sight, their sense of clothes being the most highly developed division of their psychic power. The gifted bards of Tin Pan Alley are not drawing on their imagination when they pen a bejazzed lyric extolling the lightningchange artist ability displayed by some simple village maiden in getting out of her old habits of mind and millinery and into the fads and fancies of city fashion, as such things are understood along the pavements and in the lobster palaces of Longacre Square. If you go to the theatre and are told, "Six weeks ago that stylish stepper on the end of the second row was only a farmer's daughter and raked the meadow sweet with hay, you can but believe and admire. So why not be convinced by the movie heroine when she runs true to form and does a sartorial metamorphosis in some deserted part of the earth, without the help of a French dress-maker or of any other aid short of the supernatural? But the thing can be overdone. Within the last twelve weeks I have watched, with enjoyment, a moving picture whose heroine had never owned a pair of shoes nor a hairpin in her life, nor a pair of stockings, nor several other garments usually found in the wardrobe of a woman of fashion. No refining influence or hint of "What to Wear and How to Wear It" had ever come near the rude, backwoods cabin where she lived; but I saw her almost instantly adopt the neat, if not expensive, standards of dress of a small village in the West, and I rejoiced at her improved appearance. Then came a greater opportunity in the same direction. I saw her go into a room and watched while she was shown an assortment of smart frocks and evening gowns that had been ordered from a famous Fifth avenue shop, and invited to put one of them on. I saw her thrill with pleasure at the chance and prepare, unaided, to make the most of it. I was not permitted to see how the miracle was performed, but when she came from that room her tout ensemble, beau monde and everything else was comme il faut. Her perfect thirty-six evening gown fitted her form like a glove; her neck and shoulders and her erstwhile rough and red hands IN THIS ISSUE "To Please One Woman" {Paramount). "The Little 'Fraid Lady" (Robertson-Cole). "Flame of Youth" (Fox). "Midsummer Madness" (Paramount — see pages 851 and 914). "The Testing Block" (Paramount) . "Billions" (Metro). "Polly With a Past" (Metro). "White Youth" (Universal). "Cowboy Jazz" (S. and E.) . might have belonged to a box-holder at the Metropolitan Opera House, so white and properly cared for were they. She moved across the floor in high heeled slippers with the ease and grace of a member of the inner circle at Newport, and I believed in her and was glad. But her crowning glory was her hair. I took a second look at that marvelously complicated coiffure, and doubt entered my soul. Not a hair was out of place. Six experts from Madame Celeste's could not have done a better job. There was but one answer: A good fairy had endowed her with second sight and guided her hands. How else could she have achieved that monumental and up-to-tht-second coiffure? And all over and finished in less than ten minutes. Why! I've waited for my wife — "The Little 'Fraid Lady" Robertson-Cole Surrounds Mae Marsh with a Galaxy of Stars in Their Newest Offering Reviewed by Epes W. Sargent. Robertson-Cole have spared no expense in the first production in which Mae Marsh is seen since her return to the screen. A cast of unusual excellence, a spectacular production of scenes of revelry in Greenwich Village, and some beautiful exterior locations combine to give real charm to a play abounding in improbable situations. The story, derived from "The Girl Who Lived in the Woods," by Marjorie Benton Clark, makes a striving effort for suspense through the simple expedient of withholding the obvious, which will not fool the average patron, but the story provides Miss Marsh with limitless opportunities and serves to permit her to display a ripened technique. When the girl's father commands her to persuade her judicial friend to abandon a murder trial "or I'll tell him that I am your " the audience knows very well that they are supposed to fear the worst, but they also know that the man must be the girl's father or she could not marry the hero — as she must in the end. Knowing this, the plot is robbed of its intended mystery, but even knowing this, we can still admire the work it gives Miss Marsh. The secondary star is easily a clever dog, with a bright boy, George Bertholom, Jr., a good third. In the adult cast Tully Marshall gives a strorrg performance, Herbert Prior plays with graceful ease and Charles Meredith is boyish and convincing, if inclined to overact at times. The production is remarkably good. The settings are artistic, the exterior locations are beautiful and the dazzling splendors of the ball scenes have never been excelled and their handling is marked by excellent taste as well as an eye for the pictorial. The picture should give general satisfaction. Cast. Cecelia Mae Marsh Giron Tully Marshall Mrs. Barrett Kathleen Kirkham Saxton Graves Charles Meredith Judge Carteret Herbert Prior Sirotta Gretchen Hartman Bobby Barrett George Bertholom, Jr. Omar (the dog) Jacques III. From the Story by Marjorie Benton Cooke. Scenario by Joseph W. Farnum. Directed by John G. Adolfi. Length, Six Parts. The Story. Cecelia, "The Little 'Fraid Lady," is so named by little Bobby Barrett because she seems to shun society. She has preempted a unting lodge belonging to Judge Carteret, and seeks to earn the necessaries of life by exchanging her paintings at the village store for groceries and dog biscuit for herself and Omar, her canine companion. Though a squatter, she resents the. intrusion of the new country home Judge Carteret is building, but when she can no longer exchange her paintings for supplies, she invades the new mansion In an effort to sell her work, and attracts the attention of Saxton Graves, an Interior decorator, who has charge of the work. She flees from him, but her reserve is brokea down when Bobby, who is the son of Graved widowed sister, is injured near her home, and she comes to the Graves house in res onse to Bobby's urgent appeals. She Is engaged to decorate the library of the judge's new home, and is given a check for one thousand dollars. Later this is taken from her by her father, Giron, after he has vainly sought to play upon her supposed Intrigue with the judge to get himself clear of a murder charge. He seeks to brazen things, through with the check as a weapon, but the girl turns upon him at his accusation of improper relations with Carteret and Giron shoots himself, leaving the way clear for the ma.rrlage to Graves, while the Judge wins Grave's sister. Program and Exploitation Catchlineat Mae Marsh In a Story of the Clean Woods and the Unclean Haunts of Sordid Art. Triumphant Return of This Favorite of the Screen. A Wonderful Scenic Production of a Novel Story. A Story of a Girl Who Found She Could Not Lead Her Life Alone. Exploitation Angles: A page of exploitation ideas on this picture will be found elsewhere in this issue. "The Testing Block" Paramount Presents William S. Hart In a Western Melodrama of Thrillingly High Suspense Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison A picture of strong appeal through the courage and deep suffering of a man of* small opportunity, "The Testing Block" is so well constructed and directed that it compares favorably with any previous Hart performance. The rude man of force is not converted by the gentle maid of persuasion