The Moving picture world (May 1922)

May 20, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 277 "The Dictator" Star, Wallace Reid ; supported by Lila Lee. Directed by James Cruze. From the novel by Richard Harding Davis. San Manana, a South American republic, and an epidemic of revolutions furnish the colorful scenes and quickly shifting complication of this film. Brooks Travers (Wallace Reid), a wealthy New Yorker, and his butler, have a fight with a chauffeur on a New York dock and hurry away on the first ship they can catch under the impression that he has been killed. Their efforts to escape a pursuing detective and the dominant faction in the republic before a counter revolution lead up to many climaxes. Others in the cast include Theodore Kosloff , Walter Long, Sidney Bracey and Kalla Pasha. "If You Believe It, It's So" Star, Thomas Meighan. Directed by Tom Forman. From the novel by Perley Poore Sheehan. Scenario by Waldemar Young. Mr. Meighan in "If You Believe It, It's So" has a new role which surpass his work in "The Miracle Man." The story is based on the novel of Perley Poore Sheehan and deals in a new way with the power of faith to reform a criminal. In this case the criminal, played by Mr. Meighan, is a pockpocket who robs an old man on his way to the city to pay the final installment on his farm. The picture of a joyful life in the country given by the old man causes the pickpocket to renounce his life and to start anew. With Mr. Meighan in the cast are Pauline Starke, Joseph Dowling, Theodore Roberts, Charles Ogle and Lura Ansen. "The Young Diana" A Cosmopolitan Production starring Marion Davies. Directed by Albert Capellani. From Marie Corelli's story of the same name which appeared in Hearst's Magazine. The scenario is by Luther Reed. The story has an English setting and its complications are due to the desire of a parvenu father that his daughter, Diana May, shall marry into society. He has aflected interest in science and wants her to choose Dr. Dimitrius as her husband. She is in love with a naval commander. She dreams that the commander has eloped with another and that twenty years have passed. Dr. Dimitrius restores her to youth. A happy ending follows her awakening. Miss Davies is the Diana of the plot. Others in the cast are Maclyn Arbuckle, Forrest Stanley, Gypsy O'Brien and Pedro de Cordoba. "The Bonded Woman" Star, Betty Compson. Directed by Philip Rosen. From the story, "The Salvaging of John Sumner," by John Fleming Wilson. Adapted by Albert Shelby LeVina. From a quiet American home to Honolulu, to New Zealand and a shipwreck at sea, the action of this story shifts rapidly as Angela Gaskell, a seventeen-year-old ship captain's daughter, goes to the aid of John Sumner, who had been lost in a wreck. She first helps him by going on his bond when he seeks a vessel to command, later she finds she must reform him and finally achieves happiness on a South Sea Island with him. Richard Dix and John Bowers are also in the cast. Over half of the action takes place on a steamship. "The Top of New York" Star, May McAvoy. Directed by the late William D. Taylor. Adapted from the story, "Baby Doll," by Sonya LeVien, which appeared in the Metropolitan Magazine. The action alternates between a department store and a tenement roof top in the neighborhood on the East Side of New York, which has been invaded by wealthy families. Miss McAvoy appears as a young shop girl who is trying to support an invalid younger brother who is obliged to spend all his time on a roof top. On the adjoining roof a wealthy artist and his young daughter have fitted up a bungalow. The contrasts of her joyful appearances as an animated doll in the store where she works and her tender care of her brother evoke the sympathy of the artist and she finally achieves happiness and escapes the temptations of her employer by marrying the artist. The invalid boy is played by Mickey Moore, and Mary Jane Irving, the clever child actress, is the artist's daughter. "The Valley of Silent Men A Cosmopolitan production with Alma Rubens. Directed by Frank Borzage. From the story by James Oliver Curwood. How two men seek through the years for vengeance for a wrong done by three adventurers in the Canadian Northwest, how one of them is found on the Yukon and the two others are located years after — one a wealthy lumberman and the other an inspector in the mounted police — are told in this picture. Love finally turns vengeance aside, but not until after an officer had confessed a killing he did not commit and he and the girl in the case had had many thrilling experiences in their escape down a swiftly flowing river. Over 1,500,000 copies of this story were sold before it was filmed. Miss Rubens, who takes the leading role, is well known for her work in "Humoresque," "The World and His Wife" and "Find the Woman." "The Siren Call" An Irvin Willat production, "The Siren Call," with Dorothy Dalton, David Powell and Mitchell Lewis. This is a story of the Northwest by J. E. Nash. The "siren" in this case is gold in Alaska and one of the striking scenes is in Gore's Casino, a typical frontier dance hall, where Beauregard, a French trapper, brings a baby he had found beside its frozen parents. He presents it to Charlotte, one of the dance girls, and she auctions a kiss to get money for the baby's bank account. Reformers break up the dance hall and its occcupants are scattered. In the complicr.tions which follow there is a fight on a raft and Ralph Stevens, a prospector, and Charlotte go over a falls. They survive, however, and their troubles have a joyful ending. Mr. Willat directed "Behind the Door," one of his great successes. This is not Miss Dalton's first appearance in a Northwestern picture. She will be remembered for her work in "The Flame of the Yukon." "While Satan Sleeps" A Peter B. Kyne special with Jack Holt. Directed by Joseph Henabery and based on the Saturday Evening Post story, "The Parson of Panamint." In this story the action develops rapidly, following the escape from prison of one Philip Webster in the sheriff's car. He becomes a clergyman in Panamint, but proves to be the two-fisted type who can fight his way into the "Pick and Drill," the camp's dance hall, and make himself popular with something besides the reform element. One of the dancing girls saves his life by getting between him and an enemy and before she dies tells him she knows his story. He confesses at the close of the funeral service for her, which he conducts. There is dash and vigorous action in it from the start. In the cast are Fritzi Brunette, Betty Francisco, Herbert Standing, Sylvia Ashton, Fred Huntley and J. P. Lockney. "Ebb Tide" A George M^lford production of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, with Lila Lee, James Kirkwood, Raymond Hatton and George Fawcett. Stevenson's last work proved a wonderful vehicle for Director Mel ford's genius, especially in those coloful secenes where the three derelicts — an Oxford graduate, a broken sea captain and a former Cockney clerk — plot their futures on the beach of a South Sea island and when they bring their little champagneladen schooner to the pearl fisheries controlled by the Englishman, Attwater. The power of this man accustomed to rule his colony, oppos ing the weak intrigues of the derelicts, with the romantic background of the South Pacific, work up to a vivid climax. The exotic scenes also make splendid material for exploitation purposes in windows and lobbies. "Enemies of Women" A Cosmopolitan production directed by Robert Vignola. It is another of the novels of the famous Spanish writer, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, and it was published in Hearst's Magazine during 1920. Like the other film versions of the Spanish author's works— "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' and "Blood and Sand" — this latest is full of the colorful, passionate temperament of the Latins. The son of a Spanish adventurer and a Russian Princess quarrels with the daughter of a Mexican millionaire in Paris and the devious tangles of their careers after that furnish a thrilling story until their lives are redeemed — his as a soldier in France and hers as a nurse. The scenes wander over central and southern Europe and no expense has been spared in their production. "The Impossible Mrs. Bellew" Gloria Swanson in a Sam Wood production. Story by David Lisle, adapted by Percy Heath. As the title implies, this is the history of a woman who has violated the social conventions to a degree. It is the story of a young country girl plunged into the gay social life of Paris society and neglected by her husband until finally there is a scandal with one of her admirers. She drifts, a wealthy divorcee, to Egypt, to Monte Carlo and back to Paris, giving an opportunity to put on some magnificent scenes, including the carnival of flowers at Monte Carlo. Finally, there comes into her life a man who understands and the picture closes with a touching scene. It is a part perfectly suited to Gloria Swanson. In it she wears many wonderful gowns. Conrad Nagle is her leading man. In this production Director Wood even surpasses the standards he reached in "The Great Moment" and "Beyond the Rocks." "The Pride of Palomar" A Cosmopolitan production of Peter B. Kyne's great novel, directed by Frank Borzage. This story was one of the big hits of modern fiction when it appeared in the Cosmopolitan Magazine. It has lost none of its appeal in being made into a photoplay, and Director Borzage has made of it a work that will rival "The Good Provider" and "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford." Palomar is the family estate of the Parrels in a rich California valley. A scheming Eastern banker gets control of the mortgage on it while the son is in Siberia with the American Army and the fascinating complications begin when he returns and discovers he has a nine-month period in which to redeem his estate. He permits the usurpers to remain as his guests and begins a fascinating contest of wits with them to raise money to pay off the mortgage. He not only succeeds, but also wins the daughter of his business enemy. "Little Old New York" A Cosmopolitan Production starring Marion Davies, from the play by Rida Johnson Young. Directed by Frank Borzage. Some of the romance of old New York is woven into this story of the time when Cornelius Vanderbilt was ferrying passengers on a sailboat and John Jacob Astor was buying woodland around what is now known as Grammercy Park. Miss Davies is a young Irish "boy" who comes to this country to secure an inheritance. Her love for her benefactor finally causes her ta expose her own masquerade. "The costumes are of the period of 1810. In this production Mr. Borzage excels the directing he did in "Humoresque," "The Good Provider" and "GetRich-Quick Wallingford." Ushers can be dressed in the costumes shown in the stills.