Moving Picture World (Sep 1916)

2098 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD September 30, 1916 praise is due to the settings which were noticeable for their solidity and their impressive realism. Mr. Christie does not believe in telling his spectators everything; he would rather keep them in suspense and leave something to their imagination and to their own guessing powers. "Blind Justice" is a filmed narrative rather than a strict film drama. To be sure, it abounds in thrilling incident. It is full of plausible sensations, but at times these incidents and sensations have no very intimate relation to the main theme of the play. No one having seen the film and passing it in mental review will regret these scenes or wish them eliminated or even shortened. I can pay no higher tribute to the art of the director. His methods and manners in direction are so original and his knowledge of the human heart is so intuitive that no one will care to criticize on formal grounds. The real test after all is the homely test applied by the average exhibitor: Does it reach the spectator's heart; does it grip his interest; or, in the colloquial words of the day, does it get over? I for one think it does. "The Daughter of MacGregor" Five-Reel Photoplay of Scotland and the United States, Produced by the Famous Players Film Co. Reviewed by Edward Weitzel. VALENTINE GRANT is credited with having written the story of "The Daughter of MacGregor." Miss Grant is also the star of the picture. The best feature of the photoplay is its character drawing. In reproducing several types of Scotch folk, the author shows a clear understanding of the people. The opening scenes in the "Land o' the Heather" are touched with some of the skill of a Barrie. With the departure of Jean MacGregor for America not only is a new environment introduced, but the tempo is quickened and the rough and ready life of a Florida lumber camp brings a melodramatic atmosphere into the story. At the opening of "The Daughter of MacGregor," Jean and her father are living peacefully together. A bit of scandal told about Jean and a wealthy young Englishman, causes the girl to leave home and start to join her uncle in Florida. The lie is told by Miss McGrimm, who, later, becomes Donald McGregor's second wife. Jean's adventures until she sails for America are full of new experiences. She joins a traveling show troupe, in order to earn the money for her passage, and pipes and dances at country fairs. Her Uncle Robert proves to be stern and unforbidding, but Jean wins him over when she helps to capture a gang of lumber thieves. The coincidences that the camp is owned by the father of the young Englishman permits the lovers to be reunited at the proper moment, and Jean goes home with a wedding ring on her finger to comfort the elder MacGregor, who is once more living in single blessedness. Such a plot will hardly grip the attention by reason of its unexpected complications or the strength of its scenes. Interest in the fate of the heroine is maintained through the five reels, however, and the acquaintance of the characters is well worth making. The production is excellent throughout, a result that causes no surprise when it is known that Sidney Olcott directed the photoplay. The Scotch scenes have every Scene from "The Daughter of MacGregor" (Famous Players). indication of being genuine, and the lumber camp used in the picture is situated in Florida and lias been skilfully utilised, Valentine Grand has little difficulty in portraying her heroine. She in l ■ .Jean a charming example of young womanhood, ami is as Scotcli as the kilts that she wears so becomingly. Sidney Mason. Arda La Croix, Helen Lindreth and Paniel Pennell are entirely satisfactory in their several characters. A word of praise is due Lady, a wonderfully intelligent dog, who is Jean's companion throughout the picture. "The Pillory" Interesting Story by Philip Lonergan Features Florence La Badie in Pathe Gold Rooster Play. Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald. THE story of "The Pillory," written by Philip Lonergan, is an attractive one, with a large human appeal. Its characterization is interesting and well developed, but its natural length under its present plan of construction runs nearer Scene from "The Pillory" (Pathe). to four reels than five, finishing apparently about the middle of the third reel. The added portion, which starts after the story of the childhood of the girl who has been brought up in ignorance of the fact that her mother is alive has been told, and also the story of how she has been cast out into the world alone and finally meets her own mother, narrates a series of incidents which happen as a result of situations which develop later. Florence La Badie, playing the role of the young girl who Is persecuted by a conventional aunt and a mean-spirited housekeeper, is supported by Marie Stowell, James Seeley, Ethyl Cooke and other Thanhouser players. Marie Stowell, as the wife of a certain prominent judge, and angel of the prison, and who later is discovered to be the mother of the misled Florence, is sweet and dignified in the part. The production has been provided with artistic settings and will be found to be of intense interest up to the point where its natural climax occurs. Had the story used as its basis the life of the mother with the incidents relating to the life of the child, more in the nature of explanatory embellishments, the production would have earned its title with nothing to spare on a five-reel development. The basic idea is a good one and boasts considerable originality, and the production is on the whole one that will be enjoyed. "Inherited Passions" Strong but Crude Melodrama in Seven Reels, Starring Dot Farley — Produced by the Century Film Co. Reviewed by Edward Weitzel. \ SHORT story by Jack Wolf, "The Big Western Hat," gave f\_ Miss Dot Farley the inspiration for the scenario of "Inherited Passions." Although told in dramatic form and alive with engrossing action, the photoplay is as uncompromising a sermon on the evils of intemperance as "Ten Nights in a Barroom." Much of the story is as sordid as Zola's "Drink," and has considerable of the crude strength of the French novelist's famous work. In the screen play, a young girl whose father is cursed with an uncontrollable temper and an insatiable craving for strong drink inherits the base passions of her parent and, in spite of a chance to lead a good life when she meets and is married to a worthy man, is swept to her destruction, the victim of inborn evil. The story has the terrible fascination that watching a human being struggling in the grasp of a whirlpool holds for the spectator. * The childhood of Mazie Williams is shown in the first reel, her wretched home, and one of the brutal assaults which her drunken father is in the habit of bestowing on her mother. The poor woman dies from the effect of the beating, and her husband is given a long term in prison. The career of the girl after she reaches womanhood is a swift descent to the level of a dance-hall "worker." Here she meets the man who gives her a chance for happiness; but she tires of life on the ranch and goes back to her old companions, sinks lower than before, and is found and taken home by her husband, when nothing remains for her but a speedy and merciful death. The incidents are not always in good taste; and one mistake in the logic of events would bring the whole dramatic structure down upon the head of its author. This mistake has not been made, however; and the picture is drama in the playwright's sense of the word and not narrative fiction.