Moving Picture World (Jul - Aug 1918)

July 6, 1918 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 111 to him when they meet. Barbara Carlton attracts the attention of a half-breed Frenchman who owns a rich mine, and consents to marry him for the sake of her parents. La Roche, the mine owner, is already married to an Indian woman, and Jack, who still loves Barbara, saves her from being deceived. Clear skies appear when Barbara learns that Jack is innocent of crime, and a honeymoon for the pair is easily forecast. William Desmond is capital as Jack. There has been a marked improvement in this actor's work of late. He acts with greater restraint and is more convincing in every way. Maud Wayne as Barbara, Darrell Foss as Burt, Louis Durham as La Roche, and Bob Thompson as Sergeant Barry, are the other important members of the cast. "THE SCARLET ROAD" Gladys Brockwell Picture Has Sordid Beginning, but Gets a Good Measure of Life. Reviewed by Hanford C. Judson. THE Brockwell picture, "The Scarlet Road," has a brand new story which, though it begins with a background termed "Bohemian," too sordid to be deeply interesting, gets a touch of a real and convincing Bohemia toward the middle of the story that is wholly delightful, because it seems true. Miss Brockwell is a real actress, and even with the rather heavy burden she is forced to carry by the unpleasant trend of the early action almost accomplished the impossible through personality and art in the way of getting a sense of actual humanity into the doings we see pictured. She is well supported by Charles Clary (in the heavy part) and some of the lesser characters; but is particularly fortunate in having Betty Shade as "Tiny," for that very attractive and thoroughly human chorus girl character gives real life to the story in time to save it for the leading woman just before her big scene comes, when she finds that she has been duped and betrayed all around. The story without Tiny would be a pretty poor offering; with Tiny and Miss Brockwell's acting it is on a different plane wholly and has not only tragic human interest that cuts life to the quick, but charm and novelty. These lift it above the average offering and among the especially noteworthy films. The script by Charles Kenyon exemplifies the deadening weight of the truly sordid in any work of art. The truly sordid is one level deadness, and there is no sure appeal to human sympathy from it. The thing that weakens this picture is the heroine's denial of real love for a most sordid "legitimate" union with a man whom she knows is disgusting. The mistake was in making us see that she knew it. This touch makes the author's whole Bohemia unreal. NEW MUTT AND JEFF CARTOONS "Meeting Theda Bara" and "Mutt and Jeff and The 75-Mile Gun" Are Laugh makers. Reviewed by Hanford C. Judson. PROBABLY as amusing as any of this famous cartoon series is "Meeting Theda Bara," in which Jeff, after getting an inheritance, goes into the motion picture business with Mutt and they look about for a good vampire. Of course, Theda is the ideal, and while they want her, Mutt knows that she is under contract and is not to be thought of. Jeff perseveres and Mutt gets a knockout when he finds Jeff and Theda very friendly and taking dinner together in a restaurant. "Mutt and Jeff" and the 75-Mile Gun." Mutt and Jeff prove excellent camouflagers, and dressed up as a tree have fun putting out the Crown Prince, the Kaiser, Hindenberg and a troop of boches. Just how this is accomplished is more amusing than any description of It could be. It is good entertainment. "GOOD NIGHT, NURSE" Amusing Paramount Release, with "Fatty" Arbuckle at His Best in a New Role. Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison. THERE are plenty of laughs all through both of the two reels of this release, not so much at the faicical incidents as at Arbuckle's characterization. Really an acrobat of great natural strength, in spite of his rotundity, a born comedian as well, the mere contrast of his physique with the role of a sanatorium patient evokes laughter, and his antics do the rest. Arbuckle's efforts to light a match in a driving rain storm while under the influence of liquor, his good-natured submission to adverse circumstances, his boyish face and manner, above all, his keen sense of humor, compel laughter from the first. He tears along through ridiculous incidents from then on like a baby elephant out for a romp and careless of consequences. The story is naturally funny, one of the few of its kind, and it will prove a welcome relief to those which labor hard without spark of real humor in them. A winner. ious, others disconcerting in their posture of circumstances, but the general effect gets over largely through vitality of theme. The cast is well chosen, the star entirely satisfactory in her limited role, the workmanship thorough, and, thus backed, the high elements of value should bring success. "THE KAISER'S SHADOW" A Timely Paramount Production, Starring Dorothy Dalton. Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison. STRONG point in favor of "The Kaiser's Shadow" is its entire plausibility, in spite of the romantic treatment where the scenes are laid in a mysterious American suburban house with a castlelike water approach and many ingenious trapdoors. The German spy system and propaganda in the United States have been conducted along lines so insidious and crafty that we can grant an author his own conditions in exposing the machinery of the Hun organization. The story amounts to an exposure and a warning, where it emphasizes the hypocritical attitude of a pro-German element pretending loyalty while secretly conspiring to keep a merciless autocracy enthroned. The story is framed on an attempt to abduct, imprison and torture the young American inventor of a "ray" rifle, in order to obtain possession of his plans, very carelessly carried around in his pocket at times. His young bride is also abducted and held to witness his final agony in case extortion by ordinary methods fails. The important factors, however, are two supposed spies in the German service — the girl, Dorothy Dalton, an American by birth and sympathy; the man, a Frenchman, of romantic acquaintance while studying in Berlin. When these two come to be reunited in the German secret service, each believes the other to be in earnest, while both are operating against the enemy. Their separate rather than their united efforts result in saving the young inventor and in the capture of the entire gang of Hun agents through a series of adventures that bring about their own happiness. Some of these adventures are ingen "ANNEXING BILL" Five-Reel Pathe-Astra Release Feature* Gladys Hulette in Light Comedy. Reviewed by Robert C. McElravy THIS five-reel Pathe-Astra number, "Annexing Bill," presents an amusing light comedy in which Gladys Hulette and Creighton Hale play the leading roles, with Mark Smith and Margaret Greene in the supporting cast. The story was written by Edgar Franklin, directed by Albert Parker, and produced by Astra Film Corporation. The plot material in this is of a slight but enjoyable sort. The humor is of a mildly amusing kind, and continues to hold up throughout the entire subject, giving the production something of the character of a breezy, well-written short story. Gladys Hulette plays the role of Enid, a girl artist, who lives with a married friend, Mrs. Frayne, on Washington square. Her lover is Billy Dow, a well favored young lawyer, who wants very much to marry Enid. But when he hears that she has just inherited a million dollars from an aunt who went down on the steamship Palamic, Billy refuses to ask for her hand. Ho does not believe in marrying for money. Enid arranges to turn her funds over to George Frayne to invest for her in the hope of losing it, as Mrs. Frayne says he is bound to do. Billy in the meanwhile is arrested while trying to help a friend recover some stolen funds. Then Enid's aunt unexpectedly turns up and claims the million. Affairs thus become considerably complicated, and there are still further interesting twists in the story toward the close. "TINSEL" World-Picture Presents Kitty Gordon in Story of Smart Society. Reviewed by Robert C. McElravy. THIS five-reel World Picture based on a story by Fred Jackson and directed by Oscar Apfel tells an entertaining and strongly presented narrative of the smart social type in its more agreeable form. The effect of the whole is artistic and satisfying, and the observer feels that its lesson is a valuable one to mothers and daughters, as the press sheets advertise. It is rather unfair to skelentonize the plot of this sort of a tale, for the reason that the setting forth of the plot in a few words gives the impression that it may not be worth while. While the motive is slight in this instance the good team work of an agreeable cast of performers holds the interest firmly. Kitty Gordon appears as Princess Sylvia