Moving Picture World (Jul - Aug 1918)

August 31, 1918 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1301 and introduces her to smart gowns and the ways of Bohemian society. The girl, now deeply in love with Jean, is forced by her still untamed nature to return to Africa and resume her old manner of living. Lerier also returns and Renee saves his life as he is about to be sacrificed by the natives. She is taken for the reincarnation of the Queen of Sheba and the tribe are afraid to disobey her. Lerier has treated her but lightly before, but he now realizes he loves her well enough to make her his wife. Clara Kimball Young acts the young savage cleverly, and is excellently supported by Milton Sills as Jean, Marcia Manon as Aimee Ducharme, and Clyde Benson as Prince Menelek. Arthur Edison was the photographer. night set for the wedding the Squire and his wife, old friends, plot to outdo Jeff Thompson and the aged bridegroom, and arrange to have the bride escape to their home, where her lover Is waiting. Before the others arrive on the scene the young people are married. "PLAYTHINGS" Fritzi Brunette Featured in Bluebird Adaptation of Toler's Stage Melodrama. Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald. THE Sidney Toler play, "Playthings," in its screen version does not make what might be termed a huge appeal. The picture plays up injured womanhood in something of the sickly sentimental style, forming that type of melodrama which the ordinary audience loves. Fritzi Brunette is the featured member of the cast, with Myrtle Reeves, Charles Gerrard, Phil Dunham, Lewis Cody, Mary Anderson and Pay Turner supporting her. The story tells of a shop girl who became entangled in an affair with the son of the owner of the store, loved not wisely but too well, and awakened too late to the fact that she had been used for a plaything. The picture spares the spectator that part of the story which deals with the death of the girl's child by falling from a window and satisfies itself with showing her becoming an Inmate of the home of a friend, who shelters her in her distress. Later we find her teaching music and again meeting a lawyer who has loved her in her shop-girl days, and who, having become wealthy, tries to persuade her to marry him, finally winning her acceptance. The strongest melodramatic thrill of the story happens when the villain reenters the scene and is about to elope with the lawyer's sister. ^ In the course of the scenes which follow" he is shot, and the story of his ill-doing and the girl's past is revealed. "A HOOSIER ROMANCE" Selig Adaptation of James Whitcomb Riley's Poem Released Through Mutual. Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald. ANEW star appears in the five-part Selig adaptation of the James Whitcomb Riley poem, "A Hoosier Romance." The production, which was released by the Mutual Film Corporation on August 18, is a pure old-fashioned romance and features Colleen Moore, young, pretty and talented. Next In importance in the cast are Thomas Jefferson and Harry McCoy. Others of the cast are Eugene Besserer, Edward Jobson and Frank Hayes. The picture was directed by Colin Campbell, and what It may lack in rapidity of action it makes up for in beauty and simplicity. Costumes of more than half a century ago add a touch of quaintness to the ensemble. For those not familiar with the poem we will endeavor in brief to tell its story, which follows the love affair of Patience Thompson and John, "The Hand." After the death of her mother Patience, left to the guidance of a mean and grasping father, finds life's pathway difficult. Discovering the love affair of the young people, Jeff Thompson orders John from the house and sets himself to find a rich match for his daughter. Before he has made up his mind, however, a rich old widower becomes enamoured of Patience and asks her hand in marriage. On the "FIRES OF YOUTH" Five-Reel Bluebird Features Ruth Clifford in Story of Mistaken Marriage. Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald. THE five-part Bluebird release for August 26, "Fires of Youth," is entertaining up to a certain polRt, where it falls on the side of consistency. The story, while it might be totally satisfying to some, is not of the calibre to win for the moving picture the highest praise of the public. Be that as it may, there is considerable entertainment to be gained from it. The cast is a small one, consisting of but three principal characters — the feminine lead, Ruth Clifford; Ralph Lewis and George Fisher. The story tells of a young girl who married a man much older than herself, settled and unromantic in character. The girl, finding none of the romance which she has dreamed her marriage would bring her, becomes wearied of her ties and falls in love with a young man who has been sent to the town to be under the business guidance of her husband. The husband, seeing the turn his domestic affairs are taking, suggests that his wife take a trip to Florida, which means that she must bid adieu to the younger man, never to see him again. On the night before she is to leave the husband goes out of town and her lover visits her. At this point of the story a badly contrived plot to entangle the young man in a theft of valuable papers is dragged into the story. The end of the whole affair Is that the husband, seeing the error of his own ways, decides to divorce his wife bo that she may be free to marry the man she loves. "THE CHANGING WOMAN" Vitagraph Production of O. Henry Story Is Well Acted Without Star. Reviewed by Edward Weitzel. THAT master of the short story, O. Henry, returns to his South American stamping ground in "The Changing Woman," and the Vitagraph has produced a five-part screen version of the tale directed by David Smith. The cast is without a star, but the leading parts Intrusted to Hedda Nova, Frank Glendon, Otto Lederer, and George Kunkel are excellently played. The entire production Is kept at a reasonably well-sustained standard, and the story itself has much of the original humor and odd twists of plot that are always expected in the writings of Sidney Porter. The finish is weak. This is brought about by the motive of the tale being extremely difficult to transfer to the screen. It refers to the subtle influence that danger and the vast solitudes of the mountains have upon the nature of a woman who is light and volatile when surrounded by the flattery and attention she constantly craves. The rest of the picture is made up of physical action that readily lends itself to the demands of the silent drama. Nina Gerard is the prima donna of a small opera company touring South America. In the town of Macuto the company is nearly stranded, and is saved by the quick wits of its "Carmen." A young American, Johnny Armstrong, who imagines himself a woman-hater, falls under the girl's spell, and, when she is kidnapped by a band of Carabobo Indians, rescues her and returns her to the circle of admiring South Americans that has become her devoted slaves. Danger and the strangeness of her surroundings change Nina into a seriousminded woman who looks upon Johnny with favor. Hack in the old atmosphere the homage of the crowd is the only thing she craves. The screen version ends with Johnny determined to take his charmer back to the mountains and have them work their manic in hi.-r heart. The wedded bliss that the hero hopes for does not look very promising. Hedda Nova is an animated and wellgraced Nina, and Frank Glendon Is a capital representative of the American, John Armstrong. "ON THE QUIET" Five-Reel Paramount Version of Famous Farce Features John Barrymore. Reviewed by Robert C. McElravy. A WHOLE lot of good, clean amusement has been brought to the screen in this Famous Players-Lasky version of Augustus Thomas' stage farce, "On the Quiet." John Barrymore makes a welcome reappearance in the films, being cast in the role of Robert Ridgway, the part which served as a success for William Collier on the legitimate stage. The new rendering of this production Is one that should be seen by everyone, as the screen once more lends opportunities for additional realism. The story is familiar to many people, but it will do no harm to recite some of its chief points. Robert Ridgway has been expelled from Yale for general wildness. He is very much in love with Agnes Colt, an heiress to twenty millions, but the match is opposed by her brother. Horace. By the terms of her father's will, Horace must give his consent before the girl can wed. Horace is a stern, unrelenting man, and insists that Robert reform before marrying Agnes. The latter endeavors to do so, but not very successfully. The two lovers then decide to be married without the consent of Horace, and the ceremony is performed with a former bookmaker as the sole witness. A number of humorous complications follow, and the lovers finally take refuge in diving suits in the bottom of the sea, "alone at last." The piece begins slowly, but works up to a highly satisfactory finish. The settings are very attractive throughout, and the cast is one of general excellence. Lois Meredith appears as Agnes and J. W. Johnston as Horace. Chester Withey directed. "THE CRUISE OF THE MAKEBELIEVE" Paramount Presents Lila Lee in an Adaptation of the Story by Tom Gallon. Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison. THE ship "Make-Believe" is an affair rigged up in the back yard of a poor lodging house mainly conducted by "Bessie," impersonated by Lila Lee. In this structure of board scraps Bessie steers with a wagon wheel and imagines she is on a cruse in the Orient. Next door Is a young millionaire, living "down" among the "people" while writing a book on "masses and classes." He climbs over the fence to amuse himself with Bessie and finally decides to accord her one month of still greater illusion. He hands her d lute father a large sum of money and arranges to give him full use of a magnificent summer home in "Dream Valley," under the pretense of all this being an inheritance, or a lucky speculation. He further arranges with his servants to obey orders from Bessie's father and goes away for a month leaving his beautiful home in full charge of a drunken sot in order to amuse the child for thirty days. The cheap boarding house is closed and Bessie's family moves to the young millionaire's superb country house. At the end of a month the young millionaire returns to find Bessie exquisitely dressed and engaged in entertaining some poor children, her father getting very drunk with a lot of congenial spirits in the