Paramount Press Books (1918)

ADVANCE PRESS STORIES— Continued “THE WHITE HEATHER” IT MEANS GOOD LUCK Maurice Tourneur’s Great Film Superb Production. Maurice tourneur’s latest Paramount-Artcraft production, “The White Heather,” will be the main feature at the Theater next The story is adapted from the melodrama written by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton, which had a long run at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. Indirectly the title comes from the little flower of the Scotch Highlander, the white heather, which is said to bring good luck to its wearer. Scotland, however, is the background for but a part of the story. The action centers around the recovery of a marriage record from the hulk of a sunken yacht, “The White Heather.” The big scene of the melodrama takes place at the bottom of the sea, where the hero and villain fight to the death on the ocean floor. For these remarkable scenes Mr. Tourneur employed the newest invention of the Williamson Brothers, whose subsea photograph devices made possible the under water scenes of “The Submarine Eye” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” The various roles are in the hands of capable players. Many Stirring Scenes 'T'here are plenty of stirring ^ scenes and dramatic climaxes at the Theatre this week, where Maurice Tourneur’s Paramount-Artcraft special production of “The White Heather” reveals what admirable material for movie thrillers is to be found in the famous Drury Lane melodramas. On the screen the story is told with greater freedom and in wider spaces than in the ordinary theatre. The beauty of the Scotch Highlands, the lure of the ocean and the mystery of its depths are revealed on the screen as they never were in the theatre. The photoplay has scored an immense success. SCENES OF BEAUTY IN “THE WHITE HEATHER” Maurice Tourneur’s Picture Has Fine Dramatic Flavor. IN “The White Heather,” Maurice Tourneur’s new ParamountArtcraft special picture which will be shown at the Theatre next , Mr. Tourneur unfolds the scenes of a Drury Lane melodrama in a series of genre studies of remarkable beauty. There is Scotch mist in these pictures, and the wind on the dunes and the scent of the wild heather. Mr. Tourneur has some magical method of his own enveloping his “shots” with atmosphere that is instantly projected into the audience. You don’t need thistles to remind you that this is a Scotch film ; from the first flash on the screen you are in Scotland. “The acting is so uniformly excellent that it is impossible to differentiate between the roles,” said a leading New York reviewer. “After all, in a perfect piece of work like this, the director and not the play is the thing. When you have sat through reel after reel of cheap screen “business” played against early Pullman interiors, you feel a personal sense of gratitude toward the man who has brought so much genuine beauty to life before your eyes.” Picture Teaches Moral 1WIAURICE TOURNEPTR’S Paramount-Artcraft special picture, “The White Heather,” which is at the Theatre this week, sweeps away any lingering doubts one might have had about the value of the army’s system of copying everything in triplicate. If the heroine in this great picture had only copied in triplicate the record of her clandestine marriage to Lord Angus Cameron then the lives of three persons might have prevented several exciting scenes, including an undersea fight between two men in diver’s costumes that Jules Verne could not outdo. The cast is of a high quality of excellence. “THE WHITE HEATHER” HAS DRAMATIC STORY Interesting Undersea Views Are Shown in Picture. E^NGLISH melodrama, strength* — 1 enecl by highly interesting undersea views photographed by the Williamson submarine tube, “The White Heather,” Maurice Tourneur’s latest Paramount-Artcraft special picture, which comes to the Theatre next portrays some tremendous efforts to get the “papers” in the case of Marion Hume, who married Lord Angus Cameron aboard his yacht by the Scotch ceremony of declaration before two witnesses. The documentary evidence of the marriage, enclosed in waterproof wrappings before the yacht was sunk, constitutes the sole protection of Marion and her child, as one witness disappeared in the deep, and the other in the flotsam and jetsam of the London underworld. Lord Angus, finding himself in serious financial circumstances, urged to marry a woman of wealth, denies his secret marriage to Marion, and fights with highbred selfishness to make his own son illegitimate, a conflict ending in his own death and that of a lad who tried to clear the young wife’s name. The acting of H. E. Herbert as Lord Angus and Mable Ballin as Marion Hume is excellent. The public will enjoy Tourneur’s artistry of production, but interest will center on the undersea combat at the last of the melodrama. It is said to be one of the most novel and thrilling scenes ever pictured. Tourneur Picture Scores PVNE of the strongest photoplays from dramatic and photographic standpoints seen here this season is Maurice Tourneur’s Paramount-Artcraft special picture, “The White Heather,” which is doing a turnaway business at the Theatre this week. It is a splendid production, and the battle of two men in diving suits on the bed of the ocean is remarkably effective. The cast is of a high order of artistic merit. 17