Paramount Press Books (1918)

PRESS REVIEW To Be Sent to the Newspapers Immediately After the First Showing of “Fedora’ A Paramount Picture PAULINE FREDERICK ACHIEVES TRIUMPH IN PHOTOPLAY “FEDORA” Popular Paramount Star Seen to Excellent Advantage in Her Picturization of Victorien Sar clou’s Celebrated Play 1~> EAUTIFUL, statuesque, and intensely dramatic, Miss Pauline Frederick was seen to fine advantage at the Theatre yesterday in her portrayal of the stellar role of “Fed ora,” a picturization of the famous play written by Victorien Sardou for Sarah Bernhardt in 1882. This play served as a starring vehicle for the late Fanny Davenport for many years, and in the screen adaptation the artistic work performed by Miss Frederick compares favorably with that of her predecessor in the same role of long ago. The picture, though tragic as most of the Sardou plays are, met with instantaneous approval, because of it3 artistry and excellence as a cinema production. As Princess Fedora, a Russian beauty, who is engaged to marry Count Vladimir Androvitch, a dissipated nobleman of Petrograd, Miss Frederick was well poised, natural and self-possessed. Count Vadimir fails to keep a theatre engagement with her and when she goes to his house after the performance to ascertain the cause of his absence, she is horrified when his unconscious form is carried in by some police officers, and after he dies in her arms it develops that he had been shot in a shooting gallery, and, as she believes, by anarchists in retaliation for the persecution of General Zariskene, the Chief of Police, who is Vladimir’s father. Fedora swears to bring the murderer of her fiance to justice and when the name of Loris Ipanoff, a neighbor of Vladimir’s, is brought into connection with the case as the suspected assassin, she follows him to Paris and there, by the practice of her subtle feminine arts, she contrives to meet Ipanoff and, at subsequent meetings, win his love. Her motive in doing this is to obtain from Ipanoff a confession and then to turn him over to the police, but when she learns that the shooting of Vladimir was justified in consequence of his intrigue with Ipanoff* s wife, all her resentment towards him changes into love and she screens him from the police and later marries him in Russia. Some weeks later the brother of Vladimir, who had been previously arrested at the instance of Fedora, is accidentally drowned in his dungeon by the overflowing of the Neva, and when this news reaches his mother she dies. Ipanoff learns that a woman is responsible for his brother s arrest and he swears to bring her to justice, unconscious of the fact that this woman is his own wife. In a scene of tremendous dramatic power, Ipanoff learns that his wife is the woman he is seeking, and when he attempts to strangle her she eludes him and after swallowing poison dies at his feet. While the theme of the photoplay necessarily is sombre, it possesses an intense interest for every beholder, and this is heightened by the artistic work performed by the various players in the cast. Jere Austin, as Loris Ipanoff, appeared to exceptional advantage, while W. L. Abingdon, as Gen. Zariskene, the Chief of Police, was excellent. Wilmuth Merkyll, as usual, gave a fine portrayal of the exacting role of Count Vladimir Androvitch, while the others in the cast were quite capable. Other features on Manager bill include 9