Paramount Press Books (1918)

SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE For Use of Exhibitors in Their House Organs or of Editors Who Desire Original Story on Enid Bennett or “The Marriage Ring” A Paramount Picture. Enid Bennett, Dainty Ince-Paramount Star, Charming Exemplar of the Beauty of Australasian Women This proves that Many Other Beautiful Things Aside from Kangaroos, Boomerings and Prize Fighters are Reared in this Antipodean State THERE are many things emanating from Australia besides kangaroos and boomerangs. For instance, some of the greatest fighters the world has ever seen or ever will see, come from this Antipodean state, while the beauty of the Australasian women is an admitted fact. There is a concrete example of this in the person of dainty, delightful Enid Bennett, who was recently married to Fred Niblo, a leading star of the legitimate stage. Miss Bennett, as everyone knows, is a star in Paramount pictures, and that means the best. She appears in films produced by Thomas H. Ince, the expert screen artist under whose careful supervision so many fine dramas have grown into being and who has made as many stars as a silversmith. Enid Bennett hasn’t been here so very long. She came over to play with that celebrated actor, Otis Skinner — and she was almost literally kidnaped by Thomas H. Ince, who saw her on the stage and knew she was just the one he needed for the screen. When the producer became affiliated with Paramount, along came Enid, sweet, demure, naive as ever — with a little twinkle in her eye that said plainly, “even if I am from Australia, don’t you try ‘spoofing’ me.” And Enid became camera-wise and Americawise very soon. She has done a lot of fine pictures and now she will be seen at the Theatre next , in “The Mar riage Ring, the scenes of which are partly laid in San Francisco but mainly in Hawaii. And they say it is the best ever, because the star’s hubby directed it. Think of making your own wife do whatever you wish and being able to scold or fine her if she balks! Jack Holt is the leading man, too. That’s another point in favor of the picture. Anyway, we’re all waiting to see Enid Bennett in a new play. You see, she has given us all a memory we won’t soon efface, even if we try, the memory of a very sweet and demure little Antipodean girl who has in a very short time climbed clear up to the star class and twinkles there as effectively as any. The story of “The Marriage Ring” opens with Anne Mertons, the role played by Miss Bennett, who is unhappily married to a brute who seeks to gain his own ends by any means at his command. In a struggle over a revolver the weapon is discharged and she leaves him for dead and goes to Hawaii where she learns to love Rodney Heathe, a sugar planter whom she had met on the steamship. Then Mertons shows up and forces his wife to go with him to his hut where he keeps her a prisoner. She overhears a plot to burn a sugar cane plantation and after making her escape, saves the plantation. The husband is burned to death and she left free to wed Heathe. The story is filled with tropic atmosphere. Miss Bennett is said to have done the best work of her career in this picture. Jack Holt, a popular leading man, plays opposite to her, while Robert McKim, one of the best known screen “heavies,” appears as Mertons, the crook husband. Maude George has the role of Aho, a picturesque Hawaiian girl and Charles K. French portrays the role of a sugar planter. The picture was produced under the supervision of Mr. Ince and it is said to be one of the most attractive issued from the Ince studios in many weeks. John S. Stumar did the photography in “The Marriage Ring,” which is said to be remarkably clear and many beautiful tropical scenes were employed for the Hawaiian atmosphere. 3