Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1921)

58 Photoplay Magazine "Deception" is a German made portion of English history, dealing with Henry VIII, his wife Catharine, and Anne Boleyn, whose march to the scaffold forms the nnale. It is very much worth seeing. Jackie Coogan, of rare talent and lovable personality, probably will never again have the chance that Chaplin gave him in "The Kid." However, his acting in ' Peck s Bad Boy" proves that he is a fine little actor. "The Perfect Crime presents Monte Blue in a Jekyll and Hyde role demanding unusual talent. An improbable but decidedly original story. DREAM STREET— United Artists FATHER GRIFFITH seems to feel that he should apologize for " Dream Street." "We do not make any great promises one way or the other," he writes in the program; "we have done the best we could." There really is no call for an apology. And if apology must be made, a better basis for it would be the length rather than the quality of the picture. It is not a super-feature picture. Which is to say it is not a $2 picture. But it is an interesting and beautifully screened "regular" picture. If it were sharpened by being cut from twelve to seven reels it would retain all its stronger points and lose nothing but its padding and repetilion, and a dozen or so close-ups expressing grief, or fear, or terror, or surprise. With his Dickensian flair for over-emphasizing character D. W. slips into the habit of holding his close-ups so long the character itself fades and you hear nothing but the stentorian tones of the director himself shouting: "Hold it, Carol!" "Foi God's sake, weep a little, Charlie!" "Get the terror into it, Ralph!" Or, if you know nothing of the methods of picturetaking, you wonder just why you must be shown again and again how the heroine looks when she is in trouble and mightily upset about it. SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE— Paramount-Artcraft ELSIE FERGUSON comes back to the screen rested and a little more eager than she was when she left it, but she comes back in a picture that gives her little opportunity to realize upon either her recovered energy or her talent as an actress. The story of "Sacred and Profane Love" is rather muddled in the telling as it has been cut for the screen. To any unfamiliar with the real adventures of Carlotta Peel it must be extremely difficult to understand her wanderings over half the earth and the part various undeveloped romances played in her life. The opening incident of her meeting with and romantic enslavement by Diaz, the pianist, is convincingly and delicately handled out of respect for the new order of censorship. But the story breaks there and the rest of it is wabbly and uncertain. Conrad Nagel gives another fine performance as Diaz, proving the possession of a fine sense of character he established in "What Every Woman Knows." SENTIMENTAL TOMMY— ParamountArtcraft THE spirit with which a director approaches a picture is certain to shine through the screen, and John Robertson's love of "Sentimental Tommy" has done a lot for this picture. Sometimes, it seemed to me, it proved a bit of a handicap, in that in establishing the characters of Tommy and Grizel, the Painted Lad\' and the good Dr. McQueen, he forgets that the story, well known as to title though it is, is still a generation old and only the Barrieites remember it well enough to get full value from it. It is a refreshingly wholesome picture, however, splendidly acted and beautifully set, with a Long Island Thrums fairly steeped in Scotch atmosphere. Here Tommy and Elspeth drift into the village and fly to the defense of Grizel. Here the Painted Lady lives her pathetically short life at the edge of town, where the respectables have shunted her, and from here Tommy starts on his career as a literary man in London, later to return and shatter the heart of Grizel by his mystified indifference to her shy, devoted love of him. And here, finally, Tommy discovers a true affection for the unhappy girl, providing a happy ending Barrie might not altogether approve, though we doubt if he would seriously object to it. Through the story the clear art of a fine little actress in May McAvoy flashes with a positive radiance. Gareth Hughes as perfectly visualizes Tommy as any screen actor could, and acts him much better than most of them would. George Fawcett is the Dr. McQueen and Mabel Taliaferro the Painted Lady. THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI— Goldwyn CHANGE, say the psychologists, is rest. From which basis it might easily be argued that "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is as good as a week in the mountains for any movie fan tired of the conventional picture. Certainly it is a complete change. However relaxing it may be depends greatly upon the sus