Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1919)

yo Photoplay Magazine Harry Morey's sincere acting and dominant personality make Vitagraph's "King of Diamonds" a convincing photoplay, in spite of an illogical story. Betty Blythe is the emotional lady in his arms. 9m ' » **' fl 1 1 '(■'•■^ f *■ i^ sB HE W $ 1 ^*p wt fflterr— 4Q .-. Vivian Martin, in "Mirandy Smiles," an old-fashioned characterization. ' pi ■9 M ,.7;«j I * Carmel Myers is the principal figure of "All Night." THIRTY A WEEK— Goldwyn — or, how the chauffeur married the millionaire's daughter, and the trials that came to their love and faith. In its essential ingredients. Mr. Buchanan has turned out something that might be attributed to Bertha M. Clay, and enjoyed only by the gum-eating elevator girls. But as it happens, the trashy little story is largely salvaged by good acting and an altogether superior production. Tom Moore's personality will usually make up for many lacks in material, and it does here. Tallulah Bankhead, as the young plutocress who compels him to keep her out all night — by removing a part from her car — in order to make him marry her, reveals considerable beauty and entirely too much temper in the quarrel scene. HIDDEN HRES— Goldwyn This feature is one which, like numerous others, seems to have been more or less delayed in reaching its public by influenza. However — it permits Mae Marsh to play two characters in a story which has rather more possibilities than the scenarioist took time to unearth. One of Miss Marsh's assumptions is Peggy, presiding officer of a hotel news-stand; the other, Louise Parke, daughter of a Boston family of wealth, and, like other women of her sort, destined to sink into the morass of idleness, booze, drugs and final extinction through sheer lack of occupation. The best part of the story — the most dramatic part — is the substitution of Peggy for Louise, to placate Louise's supposedly dying mother. Upon this, and its consequences, depends a plot that might have been big. There are no performances of especial distinction other than Miss Marsh's. THE YELLOW DOG— Universal The best thing about "The Yellow Dog,'' it seems to me, is that it returns Arthur Hoyt to the screen. This very good actor has been absent, in directing and kindred film services, for a long period. As a play, the saffron canine isn't much. Elliott Clawson, who dramatized Mr. Dodge's serial story of the same name, found it a narrative, and left it one. As reading matter, it told interestingly of a resolute villager's successful attempt to oust the yellow dogs of German spydom from his small town. As a picture it still tells about it, and argues about it, with the best things Mr. Hoyt's acting of the ioorc American, and the valiant services of a patriotic band' of boys whose watchword is "How do you know?"' when they hear any ulterior remarks about our war. The melodramatic passages are wholly unconvincing. THREE X GORDON— Paralta It has been a long time since we wrote anything about J. Warren Kerrigan. But here he is, in much the same sort of play that he always used; and. in its kind, a moving and entertaining sort of picture. Kerrigan represents the traditional dissolute son of rich parents, eventually ousted by a disgusted father. With a pal, the abandoned one hits a farm at harvest time, and by the time the hay is in there has been such a change that however his exterior he certainly lias a new soul in the old body. He then goes into the reclamation business, and starts a reconstruction camp for denatured rounders like himself. The result — material success, family reunion — and girl. This entertainment is without sophistication or subtlety. but if Warren Kerrigan is one of your admired actors, you will like it. THE FORBIDDEN CITY— Select Norma Talmadge's large October vehicle might be described ;>^ 'Madame Butterfly" turned inside out. and then turned outside in. For what happens to Toy's mother is what happened to Cho-Cho-San. only more so: and what happens to Toy is nut at all what happened to Cho-Cho-San. The love of the Mandarin's daughter San-San for John Worden. the Consulate secretary, results in her death in the "alley of flashing spears.'' while her half-breed baby is reared to be a palace plaything and by-word. But Toy, the child, has her own idea of things, and escapes to Manila, where she meets her lieutenant, and the rest is love and difficulty — and love. While for sheer dramatic opportunity "The Forbidden City'' does not compare with some of Miss Talmadge's .recent plays, as a thing of beauty (Continued on page 94)