Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1916)

The Shadow Stage 85 TPHE best ITriangle entertainment of the * month is unquestionably "Manhattan Madness." 1 do not sa) this is the best play. 1 haven't seen .ill of them, 1 don't think this is an exceptionallj original play, and further, it doesn't make a darned bit of difference whether it is or not. It is a huge, roistering joke of a good time, with Douglas Fairbanks as head joker. Steve O'Dare, Western gent, comes to Manhattan with a load of horses lor the Russian government. Waiting, waiting, waiting for the final details oi his nans an ion from official sources, he thoroughl) annoys every follow at the club whore ho has been given a two-weeks' card by his deprecating comparisons. Nothing Eastern is worth while. Ever) man is insipid or dishonest, there are no adventures, the life is unhealthy, there is no real sport, and absolutely no wonderful women — well, that 5, ccept one who is pretty nice, after all. Only in the West, evangelizes Mr. O'Dare, can life he found and lived. So he it. Presentlj Steve finds himself fairly well avoided, and is not sorry w hen he receives a summons to the Russian agent's house, in the outskirts oi New York City, for a conelusion of the transaction, ami payment. Once there. Mr. O'Dare finds that insipid \e\\ York has taken a day off and is celebrating like a two-gun cpwpuncher full of Indian whiskey. First he detects a plot to assault and rob him. Next he discovers that the girl of his — well, even as much as it hurt him. he had had to admit it — admiration was there, a prisoner. Setting about to save his roll and rescue her he sees two men murdered before his very eyes. Staggered, but by no means put down for the count, ho es>ays to right all these iniquities personally, and his ensuing hour probably made Nick Carter turn over three times in his grave of yellow covers. At the finale, battered, bruised, bleeding and victorious. Mr. O'Dare winds up at a table in the murder house's dining room. beside which all his club acquaintances pop up quite suddenly, with the defended girl ighing heartier than any of the rest. He admits that there can be some excitement cast of the Hudson, and pulls the last frameup himself. With the aid of his own punchers he kidnaps the girl, makes an ocean liner with his not heartbroken captive, and is married at sea. Mr. Fairbanks, the delicious Jewel Car men. Mace) Harlan, George Beranger ami I ugene Ormonde arc the headliners in this entertainment. The storj w a- n ritten l»\ i hai lea I I >a. c\ . \ derail author oi "In < Md ken uicky." If this lovable pillar of the popular drama i an produce an\ more ol this brand he has a new road to wealth and celebritj carved out in the shadows. Since the Fine Arts company is respon sible for Mr. Fairbanks' breezy interpolation u is no more than fair to put a big black debit on the other side of their ledger for "Old Folks at Nome." an unsightly moss of reels presenting the distinguished English actor. Sir llerberl Tree, in a storv written b\ the distinguished American novelist, Rupert I tughes. Here Tree is confoundedly miscast to play an ancient, upstate Now Yorker who becomes mighty in his own esteem and the esteem id' his townsmen, only to be abated to whatever is currently used for sackcloth and ashes by the escapades oi his son, victim of a vamp, and, through love for her. a murderer. 1 presume in the British provinces Mr. Tree will be taken for an extraordinary replica of the American country politician; but, like imitation caviar, these things should not be devoured too near the native element. The host thing about the story is the rather novel movie fact that there is no mawkish attempt to palliate truth in the killing. No one else fired the shot. The boy did it— and he is acquitted, at that. The best thing in the acting is Josephine Crowell's sympathetic, pathetic portrait of the old-fashioned mother. A splendid character woman, this lady ! N ote, when you have the opportunity, the masculine, cruel, implacable cunning of Catherine de Medici in "Intolerance" — Catherine and the rural mother are both Josephine Crowell. Elmer Clifton is more than acceptable as the son. IWIk. INCE'S recent performances are the •*• doings of the girls and boys he left behind him. Now that he has returned from his four months' Eastern visit personal participation in his distinctive pictures may be expected — or at least, the I nee touch which shows that the boss shadowman is on the ground. "Plain Jane," featuring Bessie Barriscale