Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

I02 in court, is pitied and taken to the home of young Gudmund Erlandson, who meets her in the road. Gudmund is betrothed to Hildur, the daughter of the leading man of the town. When, at a tea. Hclga is discovered in the Erlandson household as a servir.s-maid, the selfrighteous visitors drive her out. Later, Gudmund, in a drunken party, believes he has slain a companion found dead from a stab wound, and the slow-moving, intense studv of remorse put over is really reminiscent of an Ibsen theme. Likewise the handling of the real cause of Gudmund's broken knife-blade is so adroitly masterful that though the thing is plainly planted earlier in the play— and you remember that it has been so planted— it tomes at the finish as a crash of surprise and relief. There is no attempt at glorifying or beautifying the pathetic little peasant heroine, a role perfectly played by Greta .\lmroth. whom w-e might class as a Swedish Mae Marsh. Lars Hansson. as Gudmund. is a genuine duplicate of Henry Walthall, in looks and method. The photography of this piece is below par, considered by the .^merican standard, but its settings are refreshing novelties, its story, while not speedy, has a steady and unrelieved drive that accumulates real power, and the acting is all good. Some of it is much more than good. THE CAMBRIC MASK— Vitagraph Mr. Griffith may or may not have set the fashion for stories about masked ridirs; but whether or no. there have been a lot of them since, and this is one of the best of them. In it the delectable Alice Joyce plays a stirring part ; that of a woman who rescues her lover and husbandto-be by riding in with the mob of whitecaps who are taking him to his death, and releasing his bonds at the final moment. Maurice Costello, who is coming back from yesterday more or less rapidly, plays opposite Miss Joyce. The story, a narrative by Robert W. Chambers, again proves the value of occasionally having an author when you are in the dramatic business. AS A MAN THINKS— Hodkinson Some producers that we know would have seen in this splendidly human play of Augustus Thomas only an opportunity to be smutty. Produced as it is by George Irving, it is worthy of the tine original, whose essense was spiritual rather than sexual, for Thomas' theme w-as the Scriptural truism. ".As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."' When Frank Clayton, publisher, goes to Paris, he takes along his wife, Elinor (we presume the ribald will remark that for taking his wife to Paris he deserved what he got) and there encounters Benjamin de Lola, an unscrupulous artist. De Lota is a two-edged sword in the Clayton family, for while he is endeavoring to re-interest his -former acquaintance. Mrs. Clayton, he is engineering a flirtation between her husband and an artist's model. The upshot of this unhappy melange is that the recriminations which take place when he gets back to the States, Clayton, with the traditional back-acting conscience of one not altogether spotless himself, begins to doubt the paternity of his own son. Into this grave and delicate situation .Augustus Thomas weaves the threads of his fine and saving philosophy of life, and the photoplay has preserved much of this simple reality and sincere idealism. Leah Baird. as Elinor Clayton. Ls the most conspicuous member of a cast which Photoplay Magazine The Shado\v Stage {Continued Jrom page 78) enlists the stalwart services of Henry Clive, Warburton Gamble, Betty Howe and Baby Ivy Ward. It is a worthwhile photoplay. CAPTAIN KIDD, JR.— Artcraft This, the last of Mary Pickford's present Zukor enterprises, is a rollicking Frances Marion dramatization of Rida Johnson Young's play. One of the first essentials of successful comedy is that it be taken seriously by everyone concerned. If you Mind Your Glass Eye! IT might blow up ! Become convinced of other curious and funny things by reading "The Squirrel Cage" on page 49. don"t think the Sennetters take their absurdities seriously you're very much mistaken. I get the impression, on viewing these reels, that le grand Mary was just as serious as ever, and just as much a good actress, but that the play suffers because its director, William D. Taylor, considered it an inconsequential trifle. While, as I have said. Miss Marion rollicks ad lib, the script is not Miss Marion at her best. If you will hark back to Micky Neilan's "M'liss" you may recall a substance even more inconsequential than this, in which we got the very ecstasy of laughter because of the utter gravity of the perforniers — and the super-gravity of the director himself! The line cast of "Captain Kidd, Jr." includes Douglas McLean, Spottiswoode Aitken. Marcia Manon, and that too-infrequently-seen young man, Robert Gordon. GREASED LIGHTNING— Ince About all I have to say concerning this rural adventure is "See it!'' You can't afford to miss Charles Ray as the automobilious young blacksmith who tinkers Fords and the chariot of love by the same methods; nor his thrifty father-in-law, performed by Willis Marks; nor his cute calico sweetheart, demonstrated by a Wanda Hawley who is as perfectly darling in a kitchen apron as in sables. This entertainment makes no special demands for criticism, but it just shrieks for audiences. BLACKIE'S REDEMPTION— Metro I haven't seen all the Boston Blackie stories, but this is by far the best of those that I have seen; it is a well-told, tense, human narrative, with a lot of real sympathy, almost no unnatural "acting," and a believable finish to a crook story — which is, you'll admit, more than most crook stories ever achieve. It is, in brief, the tale of Blackie's redemption through his love for Mary Dawson, and his almost immediate betrayal by "The Count," a thief who is without honor among his own. How Blackie escapes, is tracked, outwits the Warden and then doesn't know what to do with hin forms the rest and best of the account. Bert Lytell is at his very best, but he is no whit behind that pretty little comedienne Alice Lake, who has the stuff of a real actress in her ingenue head and soubrette body, and demonstrates it with vivid reality by her portrait of Mary Dawson. Henry Kolker limns "the Count" in admirable iniquity, and Joseph Kilgour, as the warden shows that in making a transfer from stage to screen he lost none of his mastery of convincing character. Also, this is the best piece of John Ince direction I have e\tr THREE GREEN EYES— World Director Dell Henderson, in this play, puts forth one of the best VVorld films in a long time, notwithstanding a somewhat banal main title. It is the account of a lost letter — a love-letter, of course — and finding it is a five-reel chase. It is particularly notable for its collection of practically all the World stars under a single tent of title. Here are Carlyle Blackwell, Evelyn Greeley, Montagu Love, June Elvidge, and Johnny Hines. EYES or THE SOUL— Artcraft The simplicity of this story will commend it to all who have followed the gifted Elsie Ferguson through various complicated and amazing scenarios, but at the same time I think that the simplicity is carried a little too far; the story takes too much for granted. It is very beautiful and idyllic — Gloria Swann, a cabaret girl, is just about to marry Judge Malvin, when, in the Judge's automobile, she very nearly crushes the remnant of life out of Larry Gibson, a soldiei helpless as well as blind. She devotes herself to Larry, and, when he recovers the use of his legs, though never his eyes, sht nurses him and woos him, until, in spite ol himself, he marries her, and in his newfound vocation of song-writer and librettist presumably begins a successful career. MisFerguson manifests here acting so perfect that it does not seem acting. She seems tc be doing nothing but playing. herself — whicf may or may not be the case — in her sweet tender, sometimes breath-catching perform ance of the singer. Wyndham Standing i: very fine and manly as Larry. In fact, it is hard to conceive any improvement in hii rendition. But I do wish a little more timt had been spent on the titles and inserts The titles let down the suspense; the poetii evidences of Larry's wartime skill are sheet doggerel. The same thoughts could hav( been so much more beautifully expressed ir language not a whit less simple and sincere if someone had only taken the time tc change Larry's song as it appeared ir the first form of the scenario — under ihi title of "Salt of the Earth," in. as usual. th( Saturday Evening Post. This is also true o: the scenario, in a way. Here is another cas( wherein an appealing and satisfying fictior story became, upon conversion into a scenario, more a sweet little fairy tale _ thar a story of real life. However, this is be side the main issue, for "Eyes of the Soul' is kind and gentle, and will please man> people more than the most artful drama ever penned. ONE WEEK OF LIFE— Goldwyn A rather astonishing story, this — of £ woman who "takes a vacation" from thi {Continued on page 104)