Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

H4 Photoplay Magazine Yvonne from Paris" presents Mary Miles Minter appealing role of a French girl. "When Doctors Disagree" presents Mabe long-heralded comedy. Norn Artcraft's production of "The Woman Thou Caveat Me" is a competent production of Hall Cainc'a story. ing? Is the West the only place in which they have perfected the science of illumination? BETTER TIMES— Robertson-Cole "The Turn of the Road" put everybody on the watch for King Vidor's next essay in the sunshine business. Here it i: "Better Times." The name reflects the spirit of Vidor"s dramatic idea, which is not so much a dramatic idea as a will to present a lot of the simple, homely truths of life in highly realistic narrative form. "Better Times" has neither the rather spiritual power nor the original force of "The Turn of the Road," but it is a charming tale, with a most unusual selection of characters, and is presented with a miniaturisfs fidelity to the little things of every-day existence. Nancy Scroggs is the feminine interest-in-chief, and Nancy is the daughter of Ezra, the lackadaisical proprietor of a run-down resort hotel. The only thing really interesting that comes into it is Peter Van Tyne, and when Peter goes out of it — leaving behind him a mysterious message asserting "Rose has announced your engagement"— Nancy pines backward into that realm of fancy which is her only solace. Meanwhile her father gambles away the sudden prosperity inaugurated by the juxtaposition of Nancy and Peter, and departs a world which he did not ornament. Nancy, in the city, gets up an imaginary correspondence with Spike McCauley, a baseball hero, and lo! — Spike turns out to be Peter, whose "engagement" was a Cubs contract. It is in his crocheting of this old-fashioned sampler that Mr. Vidor is illuminating: he shows an almost Dickensesque facility for the little lights and shadows of existence. Zasu Pitts, an ingenue whose brains match her eccentricity, plays Nancy as none of the plaster-cast young ladies could have played her. David Butler is somewhat behind Miss Pitts as Peter, but still is in the picture, and the rest of the cast matches these new-type selections. THE SPARK DIVINE— Vitagraph That Alice Joyce is Vitagraph 's star of stars is evident by the care they take in her productions, and their evident pains to procure for her sound, appealing and well-fitting stories. I cannot agree that "The Spark Divine" is a well-fitting or even an especially human or probable story, but it is nevertheless a tale which, as a combination of problem, narrative, argument and interpretation is worth an hour's obser\-ation. It is a creditable production, carefully and painstakingly made, and when producers are careful and painstaking — when they do the best they can, in other words, as \'itagraph seems to be doing with Alice Joyce — it behooves the commentary onlooker to be full of patience and encouragement. Here Miss Joyce is set to interpreting Marcia Jardine, a daughter of the new-rich Van Arsdales. The narrator goes well behind the scenes for her reasons, for she shows Marcia as a baby, ISIarcia growing up, and finally Marcia as the wife of Robert Jardine, a husband very convenient for the family's business reasons. The thesis would, perhaps, have worked out much more perfectly in a novel, for words would have shown less draggily than does the picture Marcia, in her artificial surroundings, losing all contact with and love for life, until she asks in a cold way concerning her new-born baby, "Must I touch it?" It is a kidnapping of this baby — arranged to produce an awakening — which does awaken the mother love and unleash the warm blood in Marcia's veins. The few dramatic episodes are well handled, and Miss Joyce gives as sincere and interesting a portrayal of Marcia as you could well imagine, but. as I have said, it is not a pre-eminently good screen story. William Carlton, Jr., plaj's Jardine, the young husband. Tom Terriss directed. SECRET SERVICE— Paramount First off I want to say that this is the first play of militarj' mystery I have ever seen in which the "mystery" became sensible to the audience. Cuptain Thorne does not fool with a lot of papers and orders and plots. Instead, you understand from the first that his whole purpose in the Confederate lines is to telegraph over the Davis wires in Richmond an apparently authentic order which will withdraw a whole Southern division from the line at the exact moment of the Northern attack upon that spot. This clear simplicitv of purpose does much to make the play a breathless and exciting one. As a celluloid transformation of a great stage success this is the best of efforts,