Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

76 Photoplay Magazine "Evangeline is a slow, dreary version of Longfellow's poem in ■which Miriam Cooper is about the only redeeming feature. "The Brat" is Nazimova's latest Metro offering, an adaptation from Maude Fultons Morosco stage play. '^^^^^^^k.^ ^' ^f^r ^^^^ Featuring Charlc.« Ray as the bicycling vender of an electric vibrator. "Bill Henry is genuine entertainment. particularly good correspondents, and particularly discerning and intelligent, and as far as 1 know none of the thousands ot Japanese letters was not written by a man. Here are the people who, in the opinion of the picture-going public, have given the most convincing, the most interesting, interpretations of the past year upon the shadow stage. Among the men: Charles Ray, Wallace Reid, Charles Chaplin, Tom Aloore, Tom Meighan, Antonio Moreno, William Farnum, Eugene O'Brien, William S. Hart, Theodore Roberts and Frank Keenan. Among the worrien: Mary Pickford, Alia Nazimova, Dorothy Dalton. Mary Miles Minter, Pearl White, Alice Joyce, \'iola Dana, Constance and Norma Talmadge, Clara Kimball Voung, Lillian Gish and possibly Elsie Ferguson. Let us go into detail. For very chief male interest, Charles Ray and Wallace Reid are neck-and-neck, with Ray the favorite in the betting. For this reason: whereas Reid is a triumph of personality, and chieHy a woman's favorite, Ray is an equal favorite of men and women, and the people are particularly soHcitous of the plays he gets. Some are fearful lest he be made a specialist in rube character, and they go as far back as "The Coward" to prove that Charhe's reputation was not made in the Julien Josephson type play which now — they all admit — fits him so well. Both Reid and Ray have had unusual care given to their vehicles, and their audiences have noticed this, and have commented on it, sometimes greatly to the deprecation of other luminaries who revamp Signor Shakespeare's saying to "I'm the thing." The performances of Reid and Ray are so much matters of national interest that their successes shed radiance over their leading ladies, and their casts are compulsorily good throughout, or their devotees wail dismally. This, as far as public watchfulness is concerned, is indeed an extraordinary state of affairs. The younger leading men are ha\'ing their innings. This tribe is headed by Dick Barthelmess, but Tom Forman will be a close second when he has had as many appearances in good pieces. Others highly conspicuous are Harrison Ford, Ralph Gra\es, Casson Ferguson, Niles Welch, Douglas McLean, Jack IMulhall, Jack Holt, David Powell and John Bowers. Tom Meighan has made greater strides in the past year than any other established leading man in pictures. By the time his three big pla\'s, '"The Miracle ]Man," "Male and Female," and the disputed "Peg o' My Heart," have had general circulation I predict that he will be second to no man in popularity. His screen career has been built by slow, careful effort, and years of waiting for the right opportunity; it is a career unparalleled in his profession. Antonio jNIoreno is in a class by himself. The audiences had much rather see him in five-reel plays than in serials, but they are loj'al to him and are putting his serials across as matters of personal devotion. ^lost conspicuous among those who know this are the Vitagraph executives. William Farnum has increased his following, while brother Dustin has only maintamed his. The public is of the opinion — and rightly — that Bill is a better actor than Dustin, but they ha\'e not overlooked the fact that Mr. Fox has made a continuous though not always successful effort to give William good vehicles, while Dustin's past year has been rather haphazard. Sometimes he has had a good show; more often he hasn't. Elliott Dexter, in the plays being provided for him, was on his way to great and general public favor. His collapse was therefore a real tragedy— many, many are the photoplay followers who are asking if he won't come back soon. Tom IMoore is a peculiarly individual star. Here we have a j'oung man — young, though no juvenile — whole first popularity harks back to Kalem days. But this appears to have been wiped out in his long interregnum of occasional or un.satisfactory photoplays, and in the Goldwyn repertoire recently supplied him he has built a reputation which is entirely new, with hardly a hint of hangover loyalt)' from ancient times. Eugene O'Brien is pronounced by every sub-deb the greatest American actor. Xo man on the screen has made such a complete concjuest of x'ery young female America. The condition of the sixteen-year-olds when his purely stellar pictures, beginning with "The Perfect Lover" — oh, fatal title! — have become nationalized will probably be both pitiful and desperate. Charles Chaplin seems invincible as the British Navy. As in Ray's case, the fans think so much of him that they comment warmly on his plays and sometimes furiously on the