Photoplay (May 1921)

Photoplay Magazine 53 Later, after he has become a crook hero, and is working w ith an equally likable pal, and after the two have siiccessfnlly burglar ized an entire New England town, he is permitted to hear ihv message of Ciod and mother through the partition of the house in which he is hiding out. and reform. But not until he has cashed in on his burglaries and taken the money to help the dear old lady pay off the mortgage on the place. Also he goes back to honest work and lni\ s himself a new suit of clothes before he returns to the burglarized village to claim the heroine, and there is a suggestion that he gave back most of the plunder he had lifted from the place. The story of this pleasantly entertaining little comedy ma\ ha\ e come to Ethel Watts Mumford in a dream, but we'll wager it was after she had seen "Turn to the Right," the screen rights to which John (lolden and \\'inchell Smith recentlv sold to Metro for nigh onto a million dollars. It is cut to the pattern of that highly successful conied\\ Francis Marion has made a workmanlike scenario. Honest Matt Moore and wide-e> ed Glad\-s Leslie do very well with the principal roles, but George Parsons, who is never mentioned, out-acts both of them. THE CONCERT — Goldwyn VICTOR SCHERTZIXGER, as director, did not find much to inspire him in "The Concert." save the now familiar goose and gander theme, proxing what's sauce for one is Worcestershire for the other. And yet on the face of it the stor\ of "The Concert" suggests |)ossibilities. Given a pianist who is adored b\ his feminine following to such an extent that he is threatened with being smothered by the bolder of his admirers, but who is protected by a wise little wife w ho knows her husband well and her ow-n sex e\ en better, it would seem that a series of exciting and rather diverting adventures might be whittled out of the story. But about all that happens to Augustus, the hero of the screen version of the Bahr comedy, is that he permits the excitable Mrs. Hart, his wonder-child pupil, to in\ ite him to spend the day with her at his place in the mountains; where Mr. Hart and Mrs. Augustus, ha\ing been appraised of the "elopement" discover them, and where all four are finally convinced that a plain but honest wife (or hitsband) in the home is worth a dozen temjjters in the open. An obvious attempt has been made to brighten the picture with Rupert Htighes sub-titles and is partly successful, except where the failure to suit the printed speech to the accompanying action exposes the trick. The pla> ers flounder a little, but do the best the\' can, Lewis Stone playing Augustus, Mxrtle Stedman his too phlegmatic spouse, Mabel Julienne Scott the disappointed Mrs. Hart and Ra>"mond Hatton her husband. THE SAPHEAD — Metro THE character of Bertie in "The Saphead," (nee "The New Henrietta"), has always pi osented a problem to the actor ■who plays him and the stage director who has anything to do with his stage creation. He either has to be made such a fool that the authorities would never have permitted him to roam the streets at large, and get his laughs by being a fool, or he has to be plaj'ed as a reasonably normal, but quite irres()onsible jouth, and run the risk of being dismissed as neither funii\ nor interesting. Winchell Smith, directing Buster Keaton in playing the role for Goldwyn, has effected an acceptable compromise. Bertie is still like nothing human, but his arraiu stu|)idities are amusingly extravagant. However much .Mr. Smith may have had to do with the directing of " The Saphead " (you can never fully believe the title sheet) it has been intelligently directed, edited and titled, and furnishes, therefore, good light entertainment. Buster Keaton is a natural and an agreeable comedian. The \eteran W. H. Crane adjusted himself gracefulh' to the deiTiands of the screen, and somewhere around the studio I suspect the spirit of Stuart Rob.son hovered most of the time the i)icture was being made chuckling to itself to see the gu\ 'nor put through his paces as a bloomin' riiov ie actor. COLORADO — Universal 'T'llEN' lia\e deliberateh' forced the situations to make a picture drama in "Colorado." If things happen without much logical reason for their happening and there is little evidence of the skill of Augustus Thomas as a builder of good melodramatic stories, it is still a ( Continued on page 99 ) "Strai^fit Is the Way ' is a story of a crook s relorn>a;i!>i>. reminiscent of "Turn to the Right. ' Matt Moore and Gladys Leslie do very well in the principal roles. The production was directed by Robert Vignola. Alice Calhoun is one of the most believable tJirls an tKe screen. Her "Princess Jones is just a wisp of a tale, but intelli(^en f ly and humorously clevelt>pecl by Giistav Seyvertitz . ization o( tke Spaniard s novel, is a war picture, yet its character and story-value place the war in the background, TKe cast IS well chosen.