Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1918)

68 Photoplay Magazine "The Clutch of Circumstance" has Corinne Griffith as its centerpiece. A young player of delicacy and beauty. Pauline Starke and Eugene Burr in "The Atom," a recent Triangle Billie Burke, "In Pursuit of Polly," one of those yarns of innocent complications which used to get us so breathless. be it was; it has happened before. Miss Marion's titles — if they are hers — are flat as beer will be in January. If Mr. Stone is to become a picture favorite he has yet to prove it; at any rate it will be a superman's job to fit plays to him. "The Goat" makes him one. Will Rogers, the shy and shambling rope-thrower of Mr. Ziegfeld's New York tableaux, is not so great a celebrity as Mr. Stone, but he will get much farther on his first picture. The affair (a Goldwyn) is a picturization of Rex Beach's character, "Laughing Bill Hyde." Rogers doesn't make any more pretense of acting in the sun than he does upon the New Amsterdam platform, but in his portrayal of the fellow who habitually "borrows things" when their owners are not looking he registers both pathos and humor. Rogers' ability to go through with a story was quite a surprise to me, as it must have been to others who have only seen him muster presence of mind enough to flounder through ten minutes of monologue. There is evidently more in that excessively homely bean than synthetic embarrassment. If Lila Lee is the youngest of the new stars, Ernest Truex is certainly the briefest. In fact, this young man's short-pants stature is a professional asset of no small importance, despite his possession of a wife and a charming family. Truex, bowing before the hundred million of our people who follow the photoplay, is more fortunate than any of the other beginners, for he was backed up by Anita Loos, after a long dry spell working again in her old full blaze of satire; and he had John Emerson as his director. "Come On In," pretends to be nothing more than a merry burlesque on enlistment and spy stuff, but we could pardon a deluge of war plays if some of them were such light and real entertainment as this is. Rejected by the draft board because of his scanty inches, Eddie Short (Truex) in pure melancholy picks a fight with a German-American, and is soundly whanged on the head for his patriotic pains. The bump gives him the missing inch, and he gets in. The exquisite Shirley Mason is Eddie's foil, as Emmy Little. As patriotic propagandist and screen comedian Mr. Truex is an undoubted success. I don't yet know whether Tom Moore is a star in revival, or a star brand new. At any rate, the mere word "star" will make little difference to a great public which has known him in supporting and leading roles for years. Of the whole Moore family, Tom is the most sympathetic, and the most flexible in his delineation of a character. "Just for Tonight," in which Goldwyn gives him a twinkler's debut, provides him with the role of a romantic philanderer — the sort of part in which it is difficult to imagine any more ideally cast than this grave-gay young man. Triangle appears to be experimenting with siderial material in several directions. There seem to be distinct stellar intentions for Claire Anderson and Gloria Swanson, both of whom have more than once, recently, iiad the best Triangle had to offer. The very best work Miss Anderson ever did has not been seen by the public; it is a dramatic, unpretty, pathetic and highly effective performance of the Drain Man's wife, in the unreleased "Servant in the House." Both Miss Anderson and Miss Swanson, if -you remember, are Sennett graduates, and they retain the physical lure. Miss Swanson's pretty and sensitive face is adorable when it's sad; nobody could resist her when she cries. Miss Anderson is, I think, a colder actress, but broader and more versatile. She will, as I have suggested, hide her glories of skin and shape and hair on occasion, and play a forlorn drab. Miss Swanson did very well in "Shifting Sands." Miss Anderson did likewise in "The Mask" and "The Gray Parasol." A recruit to Triangle from the legitimate is Harry Mestayer, a very fine actor in almost any sort of part. Mr. Mestayer has recently been seen in "High Tide." . James K. Hackett — he's really a star coming back — was unfortunate in his choice of an individual vehicle. Ivan