Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1920)

1 THE HARVEST MOON— Gibralter'Hodkinson JUST why this very nicely photographed pliotodrama featuring Doris Kenyon is called "The Harvest Moon" is difficult to determine from the picture — unless it is that Miss Kenyon's silhouette in the arms 01 her young playwright-lover against a very big and round moon is very satisfying to look at in the final fade-out. The theme of Augustus Thomas' play from which this picture was adapted is the power of mental suggestion. Miss Kenyon is pretty but more screen experience would help her. / DAREDEVIL JACK— Pathe MR. JACK DEMPSEY became automatically world famous in about two minutes in the course of a debate over in Toledo one afternoon. It looks like he had become a finished screen actor with about the same celerity. Considering how Mr. Dempsey was drafted for the films most largely because of the ready-made value of his name, you rhight be Expected to hold [ some large questimis ahoujl his merits as an ; actor. The prize rmg is^ot classified among ] the "required courses" m dramatic training — though it is true that many pugilists are j coming into pictures. But a screen ex i amination of the opening chapters of the Dempsey serial proves a rather pleasing ex I \perience. J/ LOCKED LIPS— Universal TSURU AOKFS accomplishments as an actress and her frequent beauty on the screen call for a dramatic mounting chosen with peculiar and particular taste. A very thin line divides intense drama from trashy improbability and in this picture it is feared the story has crossed to the wrong side of the line. The story gives Tsuru Aoki the role of Lotus Blossom, a mission teacher on the island of Hilo, who salvages a human derelict and then through propinquity and loneliness marries him, with disastrous consequences. THE TORCHY COMEDIES— C. C. Burr INTRODUCING Torchy, the office boy. He is life-like in every respect except th t nothing can make red-hair register on the screen. The Scwell Ford stories make pleasant additions to the two reel comedy productions. Johnny Hines plays Torchy. HAUNTED SPOOKS — Rolin-Pathe A GOOD many of you people seem to think Harold Lloyd is just a naturally funny young maii WUtt Walks out on a stage and does a lot of tricks. See this latest exposition and admit you're wrong. Lloyd has done it again, this time a little more ingeniously than ever before. Such bits as the gentleman olf Hebraic extraction in an automobile wh'ich Lloyd, in his flivver, vainly endeavors to pass on the road, mistaking their gesticulatory conversation for signals, are not made up on the spur o.f the moment. And the rest of t^is scream of a two-reeler is filled'witholjjcr "gags" just as funny. Mildred Davis is just as nice as Bebe ever was; she is increasingly deft and correspondingly charming. Much of the credit for this comedy belongs to H. M. Walker, who wrote the titles. If Harold Lloyd keeps up this hard and fast work, there's no limit to his possibilities. The Shadow Stage (Continued from page g^) ALARM-CLOCK ANDY— Ince Paramount' Artcraft THIS is the only Charles Ray picture at the conclusion of which we wouldn't go riglit out of the theater and stop anyone on the street and say : "Go in and see it — you'll like it." And the scenario seems to be the fault. It is built on an idea that was much more interestingly illustrated in "Skinner's Dress-Suit." Agnes Johnston, when she is older, will probably look back on this effort with a studied tolerance. For it is amateurish and Charles Ray does all he can to make Andy engaging and plausible. THE STOLEN KISS— Realart ANY sympathetic person, having seen this, would go home and have a good long cry. The picture isn't so bad; it's just the feeling that's bound to come over one of the appalling waste of talent and beauty on such lukewarm stuff. If Constance Binney isn't pretty and capable, who in^filmdom is, and why don't they ever let her illustrate? So much charm going to waste in so much dull direction and draggy scenario is a real crime. THE LOST CITY— Warner Brothers Serial HERE is an up-to-date edition of the "Adventures of Kathlyn." If you like serials, you're going to love this one. If you don't like them — and I don't, as a rule, you'll sit througn seven reels without flinching. Reasons: Selig, who made it; Mary, the monk; cosqy sets^'and well-dressed extras; Juanita Hanseji, and the character of a happy-go-lucky Irishman who always makes just the humorous remarks you would make if you could think of them in time. POLLY OF THE STORM COUNTRY— First National AGAIN "gladness" triumphs over all in the end. Again the poor and illiterate heroine of the curls and Pollyanna spirit marries the rich and cultivated young hero. This story is supposed to be a slice right out of Ithaca, New York, life. But you can count on it that the Ithaca Commercial Club will not try to tie up an advertising campaign to it. Neither will Cornell University. As Pollyop, the squatter's "glad" girl, Mildred Harris Chaplin is effective with the sun sh.ining throuch her hair. She is all right so long as they do not show her close-up crying. MOLLY AND I — Fox MOLLY AND I" misht have been called "The Unknown Wife," bedause it concerns a girl who, to help a young novelist who has lost his eyesight, poses as a rich old maid and marries him to give him the money he needs to consult a specialist. The story is a good sentimental romance. But it has been produced in slap-dash fashion. LOVE WITHOUT QUESTION— Jans LOVE WITHOUT QUESTION" is a mystery story. Several murders take place in a haunted room and naturally the owners of the house are considerably worried. The story, which was produced by B. A. Rolfe. is imnrohahle but it is interestingly told. Olive Tell is an attractive star and James Morrison is her leading man. 99 THE EMOTIONAL MISS VAUGHN — Pathe IF a susceptible, rotund and slightly bald married gentleman bcueves he has fallen in love with you and boies you witti his attentions— oticr lo tlcly conventions, insist on flying with him to some distant clime and live with him as his unwedded wife, and see him edge toward the door. The emotional Miss Vaughn did so with great success. If all of Julian btreet's "After Thirty" stories, which Mrs. Sidney Drew is producing with John Cumberland in the leading role, are as filled with the foibles of the middle-aged male as this, they will indeed prove excellent entertainment to those who want their comedy subtler than slap-stick. SIMPLE SOULS— Pathe PROVING that satire, unless expertly handled, cannot "get over" on the screen. In book form this was an excellent piece of satirical writing ; in translation by a too faithful scenarioist, it loses everything it had of satire and becomes merely a simple tale of a simple English shop-girl who marries a simple English Duke and who lives simply, and we hope happily, ever after. Blanche Sweet, a thoughtful actress and a good one, isn't a comedienne, and fails absolutely to make you believe in her shop-girl. SHORE ACRES — Metro THE real star of this picturization of James Heme's stage classic is Edward J. Connelly. His "Uncle Nat" is a finely drawn study that no other actor in our collection could have accomplished as well. The melodrama which your mother or grandmother could tell you about has been carefully, almost too painstakingly done by Rex Ingram. Alice Lake does not equal her fine appearance in "Should A Woman Tell?" All in all, it's a praiseworthy production. THE WOMAN GAME — Selznick MARRIAGE, says the heroine of this picture, is a woman's game. And all is fair in love and business. Consequently, Elaine Hammerstein, to win the love of a rich man, pretends that she is an oldfashioned cirl, instead of a sophbticated young society person, and makes a slight story interesting. A MANHATTAN KNIGHT — Fox THIS George Walsh picture must have wandered ffw and wide from the original plot, written /Dy Gelett Burgess. For the story is just,' about as active as the star. And the starJs fo active that he makes you think of nothing so much as a squirrel in a cage. Mr. Walsh is supported by Virginia Hammond. SOONER OR LATER — Selznick AB.ASHFUL bachelor, who is helping a careless friend to find a missing wife, kidnaps the wrong woman by mistake. This is the principal, and about the only, comedy situation iVi "Sooner or Later." It is not a rrerrv comedy and Owen Moore is not particularly funnv in it. Seena Owen plays the role of the kidnaped girl. PARTNERS OF THE NIGHT — Goldwyn LE ROY SCOTT'S entertaining stories of the underworld are the basis of "Part (Continued on page ii6)