Picturegoer (1922)

THE PI CTU RE-GOE-R JUNE 1922 I liirkv 'log and Miriam Cooper in an osculatorv interlude. crowd scenes make up a thrilling and effective picture. A clmirers of E. K. Lincoln should l\ nm miss his June offering, The hnur Voice, which gives him a fine role, and is an excellent and exciting drama. Lincoln is seen as " Mark Keid . " an itlealist who inherits a gold claim. Three different stages of this man's life are shown, and the acting chances are great ; and the story, dealing with mines and San Francisco (lance halls and underworld, is a redblooded and fast-moving one. A character known as 'The Good Samaritan " appears throughout the story, every time the principal characters are about to commit actions unworthy of them, and by his influence puts matters right . Clearness of outline in the continuity and realism in detail especially in the mining claim fight .ire notable points in a thoroughly interesting and virile drama. Hesides his dogs and his acting activities, 1 K Lincoln is the owner of modern motion picture studios at Grantwood, New Jersey, and Blandford, Mass lie was in Europe last year, but, as he travelled incognito, he was quite unmolested by interviewers and pressmen. \ fascinating, if somewhat slow «. ~V moving story, good acting, and very beautiful settings and lighting effects, make The Oilier Woman an interesting release A drama of dual personality offers many opportunities; witness the sue icss of 1>> Jekyll and M, Hyde, which The .Other Woman il u1 only superficially. The hero is an abnormal character, but this is not apparent until well on towards the end of the film. An erstwhile tramp, he is rescued by a man who hails him as a former business partner. He becomes successful, is nominated for mayor, and is in the midst of a romance when his memory returns, and he remembers that he already has a wife, to whom he returns. But later he goes South again, picks up the threads of his life the 'e, and his other personality becomes dominant again. There is good suspense for the spectator in trying to puzzle out how the tangle will be unravelled. Jerome Patrick plays the Jekyll and Hyde hero, and Jane Novak and Helen Jerome Eddy the two women into whose lives he comes. The film was adapted from a novel by Norah Harris. Pearl White appears this month in a story of lumber-camp life, which allows her to display all those gifts for daring stunt work which have made her serials so well liked. She is seen as a mountain girl, known as " the he-woman," because she is called Alexander, and dresses as a boy. Pearl's adventures and feats are numerous and hazardous enough to satisfy even the most exacting serial lover, as she indulges in some log distributing work, also much riding and shooting. The final reels of the picture arc devoted to " Alexander's " choice of a husband, and arc amusing and clever. The thrills include two realistic fires, also vivid scenes of huge trees being felled, and the bursting of a huge dam. Admirers of Pearl White who like her best in serials will be glad to know that she has returned to the scenes of her lormfcr triumphs, and is now making a thrilling chapter-plaj for Lathe's. She has recently been seen in a revue in Paris. Circumstantial evidence, centring around an Egyptian ring, forms the main idea of The Scarab King, a mystery melodrama, well staged and very well acted. It commences somewhat mildly, but the ending is surprising, for the heroine, after having been cleared of suspicion by a clever lawyer, confesses to him that she really was guilty. Extenuating circumstances, however, enable her to enlist the sympathy of the spectator. Alice Joyce has been seen in few such stories since Within the Law, but her acting is always restrained and acceptable. She has less opportunities for emotional work than usual. Two love stories are contained in the film, which is well staged. Alice Joyce seems to have retired permanently; there was some talk of her Vitagraph contract having another year to run, but she is still devoting herself to her husband (James Regan) and her baby daughter. She will be seen in some very good society dramas towards the end of the year. In Madonnas and Men, the same story is told in a.d. 2j and the present century — 1920 is the exact year, we are told. It is a dramatic tale, and elaborately spectacular, with its enormous crowd scenes in arenas of ancient Rome and cabarets in modern New York. This alternation of ancient and modern settings gives a novel twist to a society melodrama, and is presented in an unusual manner, for the Roman scenes are used as a background for the society drama of to-day, not, as is more usual, as inserts. But the society story. would be equally effective dramatically without them. The title has little bearing upon the film, which is gruesome in parts, but well acted and most .-skilfully produced. Especially well staged are the Roman arena scenes and the effective fight at the end of the modern story, Before the spectator has well grasped this, he is switched back to Rome again, and the intensely, dramatic scenes there are by way of being anti-climatic. Still, lovers o1 melodrama and spectacle will find Madonnas and Men very satisfying. Ander* Randolf, Rave Dean, Faire Hinney, and Gustav von Seyffertitz are the principal players. Another favourite childhood classic. The Lamplightet (in its film form), stars Shirley Mason. This appealing! screen tomboy makes " Gertie," '.!; much harassed orphan heroine, a natural and life-like figure. Shirley is excellent in all the stages of the her. line's hie, and her enforced pathos will bring tears to the eyes of main soft-hearted picturegocrs. The plot is an old-fashioned one. but it is full