Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1920 - Feb 1921)

52 The Screen in Review in its tremendous contrast with the beautifully done major action. There are plenty of genuine light scenes, pretty and amusing, but the horse play of Martha Perkins, Sterling, and Whipple strike discordant notes. But it is in this part of the picture also that the power of the camera over the theater stage asserts itself. The photography of the rural landscapes is wondrously beautiful. Then comes the long sequence of climactic action — the greatest thrill ever shown. Anna's past is revealed, and the wrath of the squire descends upon her. A brief moment of triumph is hers when she denounces Sanderson before the farmer folk who have held him a gentleman. This moment, incidentally, is Miss Gish's triumph as well as the character's. It is the rarest piece of acting that the screen has offered in all its years. Anna, having denounced Sanderson, goes out into the driving snowstorm, toward the river and oblivion. At length she falls exhausted on the river ice. In the meantime David is wildly searching for her and finally comes to the river just as the great ice break begins ! The ice cracks and swirls in the waters and starts its way down the current to the falls. Anna lies unconscious on a jagged piece which is soon caught in the current and hurled recklessly on. Horrified, David begins his pursuit, leaping from one ice cake to another, nearing his goal, only to have the gap widened again the next moment by some eccentricity of the ice break, or the river current. But he keeps on, making dangerous leaps, sometimes slipping — once, indeed, he immersed himself in the wateronly to scramble on again in a mad frenzy to save the girl of his heart from destruction. And just as the ice bearing Anna touches the very brink of the falls, David, by one final, superhuman effort, reaches her side, snatches her from certain death, and then beats back against the ice floe to the shores of safety. Griffith is a wizard when it comes to the building of such a climax and in holding the suspense. The quick flashes from Anna to David, the numerous shots of the falls, the terrific struggle waged by David, despite his seemingly hopeless task, all bespeak the hand of a master craftsman. It is a thrill that equals anything else that even Griffith has done, not excepting the ride of the clansmen in "The Birth of a Nation" or the finale of "Hearts of the World," in which the hero dashes to the rescue of the heroine. The ice floe is more relentless than the Hun. I think Griffith has gone too far in his realism on various occasions throughout "Way Down East." The flash of Anna that suggests the tortures of childbirth might better be omitted. And it is hard to understand why an artist such as Griffith must needs introduce such minor vulgarities as the Sanderson orgy and the scene in the bedroom, in which the bed is the center of attention, just after the mock marriage of Anna and Sanderson. Realism with a capital "r" is unnecessary. But no minor exceptions can dim the praise that is Griffith's for "Way Down East" as a whole. In his fine work he has been aided by Miss Gish's wonderful performance, by the upright work of Richard Barthelmess as David, by the polished performance of Lowell Sherman as Sanderson, and by Burr Mcintosh's characterization of Squire Bart! eft. I made a passing reference to Charles Ray as having humanized the country-boy character. In so doing he created a new type of picture entertainment with which his name is ever associated. But it was not Charles Ray alone who accounted for the fine humor and the homely appeal of his pictures. For a long time it was Julien Josephson's stories. There was a real warmth and wholesome sentiment about them. I want to go on record as saying that the Ray-Josephson combination, with Jerome Storm on the directing end, was one of the happiest ever consummated in pictures. It is broken now, this combination, and very regrettably so. In Ray's first independent production one looks in vain for the usual human Ray characterization, for the warmth and appeal of the Josephson stories. George M. Cohan's erstwhile comedy with music, "Forty-five Minutes from Broadway," was no more appropriate for this star than it would be for Charles Chaplin. In the Bowery prize fighter, who proves the guardian angel of a new-rich friend, Ray creates a new character, one that is amusing more than once during the picture, but one which is ill-fitting his talents. As regards story, "Forty-five Minutes" is chiefly to be noted for its lack of substantial plot. Certainly it possesses none of the distinctive interest and appeal of the Josephson works. I believe that there are some persons who liked Ray in the Cohan piece. But you who look for Fairbanks in stunt-comedy, Chaplin in eccentric make-up, and Tom Mix in thrilling Westerns would hardly agree that a change to some other type of picture would do any one of that trio great good. I can't enjoy Ray as Kid Bums any more than I could enjoy Chaplin as Macbeth. "Peaceful Valley," one of the sweetest of the old "b'gosh" dramas, immortalized a generation ago by Sol Smith Russell, is to be Ray's next vehicle, under his new management. A good many of his followers, disappointed in "Forty-five Minutes from Broadway," will be eagerly looking forward to his second release, hoping that in it they will see the "real" Charlie Ray again. And I hope they will not be disappointed. If Charles Ray appears to have suffered a bit so far without Mr. Josephson's stories, even so has Mr. Josephson suffered without the services of the star. "Homespun Folks," a Thomas H. Ince production, which, it is interesting to note, is the first picture to bear the newly formed Associated Producers' trade mark, was quite evidently written with Ray in mind. Its story is divided between a New England farm and the near-by village where the farmer's son, Joel, is making his way at law after being thrown out of the old homestead by an irate parent. Joel's success, his romance with the daughter of a political rival, his courage in turning his adherents down and remaining in the course of justice after he has been elected district attorney, form a story of homely appeal and genuine comedy which winds up with a spectacular thrill. Lloyd Hughes is presented in the role of Joel. This young man is a capable actor, sure enough. He possesses good looks and shows a fine, clean-cut personality. But he is no fit successor to Charles Ray. He misses Ray's distinctive appeal. He reflects the strength of the farmer lad, but not the weakness. And the weakness was a determining and appealing part of the RayJosephson creations. "Homespun Folks," on the whole, is a rural melodrama with few of the "b'gosh" elements refined to the point of artistry. The Will Rogers comedies are closely related to this rural type of entertainment. Take for instance his latest picture "Honest Hutch," a story in which he appears as a hopeless bit of "po' white trash" of the South. Here in this picture is an atmosphere just as much of the Southern soil as the Griffith picture's atmosphere of the Northern soil. The counterparts of Hutch can be found in any