Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

The Screen in Review 69 a race-track story, directed by Richard H. Stanton. It is a sequel to "Clieckers," filled with thrills, pathos, home, and mother. The horses are great. But the trouble with stories about racing is that they are all alike. The right horse always wins, the audience knows that it will win, and so there is no suspense. In real and cruel life, the right horse seldom, if ever, wins. That necessary "mother-love" touch is supplied by Mary Carr, who is a convincing mother. She ought to be. You may remember that she has a flock of children herself. Violet Mersereau is in the picture, too, andso is that perfect gentleman, J. Barney Sherry. "Shame." All the Fox specials may be taken in a heap. Next on the list comes "Shame," which is much better than it sounds. The story is regulation stuff ; it tells about a man who believes that he is a half-caste. After suffering for some time because he thinks he is part Chinese, he goes to the great Northwest to live down the terrible disgrace of being a distant relative of Confucius. In a melodramatic and well-staged wreck, he discovers that he belongs wholly and entirely to the great and gorgeous white race. Emmett Flynn, the director, has made the picture colorful and interesting. Don't fail to see San Francisco's Chinatown. Come one, come all, as the sightseeing wagons say. "Perjury." "Perjury" follows "Shame." It is a picture made for those who just dote on William Farnum. Directed by Harry Millarde, it is filled with good, old-fashioned heart interest. Mr. Farnum plays the astonishingly original role of a man who goes to prison for a crime committed by another. It is not as good as "Shame" because the agony is not so well tempered with thrills. "A Virgin Paradise." Pearl White's own particular special is called "A Virgin Paradise." The story was written by Hiram Percy Maxim, son of the famous inventor, and Hiram Percy has invented a neat little plot for Miss White. The story concerns a beautiful young girl who is caught, in the wild stage, on a South Sea island. She is brought to civilization, and Mr. Maxim sets out to prove to us that a feminine Tarzan of the Apes is better than an F. Scott Fitzgerald heroine; that it is safer to play with lions than society men; that it is better to wear no clothes at all than a conventional evening gown. In other words, he takes a terrible slam at the hypocrisy of an effete world. Whether or not Mr. Maxim is right you must decide for yourself. The reviewer will not go into the moral aspects of the case, but will limit herself to saying that Pearl White is a wonderful savage. In "A Virgin. Paradise," she hasn't had such a good time since she left the continued-next-weeks. The more civilized she grows, the less interesting she becomes. Her streaks of savagery are the best parts of the picture. Miss White was not made for society dramas ; she acts with heart, soul, and main strength. "A Bashful Romeo." The long-promised Will Rogers picture, "A Bashful Romeo," is here at last. This is the much-heralded production that gives Mr. Rogers an opportunity to show his legs. After establishing himself as the shrinking prairie flower of the fillums, Mr. Rogers all of a sudden grows imusually bold and plays Romeo. Who said he couldn't play love scenes and who said he couldn't wear tights ? In "A Virgin Paradise," Pearl White begins as a savage, but ends up in society. The story is a bantamweight affair about a cowboy who is too bashful and too lazy to win the girl who is just waiting around to marry him. And so he takes lessons in love. First he goes to a motion-picture studio