Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1923 - Feb 1924)

54 T HE drug store near the theater where "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is playing in New York is doing a record business in smelling salts. Carl Laemmle and his Universal cohorts have launched their strongest picture and the result is so dazzling that seats may be had anywhere except at the box office. As for the 'smelling salts — oh, well, it is a very powerful picture. Mr. Laemmle has played a neat little joke on Victor Hugo by making the film a great deal more interesting than the book. Most of the people who claim they have read the book all the way through are downright fibbers ; but no one has walked out on the film. You may stay there and cuss and suffer but you do stay; the darn thing has so many thrills, kicks and horrors that it reminds you of the grand old days of the Chamber of Horrors in the Eden Musee. The main horror in the haunted house is Lon Chaney, who has been lying awake nights all his life thinking of the glory of creating the character of Quasimodo for the screen. If acting is the art of frightening nervous old ladies, then Chaney is undoubtedly the greatest actor in the world. But if acting means something more than wearing a rubber suit and disfiguring your face with putty, then Mr. Chaney cannot qualify. As it is, I feel that Mr. Chaney is just as much of an actor as the bad kid who puts on a false face and scares grandmother into hysterics on Halloween. In spite of a monstrosity of and wooden direction, it is easy to see why "The Hunchback" is the most popular of the new films. It is the only one that has a story of sufficient power to carry its settings. It has the fire and the sweep that are lacking in "The White Sister," "Rosita," and most of the other new knockouts. Laugh if you will at poor old Victor Hugo, but it is his livid m agination that lights up Mr. Laemmle 's version of "The Hunch) a c k . ' ' He wrote with a fierce indignation of the i n justices, depravities, horrors and crimes of France bef o r e the revolution and all the million dollars spent on the film e r e n ' t Holbrook Blinn plays rings around Marv Pickford "Rosita." The Screen The bigger and view and here better productions so is one seasoned critic's By Agnes Smith books, stories polite, it had Lon Chanev is the main horror in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' his story. You may not like his but novelists don't write such any more. It isn't considered The picture looks as though been directed with a sledge hammer. When Wallace Worsley got to runnin' wild in the Universal back lot, it must have meant pie and ice cream every night for supper for every extra in Hollywood. Such settings ! Such big scenes ! But all gracelessly and unimaginatively handled. The whole thing was produced at the top of the director's voice. However, the picture is a great circus, with Mr. Chaney playing" the freaks. And if you have been wanting a relief from "just those pretty pictures," well, you have your wish. Most of the fits are thrown )v Mr. Chaney, but I earnestly request you to notice the real excellence of the acting done by Ernest Torrence. And again I recommend Norman Kerry as a handsome hero, -■atsy Ruth Miller, as Esmeralda, looks as she were in a bit of a trance ; as if she didn't know quite what it was all about. T can understand her feeling's, at that. though s Not Spanish that Dances. me all worked up in advance got All A lot of writers about Mary Pickford in "Rosita." These enthusiasts claimed that Mary was about to branch out as a grown up, "kiss me you fool" vampire and would undoubtedly mock Gloria Swanson for a row of perfume bottles. It was also claimed that Mary had sent to Germany for Ernst Lubitsch, the gentleman who taught Pola Negri low to vamp a king. During the first scenes of "Rosita," I firmly believed that I was going to see the best picture of the year. Lubitsch jumped right into action and introduced Holrook Blinn as the king. In four scenes, before Mary was introduced, Blinn had run away with the picture. He held it in. the hollow of his hands; Mary was left at the post. But, with considerable hurrah and fluster, Mary made her appearance— her first appearance as a vamp. The only change I could notice was that she had tucked up ler curls. She flirted mildly, she did a few discreet dancing steps, she made one or two attempts at emotional acting. But when she really wanted to put over a situation, she resorted to the same old pout, the same old tricks. She was always_ America's sweetheart, but it was pretty hard to imagine her as the King's sweetheart. Meantime, Mr. Blinn was having everything his own way everv time he appeared on the screen. It may be heresy to go on record as saying that a mere actor from the stage played rings around Mary, but such was the case. It may also be heresy to say that Mary didn't rise to the adroitness of Lubitsch's direction of the 'comedv scenes, but there vou are. At the end. both