Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

56 The Screen The latest pictures briefly, By Norbert H. B. Warner, who starred in "Silence" on the stage, "supports" Vera Reynolds in the film version of the crook melodrama. WITH such recruits from the stage as H. B. Warner the screen, for this season at least, need have no fear that the art of acting will languish. Warner appears as Jim Warren in "Silence," the Max Marcin melodrama which he played with fine discretion on the stage last year. Although the magnates of the theater saw fit to star him in it, as well he deserved, the gods of the celluloid decree otherwise: he "supports" Vera Reynolds. The muses may well weep. For here is one of the strongest, most moving performances of a year rich in individual successes. A performance replete with artistry and bold, raw strength. It does not tower above the picture as a whole but takes its rightful place in a well-knit narrative which sweeps the spectator along through the crisis in a crook's life. "Silence," however, is no ordinary crook picture, with the usual alternate slices of sentimentality, nobility of character, and narrow escapes from the police. Yet, on second thought, it has these elements of popularity, too, but they arc presented with such skill and sincerity that they never evoke the horrid cry of "Hokum !" Jim Warren faces the electric chair because of the murder of his pal, Harry Silvers, in the home of Phil Powers. His silence defies the efforts of jailers, lawyers, and a priest to make him speak and defend himself. He is about to go to his death when the screen visualizes the occurrences which preceded his imprisonment. The}^ go back twenty years and show him a crook with a young wife to whom he is secretly married. His pal is Harry Silvers. As the net of the law closes about him there is but one means of escape — marriage to a rich woman saloon keeper who is more than willing to buy off the police . Rather than achieve immunity by this means he disappears and years later goes to the town where live Phil Powers, who married his wife, and the daughter Jim knows is his own. He visits Powers to warn him of Harry Silvers' intention to blackmail Powers on the score of letters written, to Jim by the wife who is now dead. It is the exciting occurrences at this interview that bring the picture to a climax and send Jim to prison as well as preserve the mystery of the identity of Silvers' slayer. This of course is cleared up finally and a happy ending achieved — a little too happy, I may add, for those familiar with the play, but what is screen happiness without its apple blossoms, sunlit lawns, and holiday togs to prove it ? Raymond Hatton, Rockcliffe Fellowes, and Virginia Pearson offer vivid portrayals and, to make plenteous our chances to see Vera Reynolds, she plays both mother and daughter. "God's in His Heaven " "All's well with the world." Cinematically speaking, of course. All of which is just my way of remarking upon the return of Mabel Normand to the screen in "Raggedy Rose." a Hal Roach comedy. It would be equally a matter of jubilation to record Mabel's return in a fashion reel or something equally tedious. How much better it is, then, to say right off the bat that "Raggedy Rose" is worthy of her undisputed talent ; that it is corking good comedy and that the laughs in it are compounded of an amusing story, skillful direction on the part of Richard Wallace, deft titling by H. M. Walker, and adroit acting by every one concerned. Instead of bearing the burden of the picture on her own shoulders Mabel receives the utmost cooperation from every element required to fabricate a successful picture. For that reason "Raggedy Rose" is a little gem. Although it may be roughly classified as slapstick there is more in it than that, for it has subtlety for those who are aware, delicacy for those who look for sentiment and, of course, hearty laughter for those who respond to elemental funmaking. Mabel is a waif, as usual, her mission in life being to assist a junkman in the doubtful pleasure of gathering odds and ends from the streets, and sorting rags. Fate, which plays just as important a part in comedies as it does in bejeweled society dramas, sends her to the home of a rich }*oung bachelor who is the despair of mothers with marriageable daughters. What Mabel does to bring laughter and light into the rather stodgy household is bett° spp" ^ „i read, as they say in the movie synopses when they leave the reader in mid-air, so to speak. Carl Miller, Max Davidson, Jimmie Finlayson, and Laura La Varnie are actively concerned in the proceedings, and prove that corned}7 is an art. Sentimental Crooks "The Wise Guy" will recall "The Miracle Man" to all who have seen the latter picture, especially as Betty Compson is in the new film to make the association of ideas complete. As Hula Kate she does her generous bit toward furthering the interests of the band of crooks with whom she travels. James Kirkwood is the chief in charge of the medicine show, with George Marion and Mary.Carr his partners in mulcting the yokels, Kirkwood by selling a concoction guaranteed to cure every ill, the other two by circulating in the crowd and