Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

57 in Review and sometimes politely, reported. Lusk Mabel Normand's those who picking pockets. Miss Compson offers Hawaiian divertissements from the platform, supplying what may be called sex attraction. It is a prosperous though nefarious trade. In order to give the public novelty, just as any showman would, Kirkwood decides to cast aside the medicinal hokum and give his audiences "religion" instead ; so all his company change into costumes suggestive of the Salvation Army. While Kirkwood talks of the hereafter, with Miss Compson as the organist, the old people pick pockets with their usual industry and skill. And Mary Cansmokes a cigarette. Think of that! Yet there are those who say that players never change their stuff. Religion "gets" the gang in the course of time and one by one they sheepishly reform — all except Hula Kate, whose jealousy of a new girl in the group keeps her human. In a "big" scene Kirkwood confesses his fraud to the congregation his preaching now attracts, and is forgiven. What happens thereafter goes to prove that some lives are crammed with incident while most of us plod through a humdrum existence. Mary Carr falls downstairs and kills herself, the sweet girl whose playing put a crimp in Hula Kate's affair with Kirkwood proves to be no better than she should be, Kirkwood goes to prison and in convict's garb still preaches — this time over the radio. "The Wise Guy" has no end of plot, as you must qgree, but it has little else that makes a good picture or even a plausible one. The Best of Its Kind "Rolling Home," the current Reginald Denny frolic, is one of the comedian's best. It is not only amusing throughout — and genuinely funny at proper intervals — but it is more human than many of his other films, excepting, of course, "Skinner's Dress Suit." He is more than ably abetted by Ben Hendricks, Jr., who gives one of the best performances in months in a role that another might have made conventional. He is a tough chauffeur, a former buddy of the hero overseas, who goes with him to the latter's home town where great festivities are planned to celebrate the native son's triumphal return. Only Denny and Hendricks know that both are failures, with less than a dollar between them. But before they know it they are hailed as financiers. Out of this state of affairs develop all manner of amusing moments, narrow escapes from discovery, with, of course, Denny's ultimate victory over circumstances. Meaning that he does establish himself as a financier and wins the girl who has been waiting for him but who refused him because of his fancied great wealth. Embroidering this yarn, reminiscent of a couple of Thomas Meighan's pictures, though far more rapid in pace, are countless surprises in the way of incident and characterization, all going to make a picture that reaches perfection in its class. It is wholesome, typically American f unmaking, and all hands concerned return to the screen in "Raggedy Rose" causes rejoicing among missed her, and hilarity among those who look for laughs. in its building have reason to be pleased with themselves. Marian Nixon is the girl, if that means anything to you, and Denny is getting plump, which should mean a great deal. I hope he agrees with me and does something about it. Something Out of Nothing A newspaper comic strip having furnished the inspiration for Colleen Moore's new picture, "Ella Cinders," what can you expect in the way of story, characterization, plausibility? Just what you got out of the strip in question, I hope ; then you will not be disappointed. But if you know nothing of the cartoons, the picture will seem thin and unreal in spite of all they have done to make it otherwise. At that it is superficial, not unpleasant comedy. Despite the handicap of mediocre material Colleen Moore indulges in several flights of really fine drollery. I imagine that in time to come we shall all look back upon these moments in "Ella Cinders" as among the finest she has ever brought to the screen. For example, when Ella learns she has won the movie contest and when, journeying to Hollywood, she wakes to find the train filled with Indians bound for the same destination and through fear of one of them smokes the cigar he forces upon her. Colleen, you see, begins as one of those domestic drudges, quite in the manner of the Cinderella legend, with a hateful stepmother and two caricatures of sisters. The modernized Prince Charming of this incredible fabrication is the iceman, whose name, Waite Lifter, classifies the brand of humor at the bottom of the whole thing. Colleen gives up her career at the moment she is making good because Mr. Lifter reappears and bears her away to a life of domestic bliss. Incidentally, he isn't really an iceman but a millionaire or something fabulous. The last scene shows their little boy driving a miniature ice wagon on the lawn. Cute. There you have "Ella Cinders." The Eternal Feminine Probably because of the success of "Ponjola" a few years ago it was decided that another boy's role must be found somewhere, somehow, for Anna Q. Nilsson. And so "Miss Nobody," first chosen for Colleen Moore, now