Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

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The Screen in Review A critic's catalogue of the latest films, with comments for your guidance By Norbert Lusk THE traditions of "Manon Lescaut" as novel and opera and play have been thrown to the winds in concocting "When a Man Loves" for John Barrymore, but this desperate measure accomplishes nothing more than some pretty poor stuff, quite unworthy of the star who is advertised as the world's greatest actor. It is melodrama run riot. Such a state of affairs is all very well in its place, but that place is not in picturizing the story of the illfated Manon and the Chevalier des Grieux. Some of the finest pictures have been melodramas, but invariably they have depicted character development, and always they have been sincere. This is stagy, artificial, implausible. So much so, that sooner or later you are apt to fall back in your seat and groan, "What, oh, what next?" Almost everything known to the screen — I won't say life — happens when this man loves, only he doesn't seem to be loving at all, but acting. And when matters quiet down a bit, and you think the picture may approach restraint, it breaks out again with renewed violence. A subtitle praises Mr. Barrymore's profile, or he rips off the vestments of the church with a conscious flourish. Forgive the heresy, but Mr. Barrymore's acting is old-fashioned. I am told that he insisted on having Dolores Costello as Manon. If no one objected some one certainly should have. For Manon is, to put it mildly, a light o' love, and Miss Costello's youth and tender, virginal charm do not lend themselves to such a character, no matter how much Manon' s philanderings are glossed over in the picture. The fact remains that she pursues the Chevalier to" the church, where he is about to take priestly vows, and woos him back to the gayeties of the city. This, alas, is not what Miss Costello was cut out to do. As well expect it of Lois Moran ! The story, laid in the period of Louis XV. of France, introduces Manon, described as a guileless flower, on her way to Paris with her mercenary brother. The nobly born Des Grieux is destined for the priesthood, but no sooner does he clap eyes on Manon than he forgets that destiny, and she is not slow to respond to his first, burning glance. They give their respective escorts the slip, and elope. At the time the Chevalier's funds are lowest, Manon' s brother discovers the pair and by trickery separates them, Manon accepting the protection of the wealthy De Morfontaine and the Chevalier finally seeking consolation in the cloister. Ultimately there is a handsomely staged episode at the court of the king in which the Chevalier gambles and wins. This enables him to hurl gold in scorn at the hapless Manon, but the gold is only pasteboard to the spectator with sharp eyes, so it does no harm beyond creating a theatrical scene vhere one is not needed. And that is the spirit of the picture. Manon is finally deported on a convict ship to New C ans. The Chevalier smuggles himself aboard, incites Dolores Costello and John Barrymore appear in "When a Man Loves," a free— very free — version of "Manon Lescaut." the prisoners to mutiny, and when the captain and the crew are made prisoners, he escapes in a rowboat with Manon, while a close-up of the sun sheds its presumably beneficent rays upon them, and there's not a worry upon the horizon — except the memory of a poor achievement. A Delicious Little Devil. "It" isn't the it of pictures, but it will be given rapt attention by those who sympathize with a shopgirl heroine who cops the owner of the store in spite of a ritzy rival. And who wouldn't give his heart to such a heroine as Clara Bow ? This provocative and provoking minx has had more plausible roles — as, for example, in "Mantrap" — but she has never found herself with a more entertaining picture to carry on her shoulders. And she does just that. Without Clara it would be veriest trash, but with her it becomes the sort of picture you enjoy in spite of your saner judgment. She is Betty Lou, who dispenses what I believe are called "undies" in a department store owned by the elegant Cyrus Waltham. In "a burst of bravado Betty vows she will annex the boss — and she does. Her ways are devious and cunning, outrageous and unbelievable, but she makes you glad of her success because she is Clara, and you don't care whether the boss will be happy or not, just so Betty has her fling as a rich man's bride. Between the vow and its fulfillment are all manner of hectic moments, in which Betty Lou's impudence bobs up serenely and invariably conquers. But nothing was more amusing to me than the presence of Elinor Glyn and Clara Bow as rival comediennes. And for the nonce Clara is vanquished. The scene, is the restaurant of a glittering hotel. At the top of an illimitable stairway appears a stately figure. "There's Elinor Glyn," says the subtitle. "Let's ask her what It means." And so, with the majesty of Oueen Marie herself, Mrs. Glyn, in black and pearls,