Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

66 Michael V a vitch, as Father Roche, and Norma Talmadge, as Mary Ann Wagner, to whom an army kneels in "The Woman D i s puted." AS indeed it should be, I suppose, "The Woman Disputed" is what has come to be known as a typical Norma Talmadge picture. Only it would be commendable and courageous if the artist would forsake sentimentality and assume her rightful place, for once, in a starkly honest picture, or at least one in which events were not so romanticized as to be ridiculous. Producers, however, who spend dollars by the hundred thousand on a film, are naturally concerned in recouping their outlay by means of "safe" approaches to the box office. When most of their investment goes for elaborate equivocations, such as altering stories, building disproportionate sets, and achieving flattering photography at the expense of time and money, it is their fault in rearing a financial colossus. All this has been done to "The Woman Disputed." But the monster is hollow — without a heart. It is, in the vernacular, boloney — varnished by splendid acting on the part of Miss Talmadge and the late Arnold Kent, and good enough performances on the part of the others. It begins when Miss Talmadge is seen as Mary Ann ■Wagner ,3. girl of the streets in Lemberg, Austria. As long as it" lasts -this characterization is brilliant, but it gives way all too soon to debutante sweetness and refinement. F'raulein Wagner is befriended by two swells -^-one, Paul II ar I man, an Austrian officer, and the other, Nika Tiirgenov, a Russian. Their interest in Mary Ann not only causes the erstwhile lady of the evening to don soft, clinging garments of pure white, but to acquire the delicate graces and coquetries of an old-fashioned drawing-room. Both young men fall in love with this pearl, but as she belatedly decides to be monogamous, the enmity of one friend for the other is thus assured. War is declared and eventually Nika, the disappointed suitor, is shown leading the Russians in their invasion of the city. Through his capture of four citizens, who have attempted to pass the lines, Nika is enabled to demand as his price for their freedom nothing more desirable than Mary Ann's new-found virtue. She is convinced that it is her duty to the nation to accede to Nika's demand, because by doing so one of the prisoners, a spy, could escape and give the Austrian army information that would insure victory. Mary Ann goes to Nika, and the Austrian army enters with banners. Whereupon Mary Ann, who has been acting like creerv Joan of Arc approaching the stake, is all but canonized in the patriotic eulogy that follows in the presence of the assembled soldiery, whose ranks stretch across the public square as far as the eye can reach. At a given signal every last one of them kneels in grateful adoration to the saintly Mary Ann, who conveniently stands on a balcony for a scene which would delight any star. ' At this point the admirable musical accompaniment to the picture attains sonorous soarings which sound like a Te Dcum, if not the doxology itself. Civilized, Polished Talk. Of all the talking pictures that are steadily coming out of Hollywood, "Interference," Paramount's first incursion into the all-dialogue field, is the smoothest, most civilized and polished example so far seen. This does not save it from being a bit dull in spots, due as much to the restraint of the acting as anything, and the fact, too, that the play, though a melodrama, is more a drama of words and character than of action. Nevertheless its tastefulness and credibility place it far ahead of any other all-talking picture, and make it significant of what may be looked for from now on. The acting, instead of being that of the stock company, or the sure-fire hokum school, is modern and intelligent. With such players as Evelyn Brent, William Powell, Give Brook, and Doris Kenyon, this was expected, but aside from Miss Kenyon. none of the others had been heard on the screen. It is a pleasure to record their complete success. Mr. Powell's voice is deep and arresting, Mr. Brook's fits his appearance and temperament, and Miss Brent's speech is pitched low, but not too low to vibrate with emotion. She is Deborah