Reel Life (1916-1917)

PERILS OF OUR GIRL REPORTERS Helen Greene foils a plot enveloped in adventurous mystery Helen Greene in a scene from “Many a Slip.” HELEN GREENE, the brilliant young actress whose success in Edith Session Tupper’s sen¬ sational series of newspaper plays, “The Perils of Our Girl Reporters,” is one of the motion picture proverbs of today, is more than ever at home in “Many a Slip,” story No. 5 of the series of fifteen striking two part dramas issued by the Mutual Film Corporation and produced by the Niagara Film Studios. Miss Greene is featured as the princess Stephanie of Zervinia, whose sympathies were with the Entente Allies be¬ cause of her French descent, and whose country as well as her personal freedom were threatened by the Teutonic Allies on this account. The princess had been affianced without her consent, for reasons of state, to Prince Charles, a roue, and through the influence of renegade members of her own entourage, had been confined in a castle until she should consent to the arrangement. William Cahill, taking the role of Barry, foreign corre¬ spondent of a Paris newspaper, is assigned by his managing editor to rescue the princess, and the young writer accepts this mission with some misgivings but with a determination to succeed in it. In the development of the plot it turns out that the young woman shut up in the castle tower is not the Princess Ste¬ phanie at all but “Jerry” Conklin, a clever newspaper woman of New York (Helen Greene), who has been assigned to interview the princess and learning her story has succeeded in liberating her and in taking her place in the castle cell, whence Barry rescues her after a series of adventures that are all well carried out from the newspaperly point of view, which is plausibility. Featured in “Many A Slip” are Earle Metcalf, as Edgar Marshall; Arthur Matthews as Revignol, a French aviator; Charles Eldridge as the editor; and William H. Turner as the Prime Minister. The story is a succession of exciting episodes each of which is more engrossing than the last and the cumulative effect of which is to establish an atmosphere of adventurous mystery, particularly fascinating in view of the engaging personality of Miss Greene in the role of Princess Stephanie. * * * CHAPLIN WAITS FOR SUNSHINE. WING to the unusual character of the latest Charlie Chaplin production, “Easy Street,” involving, as it does many big scenes which while they appear to be “interiors,” are really “exteriors,” necessitating sunlight for their success, Mr. Chaplin has been compelled to announce the postponement of release on No. 9 of the Chaplin series from January 22 to February 5, preferring to delay com¬ pletion of the comedy until conditions for its successful film¬ ing are perfect. In his announcement of the postponement, Mr. Chaplin, while expressing regret at the delay, points out that it is his determination to permit nothing but the best to be released and that he would prefer producing nothing at all to assuming responsibility for poor photography. He re¬ marks incidentally that 30,000 feet of negative have already been used in the effort to perfect 2,000 feet of laughs. As is widely understood, the rainy season on the Pacific coast is now at its worst and frequently when the producing companies are doing their best work, dark rainy and cloudy weather will supervene, rendering operation impossible dur¬ ing its continuance. REEL LIFE— Page Six