Screen Opinions (1923-24)

“BOOK THE NEW PERCENTAGE WAY” 31 plans. In short, “Dead Game” is well worth while of its kind. The star does well, and is suppported by a competent cast, including Robert McKim, Laula LaPlante, the pretty heroine, Harry Carter, William Welsh and William Steele. STORY OF THE PLAY “Katy” Didd, a young westerner famed among his comrades for his ability to give drinking parties at which he himself never imbibed, loved a pretty girl named Alice Mason, and when Alice left to meet her guardian and one known as “Prince’ Tetlow, who meant to marry Alice before midnight of the day before she attained her majority and became mistress of a certain big ranch, he preceded her and arranged to have her kidnaped. Later Alice learned that “Katy” Didd is her friend when he gives her money to pay the mortgage on the ranch. The remainder of the story has to do with an attempt to upset Alice’s faith in “Katy” Didd. The close of the story presents a happy pair of lovers and a couple of vanquished villains. PROGRAM COPY — “Dead Game” — Featuring Hoot Gibson "Katy” Didd may have been a queer cuss in the eyes of his associates, but he proved a real hero and something of a diplomat when it came to beating a pair of crooks at their own game, and claiming the girl he loved. Hoot Gibson is the star. “GIRL WHO CAME BACK”— [Class A] 80% (Adapted from story of same name) Story: — Adventures of Girl Victim of Husband’s Crime VALUE Photography — Very good — Harry Perry. Sheila TYPE OF PICTURE— Interesting. Ray Underhill Moral Standard — Fair. Norries ■" ■■ Convict 565 Story — Very good — Melodrama — Adults. Valhays Star — Very good — Miriam Cooper. Belle Bryant Authors — Aery good — Charles E. Blaney and Anastasia Muldoon. Ruskin Golding. Direction — Very good — Tom Forman. Adaptation — Very good — Eve Unsell. Technique — Very good. Spiritual Influence — Neutral. May 1 to 15, 1923. Producer— B. P. Schulberg Footage — 6,100 ft. CAST Miriam Cooper Gaston Glass Kenneth Harlan Joseph Dowling Fred Malatesta Ethel Shannon Zasu Pitt» Distributor — A1 Lichtman Our Opinion MORAL O’THE PICTURE— None. Strong Human Interest and Excellent Cast — Prison Scenes Harrowing It is a question whether the majority of people like intensive realism in the presentation of prison scenes, such, for instance, as that in “The Girl Who Came Back,” where Sheila is shown struggling in a straitjacket, a victim of a dread illusion known as cloisterphobia, in which prisoners imagine that the walls and ceiling are closing to crush them. Otherwise the picture is vastly entertaining. The plight of Sheila, a girl who married believing that the man who had a new car every day was a son of wealth, and quickly found herself behind prison bars as his accomplice in theft, and of Norries, an escaped convict, also imprisoned for someone else’s wrongdoing, is interesting. In spite of the fact that they both take heroic and apparently dishonest means to establish themselves in a place of respectability and wealth, the sympathy of the spectator is with these hounded members of humanity. The climax where the husband, believed to be dead, appears on the scene and the paradise of the girl seems doomed to destruction is thrilling. Each member of a splendid cast gives an interesting portrayal. STORY OF THE PLAY _ Sheila, a country girl, meets Ray Underhill at a cabaret and accepts his attentions with out question, believing him to be respectable and wealthy. No sooner is the marriage, ceremony performed than detectives rush i ft and arrest them, and Sheila serves a term in prison as Underhill’s accomplice. After Sheila has returned to the city Underhill escapes and seeks her out, and as he is being led away by the police, who trace him to her room, he slips a key and a note with an address into her bosom. The key unlocks the door of a deserted house where a convict, Norries, who has escaped with him, has hidden a box of treasure. Sheila steals the treasure and goes to Africa, meets Horries, who is now a diamond king, and believing her husband dead, marries him. Underhill, still alive, seeks Sheila out after her return to America, and is killed in a scuffle. Norries and Sheila exchange confidences on their past life, and again the road of happiness becomes a reality. PROGRAM COPY — “The Girl Who Came Back” — Featuring Miriam Cooper Sheila, a victim of circumstance, seized the first opportunity that offered to aid her to return to respectability. Come and see how one girl came back, and how the skeleton of the past also returned to mock her. Pretty Miriam Cooper heads a cast including Gaston Glass and Kenneth Harlan. No Advertising Support Accepted!