Screen Opinions (1923-24)

124 “BOOK THE NEW PERCENTAGE WAY” “TWENTY-ONE”— [Class A] 80% (Especially prepared for screen) Story: — Unhappy Experience of Son of Separated Parents VALUE CAST Photography — Very good — George Folsey. Julian McCullough Richard Barthelmess TYPE Op PICTURE — Sentimental — Mr. McCullough joe King Interesting. Mrs. McCullough Dorothy Cummings Moral Standard — Average. Lynnie Willis Dorothy Mackail ■ ■ Paula Elsie Lawson Story — Very good — Drama — Family. Peter Straksi Bradley Barker Star — Very good — Richard Barthelmess. Mr. Willis Ivan Simpson Author — Josephine Lovett. Mrs. Willis Nellie Parker Spaulding Direction — Very good John S. Robertson. Mrs. Hordon Helen Tracy Adaptation — Very good — Josephine Lovett. ..... Technique — Very good. December IS to 31, 1923. Spiritual Influence — Average. Producer — Inspiration Pictures Footage — 6,560 ft. Distributor — First National < Our Opinion MORAL O’THE PICTURE — Far-Reaching Effects of Domestic Infelicity and Tragedy of Being Misunderstood Plot Interesting for Average Public, But Only Fair Vehicle for Star Richard Barthelmess can do better things than are accomplished in “Twenty-One.” Somehow we'have come to look for bigger and better things from Mr. Barthelmess as he grows older in his profession, and what might be considered a good average for others is not quite satisfying in him. Perhaps we have never recovered from “Tol’able David,” which it must be admitted was a difficult precedent to live up to; but we would like to see a wiser choice of stories in which the particular attributes of Richard Barthelmess could find the proper setting. The character of Julian McCullough is of that romantic type in which the star is able to excel, but the surrounding details of the story are more or less trivial and the romance is interesting, but not big or particularly absorbing. It is merely a matter of two young people in love and the youth’s father objecting on the ground of social inequality. The boy’s persistence in loving the girl is punished in a brutal fight between father and son who come to an understanding later in the midst of a street brawl, where the boy proves himself a man and the father becomes a protector and a comrade. The love scenes between Dorothy Mackail and Richard Barthelmess are well staged, with the wholesome tenderness that always makes the star’s efforts in this direction. Dorothy Mackail gives an excellent performance as Lynnie. Joe King does well as Mr. McCullough, and Dorothy Cummings has the correct idea of the character of Mrs. McCullough. The cast is good throughout. We believe that “Twenty-One” will prove a good box office attraction. The plot is different from that of the average moving picture and is staged attractively. Scenes in the first reel of the picture introduce a group of dancers, which feature in a period of Julian’s career in which his mother’s effeminizing influence dominates him, and Julian is willing to trip about the green blowing the pipes of Pan. STORY OF THE PLAY Julian McCullough is the son of an athletic father, and a socially ambitious mother. The father’s prizefighting proclivities finally jar on the mother to such an extent that she seeks a separation, and the boy, although allowed to remain in his father’s house, is educated and supervised according to the mother’s ideas. Unhappy home influences cause him to seek solace in other directions, and with Lynnie Willis, a romantic girl, as unhappily situated as himself, he finds a companionship that develops into love. An accident to his car on an occasion when Lynnie has stolen out of the window to attend a dance with him, makes it necessary for them V. to remain over night at a hotel, a distance from home, and the usual unhappy suspicion stirs up a hornet’s nest among the gossips, and the fathers of both parties. As a result Julian leaves home deciding to keep out of the way until he is twenty-one. He drives a taxi and in a street brawl’ at which his father is present, he is wounded after a brave fight for right. The result is a happy understanding between father and son, and the betrothal of Julian and Lynnie. PROGRAM COPY — “Twenty-One”— Featurng Richard Barthelmess Julian McCullough was the son of separated parents. What might be the result on the offspring of "a house divided?” Come and see Richard Barthelmess in his latest production “Twenty-One”, and you will be well repaid. mm No Advertising Support Accepted!