The Billboard 1923-09-15: Vol 35 Iss 3 (1923-09-15)

SEPTEMBER 165, 1923 The Billboard REVIEWS By SHUMLIN “TO THE LAST MAN” A Paramount Picture While there is a tremendous amount of killing in thie production from Zane Grey's novel, the strength of the story and the high quality of the direction leave no room for adverse -riticiam on that point. ‘To the Last Man” ia an honest Western, depicting the period of fifty years back, when, if men were not men, they at least lived in a time when the ability to get the most efficiency out of a gun was a very desirable attribute. Had the action of the story taken place in a more modern time, the prolific killings would smack too much of the blood-and-thunder dime novels, but, as it is, “To the Last Man” has a plausible plot. The exteriors are claimed to be the very places Zane Grey wrote about. They are, at any rate, very important to the action of the picture. The photography is of the very, very best, several scenes, notably one in which a gun fight takes place in the dark and another shawing pursuing horsemen almost entirely wiped out by a dynamited avalanche, being especially effective. The leading artists, Richard Dix and Lois Wilson, give remarkab! fine performances. Dix, who plays the part of a half-breed, is really fine. He bas caught the epirit of the character to an unusual degree of accuracy, the mingled characteristics of the white man and the red man being admirably portrayed. Miss Wilson is generally good, altho in several ecenes she does some quite unnecessary facial contortions to express the required emotions. The story is about a feud between two families and their henchmen, in which all are killed but the youngest son of one and the daughter of the other. They bury the feud in their love for one another. Robert Edeson, as Gaston Isbel, and Fred Huntley, as Lee Jorth, ave old enemies in the story. Jorth runs off Isbel's cattle with the assistance of a gang headed by a villainous person, portrayed by Noah Beery. Warfare is declared between the two camps, altho the youngest son of Isbel and the daughter of Jorth love each other. In a series of duels, revolver fights and other means of destroying Mfe the fight narrows down to the youngest Isbel and two of Jorth’s gang. When Jorth’s daughter is attacked by her dead father’s assistant-in-crime the wounded Isbel rescues her, finishing off the last two of her father's outfit. A very good Western this is, but—'t's nothing to borrow money to buy. Direction by Victor Fleming. Distributed by Paramount Pictures Cotporation. “WHY WORRY?” A Pathe-Lloyd Picture Funny? This latest Harold Lloyd picture ts one big laugb from beginning to end. Let the producers of the stock slap-stick comedies, Mack Sennett and his followers, stick to the fame old g°gs over and over again, Lioyd and his Gssociates manage to dig up new ones with every picture. “Why Worry’? has a burlesque plot about the stoppage of a Central American revolution by a young American—a hypochondriac—who comes to a tropical republic for a rest. With this story as a base, “Why Werry’ is one ridiculously amusing gag after another. Jobn Aasen, the giant, makes bis first streen appearance with Lioyd in this picture. His amazing physique is a great prop for Lloyd's comedy. Aasen screens admirably. Jobyna Ralston makes a very pretty supporting lead for Lloyd. As Harold Van Pelham, a wealthy young New Yorker, Lioyd takes a trip to Paradiso for a re at With him go hi¢ pretty nurse and his valet. Arriving in Paradiso Harold breaks right into the headquarters of plotting revolution ists, who mistake him for the representative of a bankers’ alliance sent to quell their outbursts. Tle takes an amble around town just when the fun breaks loose and geté¢ into jail first crack Out of the box. In the sime cell with him ts & giant mountain hermit suffering from a toothache, Tlarold pulls out the giant's bad molar, a ja Androcles, and the giant accepts him as his benefactor, Upset by the noise Harold decides to stop the revolution, and does ‘oO with the ald of the giant. How he does it Is the fun. Where “Safety Last’? drew laughs that were Slightly hysterical—it was a rather nerveracking pleture— “Why Worry’ fs clean, straight fun. If there were more short comedies of the Harold Lloyd grade—and, while this and his other long features are a real treat, two-reelers from Lioyd would still be Wwelcome—the average entertainment value of pictures as a whole would improve perceptibly. Direction by Fred Newmayer and Sam Taylor. Produced by Hal Roach, Distributed by Pathe. “THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME” A Universal Picture The sereen has never had anything to equal the marvelous performance of Lon Chaney as the Hunchback. His characterization of the weird, misshapen creature created out of Victor Hugo's imagination is absolutely astounding. It seems hardly possible that any normal man could transpose himself into so utterly unhuman a character as the Hunchback. Horribly deformed, every movement, every expression @ hideous gesture, yet Chaney makes Hugo's freak of nature sympathy compelling. The tremendous settings in this picture, the Stirring mob scenes, costly beyond anything else the film world has ever produced, are incidental to the Hunchback. So powerful is Chaney's performance that everything else shrinks into insignificance. back of Notre Dame’, As for the settings it is difficult to believe that they were built solely for use in this picture. The buildings are so real, so substantial in every detail, that it seems hardly possible that they are but the appurtenances of the world of makebelleve. The replica of the Cathedral of Notre Dame might have been announced as the original witbout calling forth any doubt. Chaney as Quasimodo, the hunchback, creature to whom the Cathedral is home and God. He deifies it, and it is when he is ringing its great bells that he becomes its spirit incarnate. It is then that his soul—the soul of a thing half animal, half child—is in its glory. He becomes something supernatural. He hates everything and everybody in the world except the Archdeacon of the Cathedral, the brother of the Archdeacon, and Esmeralda, a Gypsy girl for whom he has ved an affection. Conscious of his hideous aspect, his deformed body, his huge, ugly head, Quasimodo loves her only from a distance. When at the inspiration of the brother of the Archdeacon, who is conspiring tc steal the Cathedral's wealth, he attempts to kidnap Esmeralda, he is arrested and cruelly whipped for his deed. He comes to number the priest’s brother, Jehan, among those be hates. For the girl. who brings him water when he thirsts upon the whipping block, his affection increases, Jehan, determined to possess Esmeralda, stabs her lover when they are together in the garden of the Cathedral, and she is accused of the crime. She ig sentenced to die, and her lover, captain of the King’s guards, is made to believe that she stabbed him. On the way to be bung Esmeralda is brought to the steps of the Cathedral to’do penance first. Quasimodo, up on the topmost parapet of the edifice, sees her on the steps, slides down a rope hung by workmen who are repairing the building, and carries her into the church, crying ‘‘Sanctuary”’. He is “The Hunch is a concel She is kept there, pending an appeal, her death postponed by the law of sanctuary. Esmeralda’s foster father, king of the thieves and beggars, determines to rescue her and leads an angry mod to the Cathedral. They are bent on pillaging the church's treasures and the homes of the aristocrats. Up on the roof Quasimodo sees them backing and smashing at the barred doors, and his rage kpows no bounds. He throws down great building blocks and huge timbers. Finally he upsets several great vats of molten lead, heated by the workmen, and it falls upon the massed people battering the doors, holding them off long enough for Esmeralda’s lover, now recovered, to arrive with his soldiers. Hig beloved Cathedral saved from sacrilege, Quasimodo’s fierce joy is halted when he discovers that Jeban has carried Esmeralda to a room leading off of the parapet He attacks Jehan and throws him over the balustrade to crash upon the pavement below, but not before Jehban’s knife mortally wounds him. Quasimodo crawls to the belfry, where he expends his remaining strength tolling the bell, dying with its sound in his ears. While the first half of the picture is slow the absorbing drama of the second part more than makes up for it. Quasimodo does not appear much in the first part. His character is built up bit by bit, his importance in the story not emphasized to the detriment of the natural unfolding of the plot, but instead deftly worked in and enlarged upon—the very essence of showmanship. Patsy Roth Miller is well cast as Esmeralda, and Norman Kerry makes a dashing captain of the guants. Ernest Torrance is great as Clopin, Others In the cast are Raymond Hatton, Tully Marshall, Nige! de Brulier, Brandon Hurst, Gladys Rrockwell and Kate Lester Whatever changes have been made in the adaptation are entirely pardonable The great cost of the production makes fmpossible the exact carrying out of Hugo's novel because of the religious offense it would have eaused. As picture, ‘“The Tlunchback of Notre is a masterpiece. a motion Dame" Direction by Wallace Worsley. Adapted by Perley Poore Sheehan. Scenartoized by Edward T. Lowe, Jr Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures Corporation. A giance at the Hote} Directory tn this issue may save considerable time and inconvenience. “THE FRENCH DOLL” A Metro Picture I refuse to believe that enough people will like this picture to make it worth while booking. Yes, I am aware of the alleged low grade of movie audience intelligence, but this artificial, shallow, emasculated perversion of what was a fairly good stage play is beyond description, The production is ‘‘splendiferous’’—flashy, and, like a watermelon, big, but mostly water. Mae Murray acts as tho ehe were afflicted with St. Vitus dance. Her Medusa-like bobbed head shakes up and down and sidewise until it sets one's teeth on edge; her arms gyrate like crazy windmills; she is dizzying! Someone has told Miss Murray that a French woman is chic, and she spreads it on so thick her performance is downright silly. Almost the only thing retained from the Play is the title. It was a waste of money to bay the play and change it to such an extent; money could have been saved by simply using the scenario as is and changing the title to something like “The French Mannequin’'—the author of ‘“‘The French Doll" could never have claimed infringement upon his play. Mae Murray plays the daughter of an impoverished French antique dealer who determines to marry her off to some wealthy man. The picture opens in Parls, but switches to New York, where the family, with the assistance of an American faker, sell Grand Rapids antique furniture to innocent customers, A wealthy canner of fish falls for the daughter and the family determines she shall marry bim. After a few ‘‘bad breaks” the fish king joses bis nerve and leaves for his winter palace in Palm Beach, but the French family “hot-foot’” after him, the American accomplice in the antique furniture game financing the expedition. There the millionaire proposes to the daughter, and she accepts him, but only after he mistakenly (?) believes she loves someone else and is accidentally wounded by a shot fired by a jealous husband at a male vamp from the Argentine. It is really pitiful to watch Mae Murray “‘act’’. And it’s cause for real tears to think of the money that has been spent on this production and how the exhibitors will have to produce the coin to pay for it Even if ‘‘The French Doll’ loses money for the producer, the exhibitor will bear the loss, for it will be tacked on some other picture. Well, anyway, the picture was misdirected by Robert Z. Leonard, produced by Tiffany Productions, and ig distributed by Metro Pic. tures Corporation. “WHERE IS THIS WEST?” A Universal Picture The trend just now seems to be to get away from the out-and-out Westerns. The way it’s done in this unit of the Jack Hoxie series is by making the hero a milkman who goes West. Other pictures use different means of getting away from the 100 per cent Westerns: in one the hero becomes a sailor, in another a shoe Salesman and so on. As entertainment “Where Is the West’ is just fair. It suffers a great deal because of a mess of insupportably stupid titles. Better titles would improve this picture 25 per cent. Hoxie plays the part of a milkman, who inberits a part interest with a young waitress, played by Mary Philbin, in a Western ranch. Altho his only experience in horse-back riding is gained by some short practice on a milkwagon horse, when Hoxie gets out West he rides like a centaur. The milkman, the waitress and a buddy of the milkman proceed to the ranch, which they must live upon for @ year, according to the terms of the will. Ihe ranch foreman, however, determines to scare them off, so that he can get the estate for himself. He concocts a slap-stick comedy plot to gain his ends. When the milkman and the girl arrive—the third member of the pdrty has been detained en route by a band of movie Indians—they are greeted with a framed-up shooting party by the foreman’s cowboy friends, They arrive at the ranch safely, however, and another framed-up attack is made upon the house by the cowboys. They all shoot blank cartridges, unknown to the milkman and the girl. Then by a trick the hero is made to hold up a train, tut he explains matters, and in turn learns that the whole business is a hoax upon him Angered, he hops aboard a waiting motorcycle and arrives at the ranchhouse to discover the girl has been carried oY to a mountain cabin. He there and finds a gang of movie Indians shooting the place up. Wise to the game now, he proceeds to run down the Indians, but is knocked out himself. His buddy arrives on the scene just then, however, and lays each one of the Indians out cold with wallops from a heavy piece of wood. The hero comes to and starts for the foreman. He chases him around the house in the approved comedy manner and succeeds in beaning him. Closeup showing girl in his arms, followed by scene showing angry Indians chasing the foreman out of camera sight. Direction by George FE. Marshall. Distributed by Universal Pictures Corporation, speeds “THE LOVE TRAP” A Grand-Asher Picture This is drama. anpounced as a As a mystery comedyit certainly is @ use of that the production is inthe tities are obviously the work of a graduate of some school for morons; on the whole “The Love Trap” will never take any medals for quality; it’s just grist from the movie mill, Sryant Washburn is the etar, Forrest also featured. We Forrest is Washburn’s wife. plains why she was comedy-drama mystery. The ealls for much-used word ‘‘trite’’: expensive, but suit story the — ible; with Mabel understand Miss That probably exselected for the leading feminine role. If she had been given a part commensurate with her ability Miss Forrest would have played the maid who appears in one or two scenes. Washburn its a fairly good performer, but his work in ‘The Love Trap” ealls for no great applause. ' As far as that is concerned, however, I sup| pose none of the actors should be condemned for their work. It is plain that the blame falls upon the préducer. Mr. Grand stated some time ago that it was his intention te produce pictures inexpensively, so that they could be rented to the exhibitors at reasonable | cost. We are right with Mr. Grand when he strives to eliminate wasteful and silly extravagance in the material and physical end of producing such as unnecessarily expensive settings, but when he hires cheap brains to pro duce his pictures he is cutting off his nose to spite his face. Kate Lester, who is a fine portrayer of elderly society women, gives a hopelessly bad performance in this picture. There was something in Miss Lester’s manner that seemed to say: “Oh, } what's the use, I'll give them what they want.”* She plays wife of a judge and makes the part that of a washerwoman. The judge—and & judge is supposed to have some sense—is made to appear a hen-pecked worm, who allows his wife to browbeat his niece into marrying & wastrel. There is a ‘‘soclety reporter’’ who walks right into a highbrow “at home” as tho she were an invited guest and later on is pressed into service Uy a detective to act as his assistant. However, to get on with the story the niece of the judge is told by her aunt that she must marry Grant Garrison (played by Wheeler Oak| man), a wealthy young rogue.. She practically } proposes to him and he takes her to a roadj house, gets a private room and pretends he has | sent for a minister to marry them. But there is present in the inn a woman Garrison had “done wrong by’ and she gets into a scuffle } with him and kills him. The pure young girl beats it, but leaves her pocketbook in the room with her name in it. The murderess makes a getaway too. Running down the road Joyce (the innocent girl) is picked up by our hero, Martin Antrim. He takes her in his exj pensive car to his exyensive-looking home. She begs to be allowed to stay there for the night. § Why she can’t go home is a question that will 7 never be answered. He agrees to let her stay the night there, but, like a real hero, demands that she introduce him to her influential friends ¢ as his payment for the favor. You see, despite the car and the fine home, our hero is really a needy young business man who must meet the right kind of people to get along. Well, anyway, the keeper of the roadhouse finds her pocketbook and proceeds to blackmail her. In the meantime the murderess arrives at the local hotel and announces herself as the widow of young Garrison, there to claim his estate. Antrim, however, astute young map that he is, suspects foul play and succeeds in worming out of her the confession that she killed Garrison and not wife at all. A detective listens in on the confession by means of a dictagraph. The method used to obtain the confession is very interesting and should be adopted by the police. All Antrim had to do to get the woman to confess was to tell her pointblank that killed Garrison and she came right out with the truth. Great stuff Anyway, Joyce is cleared of suspicion and} identally foils the black-mailing hotel keepers ———— was his she by giving them fake money, and, as the logical thing for her to do ig to marry the hero. she® does it. And that’s ‘‘The Love Trap”. : Direction ®y John Ince. Distributed by} Grand-Asher Distributing Corporation. SHORT SUBJECTS “SECRETS OF LIFE” Lesser-Tolhurst Educationals The first three of a series of one-ree] educational films showing the life of insects and germ organism photographed with microscopic lenses by Louis H. Tothurst and released by Sol Lesser were shown this week. These three are concerned with the bee, the spider and the ant. They are interesting films, the magnified rte productions on the screen being at times te markable. The footage of each subject prokk. ably did not allow a great deal of detail work, but it is a pity that the romance of the lives (Continued on page, 58) r= ‘