The Billboard 1924-09-27: Vol 36 Iss 39 (1924-09-27)

54 The Billboard SEPTEMBER 27, 1924 REVIEWS “THE CLEAN HEART” Vitagraph No finer picture lias been shown this year than “The Clean Heart’’. It is hard to believe thut the Vitagraph Company made it, it’s so fine, so sincere, so gen y artistic It is beautiful, thriuimg, heart -stirring—a picture that will appeal to all classes, that will unquestionably be approved by every kind of audience, I consider it one of the very few features that can be spoken of in the same breath witb “Tol’able David"’. There are no train wrecks, no gun fights, no murders in “The Clean Heart’’. Yet it has more throbbing action, more suspense than four “On the Banks of the Walash’” and three like “The Code of the Wilderness’”® combined. It is a strongly sentimental picture, but honestly, sincerely so; there is no more than a trace, at the finish, of forced theatrical sentiment. It is the study of a man, a newspaper editor and author, who is driven slightiy: mad He runs out into the . Possessed by a demon of self-consciousness that rides him relentlessly He meets up with an old, bappy vagabond who Bees what is wrong with him and takes care of him. For months they tramp the country together, free and happy, the open life and the vagabond’s love for him bringing the obsessed man a measure of mental health. Then the old vagabond gives his life for his protege, and finally the truth of his selfishness, his self-conscious attitude towards life, is brought home starkly to him when a girl whom he learns to love almost loses her life on his account. This shocks him into sanity, into 9 clean and gentle view of life, into thinking about others instead of himself that is his salvation. This story is enhanced with episodes of rareiy fine country scenery, and sea-coast locations that offer a startling background for the action. The most vivid sequence is that in which the old tramp, Puddlebox, gives his own life to save his friend, Philip Wriford, from drowning. Fearing the sea Puddlebox ventures out along a rocky, dangerous coast, battered by storm-tossed waves, to find Wriford, finally locating him at the mouth of a natural cavern with both legs broken from a fall. Puddlebox carries Wriford far into the cavern and, as the rising tide rushes into the opening, places his injured friend safely upon a high, narrow ledge, big enough for only one person and the only point of safety at hand. The tide continues to rise and Puddlebox, who cannot swim, drowns. This is stark, acute drama that ranks with the best things ever produced for the screen. Percy Marmont, as the overwrought editor, Wriford, gives a classic performance only equaled by his own work in “‘If Winter Comes’’. As old Puddlebox Otis Harlan creates a eharacter that will live in the memory long after the performances of more widely popular movie stars fade into vague, blurred images, Marguerite de la Motte completes the trinity of wonders as the delightfully innocent, childish heroine, Essie, who finally makes Wriford see the light that makes his life worth living. The direction by J. Stuart Blackton is almost entirely above criticism. He has taken a difficult story and transferred it vividly to the screen. “The Clean Heart’’ is a picture that any concern, let alone Vitagraph, may well be proud of having produced. It has more entertainment, tho its cost is comparatively trifling, than the spectacular ‘‘Captain Blood’’. “ANOTHER SCANDAL” Producers egunts “Another Scandal’’ is a conceited sort of picture, beginning with an utterly unnecessary scene bearing no important meaning to the 4 rest of the story and apparently tying some other picture which as gone bhefore— perhaps ‘‘Scandal’’—by the same author. This scefe is just ‘‘stuck on’ at the start and the real picture starts after a few appopriate sub titles. Now I have never seen ‘‘Scandal’’ and don’t care a tch about it I have a suspicion of a feeling that there are millions of others like me. As far prolog not only as I can see the good purpose, but really proper, as its ex¢ istence is so utterly uncalled for, so mystifying, serves no hinders the picture that one is left bewildered for a good part of the first reel However, to get down to cases, “Another Scandal” is @ nice sort of picture—trivial in su t matter, but awfully up to the minute and sort of aristocratic, don’t you know It is concerned with people of the upper class, and Geals with them at home in New York and at 1 es in Florida—mostly in picture HAS atmosphere, 1 ng seems so patently it is intended to be. There are great, big, fine homes and high-powered motor cars, and you know what long. miliienairish sea-going yachts and so on. Now I may he different from most people, but somehow I can’t get a great deal of enter tainment out of home looking at a big, or a big, beautiful yacht. heautiful I like to see = “We oem RCUS T ICKE FOOTBALL Same DIAGRAM AN) ADVANCE SALE RACKS 348 N.ASHLAND AVE.,CHICAGO, ILL. ROLL (isircx) FOLDED COUPON \ y+ ae BEST FOR THE LEAST MONEY ~/QUICKEST DELIVERY LORRECTHESS. GUARANTEED a yacht and I can get a sort of mild thrill out of looking at it for, say, half a minute, but beyond that I draw the line. Where inanimate objects are the main course of the banquet I've got to have action, and ‘‘Another Scandal’ hasn't enough action to keep the most patient moviegoer-: sitting still. The main thing in the picture is a baby— a new-born baby. There are perhaps no more than two short scenes in which this child is visible at nearer than arm’s length, but the whole yarn revolves around it The first half or so of the picture is timed before the arrival of this infant, the rest after. Its father and mother are the important personages in the story, and the difference the baby almost made in their lives is THE story. Father and mother are extremely in love with each other. They have only been married about a year, and the baby’s arrival is just around the corner. Hubby gets awfully nervous and worried about his wife, fearing the pain ahead of her. He worries so much wifie begins to worry about his health. At the suggestion of a bachelor friend of hjubby’ she asks her husband to leave her alone and go on a trip in his big yacht of course, she doesn't really want him to leave her, but fears for his health. He, in turn, doesn’t want to leave her side, but is afraid to refuse to go away for fear that he is annoying her by remaining Now on the yacht is e friend of the family, a lady, who has brought with her a little English widow, who i nothing else but a vampire, a blond, blue-eyed haby vam pire, out for a wealthy husband. Said widow sets her cap for the bubby, tho he is unconscious of it, bis mind being concerned only with his wife's plays the discouraged game, the I-think-I'll kill-myself role, and wins hub’s sympathr, he offering to aid her financially. Just as he makes this offer a radio message informs him that he must come home at once, the new member of the family has arrived, A short spaceoftime elapses, and we find that wifie is sore at her hubby because he went away and left her when she needed him. Then, by accident, she learns that the baby vampire is good looking and that sets her wild. She acts more and still more coldly to hubby, her idea being that in this way he will get mad and order her around, thus proving he loves her. She even makes a date with a young single chap and stays out after midnight to get hubby sore. He does get sore; so sore that he packs leaves her flat, taking a train to New York. On the train he meets the baby vamp, to whom this is a Godsent opportunity. She makes the most of it. In New York hubby gives her his bachelor apartment to live in and takes her out every night. Wifie comes back to New York and bears all about it. Hubby tells her to get a divorce. She begins to plot to cheat the vamp of her prey. So he goes cute, cond:tion She his grip and The one punch scene of the whole picture comes next, when wile frustrates the vamp’s deeplaid plots to compromise her husband. This is done in such a way that hubby sees what a vamp the vamp is and what a wife his wife is, whereupon there is a happy ending. The cast is headed by Lois Wilson, who doesn’t fit the part one bit; Holmes Herbert, Flora Le Breton, Ralph Bunker, Zeffie Tilbury, Hedda Hopper and Bigelow Cooper. E. H. Griffith directed. The picture was produced by Tilford Cinema Corp., and is released thru Producers’ Distr. Corp. “FOR WOMAN’S FAVOR” Lee Bradford-State Rights foccaccio, among other things, tells a story about a oung of medieval! who ruined himself to find favor in his himself be d, wth only gentleman times eves, and found his prized hunting falcon left, while she married another. Then one day his beloved’s small on lies dying : erie for the young gentle man’s faleon The beloved sends word to the gentleman that she is coming to call upon him and may take dinner with him Not baving anything nice to offer the expected visitor for dinner, the young gentleman sacrifices Ins fal con, wringing its neck and roasting it. With breaking lheart he curves the bird up Ww hen his beloved arrives and offers her some. Then he tells bim that she cannot eat, that her boy is dangerously ill and cries out for the fuleon. She begs him to give her the falcon, whieh he no longer has T tale, which is rather a cute one, is the main part of ‘For Woman's Favor’’, forming a sort of extended interlude between introductory and finishing scenes set in modern New York, ‘The inter lude is done in colors with costumes an’ everything. The picture as a whole, despite sjoccaccio, is nothing much. It might do on a double-feature program, but i can't see how it will stand up alone at any house. It has no vitality, no energy. he opening scenes show Elliot Dexter, a young man who bas squandered a fortune in three years on [roadway, beset by an importunate creditor, Wilton Lackaye. Lackaye suggests that Dexter demand that Seena Owen, the woman he loves, who has accepted another's proposal of marriage, pay him $10,000 for some love letters of bers he has. Dexter at first refuses, but Lackave threatens to put him in jail if be doesn’t get the money. So Dexter sorrowfully pens a note to Seena, asking her to come at once with the money for the letters. While they wait for her Lackaye falls asleep on a couch, while Dexter picks up a book and begins reading the tale of the falcon by Boccaccio. He just finishes it and is inspired by the sacritice of the young man who fried his pet falcon, when Seena arrives with the money. Lackaye tries to take the money from her, but Dexter struggles with him, wrests the letters from Lackaye’s hands and casts them into the blazing fireplace He does this noble deed for woman's favor, knowing that he will have to go to jail for lack of the money he could make Seena pay for them. As a reward Seeva embraces him, while the villain, Lackaye, dashes out of the house to find a cop. Curtain The picture was directed by Oscar Lund. Others in the cast are Arthur Donaldson, Henry Hull and Paul McAllister. Distributed by LeeBradford, Inc., thru State-right exchanges, “THE BOWERY BISHOP” Selznick There’s a Bowery missionary in this picture who is innocently accused of betraying a young girl. Tho knowing full well who is the guilty mab, the missionary refuses to point him out, accepting the blame himself He is attacked by a virtuous mob of Bowery bums, forced to resign his position and pilloried in the public prints. In the end, however, the truth comes to the surface and the missionary is given the credit for the Christian humility he is alleged to deserve. This simple and well-known plot is set forth with a stupid, awkward cir cumabulatory direction that passes understanding. 1 admit that the sort of plot that it is is what a large part of the public is satisfied with, But I refuse to believe that the manner in which the plot is built into a picture need be so completely stupid, so downright puerile. It is a strange thing, but when a picture falls below a certain degree of intelligence the people who act in it, no matter how clever they may actually be, take on the same measure of brainlessness as the picture itself. The director, of course, is the cause of this; his is the guiding hand, his intelligence the barometer of the picture’s and the measure of the actors’ ability. I doubt if there are six actors in the movies who have the ability of Henry B. Walthal, yet, im the leading role of the missionary in ‘The Bowery Bishop’, his acting is third-rate. The work of the rest of the cast is down to standard Among the actors are Lee Shumway and Edith Roberts. The missionary played by Walthal is a former Fifth avenue preacher who has heard the call to save the souls of the lowly. He opens a mission on the Bowery and preaches as hard as he can, but without suecess. Somehow, he doesn't seem to be saving any souls. Among his friends are Tim O'Brien,.a husky young night watchman; a young attorney who has sunk to poverty, altho he was once a great young Italian girl who is loved girl has allowed herself to get the young attorney ‘befriended by the missionary and is forced to leave her home and ber blind father without telling but the missionary of her trouble. She comes hack later with her new-born baby. Tim, who sees her go to the mission with the child, believes that the preacher bas betrayed ber and threatens to accuse him to the whole neighborhood. The girl slips out of the mission, disappears completely, while the missionary goes to the young attorney and asks him to right The attorney refuses to help the girl, and sadly the preacher wends his way back to the mission When he reaches there he finds an angry mob of drunks, gangsters and bums of both sexes, led by Tim, preparing to storm his little echareh. He looks them all straight in the eye and walks right thru the mob without being harmed. But the mob gets up courage success, and a by Tim T mixed up with anyone months his wrong and stones the mission, one tin can hitting the preacher right on the head. He refuses to deny the charge against him and suffers in silence. Only a certain Dr. Kindly, a rankly theatrical figure, who jumps in and out of different scenes like some celestial being, believes in the preacher, who is forced to resign his jeb. Then, thru a weird set of circumstances, the bad young attorney is arrested for something or other, sentenced to two years in jail, and his sentence commuted at the solicitation of the preacher. For this the attorney confesses that he wronged the young girl and that the preacher is innocent. Tle guilty man suddenly finds that he loves the mother of his child and marries her, while, with beaming face, the Bowery Bishop is acclaimed for the martyr that he is. The settings are very bad, very bad indeed. But there is nothing in the picture that is quite so terrible as the quality of the direction by Colin Campbell. Produced by Rellimeo Film Syndicate. Released by Selznick Distributing Corp. “CAPTAIN BLOOD” Vitagraph “Captain Blood’’ is an enjoyable picture. It pretends to be an extravagant production and cheats obviously; its acting is uniformly low grade; its direction 1s nothing unusual, and, in fact, dizzies up things once in a while, and still “Captain Blood’ is an enjoyable picture. here is one reason for this; it has action, loads of it, beginning as soon as the introductory titles are done with and continuing until ‘The End” is flashed on the last few feet of the last reel. Action is worth its weight in gold, and ‘Cap. tain Blood’’ has it in large doses. Vitagraph is going to make plenty of money on the picture because it is going to sell it on the basis of being one of these great big, expensive superspectacles, which it Is not However, Vitagraph certainly has the right to sell it as it wishes, provided the buyers are satistied. The program says that there are seven galleons, which are seventeenth century ships, in the picture. Well, I'll bet both pairs of my shoes that there is only one boat in the Picture that can carry men on water. Models in miniature are used extensively, and tricky photography makes it seem as tho a whole fleet of ships was in action when there fs really but one. his factor tends to cut enjoyment of the picture to a certain degree, but not enough to hurt. “Captain Blood’’ is the story of piracy and love on the more or less high seas in the time of James II of England. The hero after Whom the picture is named is a sincere young Irishman who is practicing his chosen profession of medicine in the English town of Bridgewater Guring a local rebellion, and is wrongfully accused of being a rebel, clapped into prison and found guilty of treason. He is sentenced to be hanged with other prisoners, but the sentences are commuted to slavery on the plantations of Jamaica in the West Indies, where he and the others are transported. At the hands of Colonel Bishop, the planter who buys Blood and others, they are treated horribly, beaten and kicked about and worked like dogs. Blood, however, is soon recognized as a doctor and is given a better life to Idad’ One night a Spanish ship bombards the town of Barbados and captures it. While the victorious men are getting themselves drunk Blood leads the freedom-sé¢eking convict slaves to the almost abandoned Spanish ship and captures it. In the morning the Spanish leader comes aboard with his plunder and he and the few men who accompany m are made prisoners, while the ship sets sail under the command of Blood, turned pirate. Blood is in love with one Arabella, the niece of Colonel Bishop, and, after a long period of successful pirating, he rescues her, a girl companion and a representative of King James from a sinking ship. Altho she is attracted strongly to Blood, Arabella allows bherself to believe certain untrue scandal being circulated about him and treats him coldly. Out of pride he runs himself and his ship into danger by putting into the harbor of Barbados, where Colonel Bishop is now governor. Blood gets out of the mess, however, by accepting 2 commission in the King’s navy which had previously been offered him and had been turned down. He is promised immunity for him and for all his men, and when Governor Bishop. who hates him, him on a trumped-up charge, he escapes by the quick use of his wits. Again a pirate, Blood one day long after saves the life of the new governor of the West Indies, come to remove Bishop Blood learns from him that King James has been dethroned and William now rules in bis place Hie offers his services to the new governor, who in turn makes him governor of Jamaica to succeed Bishop. Arrived at Jamaica, Blood takes up his new duties and makes the erstwhile governor, Bishop, prisoner, later Treleasing him. Arabella learns that Blood’s record is as pure as the driven snow and they get married. The acting of J. Warren Kerrigan in the title role and Jean Paige as Arabella is really bad most of the time. Others in the cast are tries to arrest Charlotte Merriam, James Morrison, Allan [or (Continued on page 73) a _