Variety (July 1915)

FILM REVIEWS 19 GRAND CENTRAL PALACE. It looks as though the "three ring show" at the Grand Central Palace is a success. A hot, sweltering night out of doors and three picture theatres all under one roof packed to the doors. That was Monday night. Twenty-one reels for a dime, never less and sometimes more is the manner in which Manager H. H. Lichtig sets forth his policy. The three ring show occupies the entire lower floor, the space being divided naturally into three theatres, designated as A, B and C, by the giant pillars rising from the floor to the celling. Each of the "houses" seats approxi- mately 500, and each presents a separate pro- gram consisting of a feature, either Ave or six reels in length, and several single reels, usually one comedy and one drama. The ad- mission, ten cents, permits one to see all three shows, in other words a five and a quarter hour show for a dime. The building is particularly adaptable for its present purpose and on Monday night was delightfully cool. The arrangement of the three scenes allows the projection from the rear. Three separate booths are situated at the 47th street end of the building, each equipped with two projecting machines with an operator In constant attention in each booth. This is particularly necessary be- cause of the fact that from the rear there is little visible of what Is being projected on the screen. It seems as though the nearer one gets to the screen when the projection is from the rear, the less one can see, as the picture loses much of its life. Another fact noticeable Is that back projection brings out every little defect in the picture. Because of this there is a special rewind room where a girl cleans every film in the rewinding. In the "A" theatre the first half of the week the World's 'M'Uss" was shown in addi- tion to two comedies, "Pokes and Jabs" and "Flashes and Splashes." Another reel here was one of the "You Know Me Al" series. This made eight reels in all. In theatre "B" the attraction was Tom Terris In "The Chimes," another World feature of five reels, and one Phoros and one Universal reel; seven in all. Theatre "C" had "In the Land of the Headhunters" and a Universal two-reeler another total of seven; grand total of twenty- two reels. One organ furnishes the music for all three shows at one time. The organist played neutral music. The features shown were from six to nine months old but tho public seem to like them all. At times the material is very much newer than this. The Grand Central also uses the Fox service, playing features that are from 20 days to one month old. The one drawback to the use of other exhibition build- ings in this manner Is that with the advent of. each of the regular shows, such as the Automobile Show, Sporting Show, etc., the lessees have to pull up stakes and get out for the time being. Monday of this week the Grand Central Palace show pulled about 2,000 paid admissions. Fred. SEVEN SISTERS. Clara Madge Evans Lisa Dorothea Camden Perka George Fursman Mid Marguerite Clark BUa J« an Stewart •Sari • • •• -I- Feder Katlnka Lola Ba , rc,a , y Horkoy Conway Tearle Tonl George Renevant Olda Nayne Lynton Sandorffy Syndey Nathan Inn Keeper Charles Krauf Mother Madam Dalburg Bertha Marjori Nelson Baron Radvlany Edward Mordant Servant Dick Lee Inn Keeper's Wife Lizzie Goods In turning out the production of "Seven Sisters" Sidney Olcott who directed the fea- ture which the Famous Players have Just re- leased through the Paramount with Marguerite Clark as the star, has completed one of the prettiest scenic pictures shown in some time. Originally the "Seven Sisters" was presented at the Lyceum theatre and Charles Cherry was the star. In the picture productions how- ever, the fourth youngest sister, Mici, is made the stellar role and played by Miss Clark with an abandon and vivacity at all times wholly delightful. Conway Tearle is in the role that was originated by Mr. Cherry and his per- formance is most satisfactory. At the Strand the picture was shown to the accompaniment of a series of Hungarian airs whose strains aided materially In the atmosphere. The story is based on a custom in vogue In Hun- gary, where If one of the younger daughters of a family weds before her elder sisters, the latter are placed in the "spinster" class and their matrimonial chances considerably less- ened. In "Seven Sisters" the Widow Glda has seven daughters, who range seemingly from a little tot about Ave to 28. MIcI must be about 16 or 17. She is a wild little thing, adored by her younger sisters and feared because of attractiveness by her older sisters. The little minx is Into all sorts of mischief. Her pranks from time to time frightened off suitors for the elder girls. Finally the mother In de- spair decides to send her to a convent. Upon her arrival she meets with a kindred spirit in another girl student. The two run off one night to attend a Masque Ball, where Micl meets Count Horkoy, who falls In love with her. On her return to the convent she is caught by the good sisters, who send her back to her home. On the day of her arrival there la also a letter from a cousin named Tonl, who had seen a picture of Mlcl and who wishes to marry her. He states he will visit the family. In the meantime Count Horkoy, In- fatuated with Mlcl, makes a search for her and arrives Just in time to be hailed as Tonl, the expected cousin. Micl has been forced to assume the short dresses of a girl of 14 and told that only as her older sisters marry will she be permitted to add a year to her age. Horkoy hears the story from her lips, for she permits him to hoax her family with the belief he is Cousin Toni so that he may be near her, and Bays he will marry off the three sisters within a month. In the Interim the real Tonl arrives but is frightened away. The Count keeps his promise and finds hus- bands for the three elder sisters and wins the dainty Mici. The picture is a real pleasing comedy. It has no big punch, but the pro- duction is well directed and scenlcally It is a delight. One scene in particular shows a wa- ter mill and stream, very picturesque. The ball scene is well done, the Russian dancing troupe doing the specialty dances coming in for applause from the audience. The cast as a whole is very good. Fred. THE CROOKED PATH. In theme "The Crooked Path" Is old, al- though the extermination of the two bad men in the picture was very much up to date in the sense that each choked the other to death. When this camera scene was shown at the Aoelphla the other night the audience guf- fawed loudly. If pictures like "The Crooked Path," with a story supposed to be dramatic, can make 'em laugh good and loud, then the real comedy makers had better keep their weather eyes peeled. Two boys, Alan and Lynn, are schoolmates. They love the same girl. She clerks in a department store and after school Is o'er the boys troop down there. Alan's dad works in the same store and the picture puts him there no doubt to make good the theft of a greenback from the cash regis- ter by Alan when making change for the girl while she's waiting upon a customer. The boys finish school and both get a job in the same bank. Yes, indeedy. Then one knows that sooner or later Alan, with that thieving Instinct, is going to make love to all the money. Alan touches the bank now and then for some bills, so he can buy candy and a ring for Mary, who turns Lynn down because he hasn't the price of a few sodas at the cor- ner drug store. Lynn encounters Alan (who has turned to drink to make the plot thicker). Alan Is drunk and Lynn takes him home. Here Alan and Mary have a tender little meeting which results in Alan ordering Lynn out of the house. To get even (one must ex- pect such a crisis) Alan steals a roll of greenbacks from Lynn's money cage and the inability of Lynn to clear himself results in the officers of the bank calling in a police- man, who looked as though he had been bor- rowed from the Keystone. Away went Lynn to the pen for two years. Lynn and the chap- lain become friends. Lynn addresses the con- victs upon the eighth commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Steal," but his talk only made one tough-looking Jailbird wrinkle up his face. Lynn is released. He goes back to the old home town and gets a job oiling and looking after a stone crushing engine. No, Alan doesn't tell the owner of the crusher that he has hired an ex-convict Alan was too wise for that, as one doesn't have to be honest to run an engine, as there wasn't anything to steal except the oil can and bricks. Alan fol- lows his wife (he having married Mary), who has been taking vegetables to Lynn's mother and he finds her looking sympathetically into the eyes of Lynn, who has Just returned from the pen. He rushes In and makes a scene. So furious is Alan he pulls a gun and fires, the shot hitting his wife in the arm. She re- covers and then she hates her husband. Alan plans a wholesale robbery of the bank. Watch- ing him through the bank window was the old jailbird, who had been in the front row when Lynn delivered his prison lecture. He fol- lows Alan home, where the best bit In the pic- ture was shown when the wife and Alan are fighting, the former trying to dissuade him from leaving her cold, and the grip files open and shows wad after wad of money. (There was enough In that satchel to start several picture concerns.) The J. b. rushes In and with a gun tries to wrest the grip away from Alan. A struggle ensues and each man gets a deathhold on the other's throat. The wife runs to Lynn's home (Just outside the cam- era's range) and In a Jiffy Lynn Is back with the comedy policeman and finds the men lying stiff and cold on the floor. Lynn then tells the c. p. that "It's their punishment for break- ing the eighth commandment." That sudden laugh when the men kicked the bucket spoiled everything, although It was supposed that Lynn and Mary wed as soon as that comedy policeman could dress up like a clergyman. Just how Lynn exonerated himself from the first bank robbery wasn't explained by the camera. Perhaps Mary understood, and the audience was in on tht story anyway. Kalem will have to come stronger than this with its features. Mark. ON HER WEDDING NIGHT. Helen Carter. Society Girl Edith Storey Henry Hallem, Clubman Antonio Moreno The Woman Carolyn Birch William Carter, Helen's Father. .Charles Kent Jessica Carter, Her Mother. . .Louise Beaudet Carlo Plcalll, Emigrant William Dunn John Klendon, Helen's Fiance... .Denton Vane Of course a lot of things could happen on any girl's wedding night, but It Is seldom the brldegroom-to-be Is shot down In cold blood by a woman he has wronged. Maybe many men have been threatened with this sort of punishment, but because It Is the plot of a four-reel feature (Vltagraph) that doesn't necessarily stamp the tale as truthful. The scenario was written by Eugene Mullen and the plcturir.atlon was directed by William Humphrey, although the program also stated the picture was produced under tho personal direction of Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton. The story in itself Is melodramatic enough to please the most enthusiastic ad- mirer of the thrillers, but is told in a back- handed fashion that calls for too many cut- backs and reviews of scenes gone before. The plot tells of a young society girl (Edith Storey) who, with her family, Is awaiting the bridegroom for the wedding ceremony to bo performed. There Is a telephone call, and the bridegroom is shown at the other end of the wire while the bride answers him. Prior to this a shadowy figure has been shown creep- ing about the bridegroom's home, and while he Is talking to his wife-to-be the figure steals into his room and shoots him. The girl hears the shot at the other end of the wire, but does not know what to make of it. The bridegroom has evidently recognized his slayer for, just before he died he took a pen in hand and wrote "It was I." He would have con- tinued and finished the sentence and revealed the murderer but just then his heart stopped beating and the mystery was framed. If he had lasted a few seconds longer there would not have been any reason for a picture, so It was best that he stopped when he did. Then the police were called in and because the mes- sage on the paper reading "It was I" they Immediately stated the death was a suicide. The girl who shot him, In running from the scene of the crime, bumped into a man and sent him sprawling into the road between the houses of the murdered man and the girl he was to have married. Naturally there were a lot of automobile trips between the two houses on the night In question, but It took three trips before the Injured person was dis- covered in the roadway and then by a miracle it was discovered that he was lying there be- fore the machine ran over him. The injured man is suffering from aphasia, but Henry Hallem (Antonla Moreno), a clubman and the best friend of the chap who was shot, Is a good fellow and Immediately takes the injured man under his wing. In this case the man who lost his memory sees a familiar face which belongs to a woman. At the time he is seated in Hallem's car In front of a settle- ment house In the slums. He Jumps from the car and follows the face. Then Hallem's chauffeur tells his boss. There was a reason for Hallem being in the tenement district. It seems that after the bridegroom-to-be was shot, the brlde-that-was-to-be took to settle- ment work as a distraction. Hallem, feeling that he was John Klendon's best pal in life, It would be no more than right that he devote his life to the girl who almost had a husband, so he follows her around through the entire picture, until the aphasia victim recovers his memory ; the girl who shot the man confesses and commits suicide, and then Hallem pro- poses and Is accepted. Story Is rather far- fetched, but, nevertheless, makes a strong melodramatic thriller that satisfies. Fred. ON DANGEROUS PATHS. Eleanor Thurston.. Her Mother. Her Father.. Roger Sterritt His Mother Viola Dana .Helen Strickland ...Will West . .Pat O'Malley Mrs. Will West One thing scenario writers have not yet cleared their minds of, and that Is the big city is beset with pitfalls and traps for the unwary girl from the small town. It seems as though It would be about time for the big cities to get together and, by some means, force these writers of fiction to lay off the pit- fall stuff. A poor little country girl, more than passingly pretty, comes to New York and Is immediately taken to a private dining room at a road bouse. However, the scenario writer who wrote "On Dangerous Paths" (Edison) as a four reel feature most have had the Boston Post Road in his mind, otherwise there does not seem to be any legitimate rea- son for his title. The story tells of a min- ister's daughter, whose elder sister Is one of the most successful business women in New York City. Sister must have sure been a humdinger or had a newspaperman for a friend, for sisters don't unsually have special stories regarding their business abilities print- ed regarding them in New York papers. How- ever, sis comes back to the old home and ar- rives at a time when collections were bad at the church services, and father hadn't enough to pay the bills, so she sits down and writes check for a couple of hundred. The younger sister, who Is loved by a town youth, after witnessing the check writing by the older girl, decides she is going to the city and become a wage earner. So she leaves her sweetheart (who had an engagement ring bought) flat on the lot and comes to tho big city. Poor girl! She becomes a nurse in one of the hos- pitals through the influence of her uncle. A short while later the small town sweetheart fol- lows to rescue her from the lure of the wicked city and on his arrival "gets tanked," Is pick- ed up by a doctor and taken to the hospital. The doctor is a little sweet on the new nurse, and she Is infatuated with him, so the small town boy stands no chance. However, he sallies forth and grabs himself a nice-looking girl, who Is wise enough to know that 8eventh avenue crosses Broadway at Times Square, and she takes him to a road house. While they are seated there Dr. and the nurse arrive and are shown to a private dining room. In- ddentally this road house must have been a great place, for nobody paid any checks. The S. T. S. spies the girl and the doc as they come Into the place and sends a note to the private dining room. The doctor comes out and they tnIk it over, with the result that the S. T. 8. goes bark to the private dining room Instead of the doctor and the latter grabs off the girl who was waiting on the porch after the S. T. S. left her. There are three or four good laughs In the film which, on the whole. Is Just a fnlr picture that will do to help All out a program that has at least one other picture with a good punch in it. Fred. THE CHALICE OF COURAGE. William Newbold William Duncan Enid Maltland Myrtle Gonsales Louise Rosser Natalie De Lontan James Armstrong George Holt Robert Maltland George Kunkel "Jud" Klrkby William V. Ranous Stephen Maltland Otto Lederer Mrs. Robert Maltland Anne Schaefer "The Chalice or Courage" is a six-part fea- ture which the Vitagraph has placed on the V-L-S-B service list, the release date being Aug. 0. This film was adapted from the novel by Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady and was pro- duced by Rollln S. Sturgeon. It rounds up into a pretty good feature though there doesn't appear to be any great necessity why the pic- ture should have run Into six parts. There seems to be considerable padding and the "cut backs" at one time tell the preceding happenings so that anyone Just dropping in the theatre can get a line on what has gone on before. Louise Rosser accepts the attentions of one tough bird, James Armstrong, who turns right around In her very presence and showers the glad eyes upon another woman at a danoe. Louise returns his ring. Jim goes to another mining camp and while he's away Louise meets William Newbold and marries him. Louise receives some embarrassing letters from Armstrong and persuades her husband to let her accompany him upon a prospecting trip. On the mountain trail Louise's horse tumbles down the mountain side, carrying the lady with him. Severely Injured and with every bone in her body broken she begs her hus- band to end her misery. Drawing his gun he fires a shot that ends her life. He buries her there. Later he becomes a recluse. From the east comes Enid Maltland and is the center of attention from Armstrong. Miss Maltland goes alone up tho mountains and while taking a cool swim In nature's swimming garb a big black bruin comes upon her vision and ahe yells for help. Newbold kills the beast and rolls him off her clothes. She starts to her camp when a storm breaks and she slips into a raging stream only to be saved by Newbold. To his cabin he carries her as her ankle is sprained. The winter brings deep snow and pens them In. For three months they live within the cabin amidst a platonlc friendship that ripens into love on the part of both New- bold and Enid. They sleep In separate cabin compartments and Newbold has a great fight with himself when he is seized with a burning, yearning desire to rush in where Enid lies peacefully sleeping and crush her to his manly bosom. Of course, this is mere deduction and this is the point where the chalice of courage bobs up. Newbold lets the lady sleep on. When spring comes Armstrong, Enid's uncle and an old guide named Klrkby, finally round them up. Newbold bad a locket which his wife had worn and which contained Armstrong's picture. When Armstrong and Newbold meet the men have a rough-and-tumble fight In the cabin. Newbold is about to choke daylight out of Armstrong when the outers rush upon the scene. Later Armstrong goes outside in the snow and shoots himself out of the picture. The Vita has done very well with the story which Jumps considerably about in kaleidoscopic action. The camera outcameras Itself at times and all of the mountain scenes, particularly those taken where the rain is falling hard, were unusually effective, picturesque and real- istic. Duncan handled the role of Newbold with feeling while Myrtle Gonzales makes a most acceptable Enid Maltland. On her rough work in the open she acquitted herself creditably, (leorgo Holt did fairly well as Armstrong. William V. Ranous made up splendidly as the old guide. Oeorge Kunkel was a robust, hearty type of mountaineer. There is much in the way of wild scenery to delight the eye and the Vita cameras were kept very busy. It's old fashioned melodrama in construction yet lends Itself most admirably to photoplay purposes. Mark. LEO M. FRANK. About 800 feet gotten out as a special reel by Hal Reid. Its full title is "Leo M. Frank (showing Life In Jail) and Gov. Slaton." Be- sides are seen in the film Mrs. Leo M. Frank and the mother of her husband, also Mrs. John M. Slaton, wife of the Governor. Of course there is Hal Held, quite often, In con- versation with one or the other of the cele- brities. Besides which Mr. Reld, when the film was shown at the New York theatre, de- livered a preliminary discourse, containing a glowing tribute to Frank and his mother, with a little boom as well for the Presidential nomination of Slaton. The main reason, said Mr. Reid, why Georgia's ex-Governor should get the big seat at Washington is because he did his duty in face of death when he com- muted Frank's sentence. Reld also remarked Gov. Slaton Informed him that he (the Gov- ernor) had received over 1,000 messages warn- ing him If he did commute the sentence his death would follow. But with the confidence of his wife, who kissed him when he an- nounced his determination, the Governor did tho thing ho thought should be done, added Mr. Reld, who dwells quite heavily upon this In lecture and captions. It's Just as well, too, for once In a while when a fellow like Slaton looms up It might as well go on the record. The poses of Frank show him evi- dently in the warden's room of the prison, in convict's uniform. He is a slightly built man, of distinct Hebraic type, wearing glasses and having a studious expression. His case might account for his physical condition. Gov. Slaton Is a middle-aged man, clean shaven, with a face that would fit In a statesmanship group. Mrs. Slaton Just looks like what you expect the wife of a Governor to look like. Mrs. Frank, "the Spartan Mother" (as Mr. Reld termed her), Is the Hebrew mother of the old school. A caption stated Mrs. Frsnk has never shed a tear over the difficulty of her son, always convinced of bis innocence.