Variety (August 1915)

FILM REVIEWS 17 THE BATTLE CRY OF PEACE. John Harrison Charles Rlchman Mr. Emanon L. Roger Lytton Charley Harrison James Morrison Mrs. Harrison Mrs. Jlary Mnurlce Mrs. Vandergrlff Louise Beaudet Mr. Vandergrlff Harold Hurbert Poet Scout Capt. Jack Crawford The Master Charles Kent Magdalen Mrs. Julia Swayne Gordon Vandergrlff's Son Evart Oveiion Alice Harrison belle Bruce Virginia Vandergrlff Norma Talmage Dorothy Vandergrlff Lucille Hammill Butler Q?o. Stevens Columbia Thais Lawton The War Monster Lionel Breban George Washington Joseph Kilgour General Grant Paul Scardon Abraham Lincoln William 7ergu?on In the preliminary announcement issued by the Vltagraph regarding "The Battle Cry of Peace," the opening sentence is "Once in a generation or so a -book finds its way into history," so also once in the history of a picture plant a feature is turned out that really means something to the world at large, that has a mission to perform and that really tries in a small way to fulfill that mission. So it is with "The Battle Cry of Peace." This la one occasion in which the Vltagraph has come to the front and has presented the film industry with a shining mark at which producers will have to shoot for some time. It has given the exhibitor a film which will coin a lot of money, be- cause "The Battle Cry of Peace" comes into the field at a moment when every American is faced with the realization this country is in a general state of what is termed "un- preparedness." It is a film that will come in for nation-wide discussion. In a pub- licity way it should be worth columns of space. Its value to Sunday editors through- out the country should be immense for it contains material for a series of special stories that could run for weeks. Take each and every town and hamlet in the entire country and bring the question of the national de- fense home to them by taking their own buildings and tearing them asunder, in im- agination, with the shells of the big guns of the enemy. Of course the picture as presented by the Vitagraph does not point in any way to one foreign nation, but there can be no doubt in the minds of any one who witnesses the screen presentation that Ger- many is pointed at. This is quite apparent in the general type of men who have been selected to represented the invading forces. Some time ago someone stated the greatest friends in the world to the United States were the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At that time it was true, but today, with the modern floating fortresses and the giant ocean carriers, one hundred of which could easily bring an army of 300,000 invaders to our shores in less than a week, under the protection of a navy that would be far superior to our own, these natural defenses are almost valued at naught. "The Battle Cry of Peace" as part of the propaganda of the party in this country that is for peace through preparedness should per- form a mission the value of which should be of immeasurable proportions. J. Stuart Black- ton wrote the scenario for the picture and is also to publish the story in book form later. He took his facts and statistics from Hudson Maxim's book "Defenseless America" and gives Mr. Maxim due credit in both the literature regarding the film and in the picture itself. He has worked Mr. Maxim into the story and the aged Inventor himself appears in the In- troductory portion. Mr. Blackton might have gone a little further and extended some credit to the author of "The Conquest of America in 1921," at present running in McClure's Magazine, for in the picture Mr. Blackton de- picts the fall of New York City much after the fashion in which it is described in the magazine story* At present the film is in nine reels, but when put on the market it may be cut tp about 7,500 feet. The opening shows a lecture in Carnegie Hall given by Hudson Maxim on "Defenseless America." This is rather drawn out and could be cut to ad- vantage. Then there Is the development of the story proper, which carries a tremendous dramatic punch, and which seemingly runs for about four reels. This is followed by about two reels of allegorical matter, also drawn out and too lengthy. The punch of the pic- ture comes after the bombardment of New York, when the two Harrison boys return to their home to find the house has been wrecked by one of the shells and both their mother and their sister have been slain. The story briefly related deals with two American families. One the Harrisons consisting of mother, daughter and two sons; the other, the Vandergriffs, comprising Mr. Vandergrlff, his wife, son and two daughters. The latter is a peace advocate who favors disarmament. In his home he welcomes Emanon, who also professes to be an advocate of peace, but who in reality is a foreign spy. To give a slight idea of the ramifications of the foreign spy system, the governess employed by the Van- dergriffs is also given the role of an Informer. John Harrison is in love with the eldest daugh- ter of Vandergrlff. He attends a lecture by Mr. Maxim and is much impressed with the manner In which the defenseless condition of the country Is denounced. He tries to con- vince Mr. Vandergrlff later of the mistake he is making In assisting In the peace move- ment through disarmament, and lends him- self to the work of providing a half billion dollar fund, to be a bond Issue subscribed to by all of the millionaires of the country, to be used in the upbuilding of our national defenses. A little later when Mr. Vander- grlff Is presiding at a gigantic peace meeting, a foreign fleet appears outside of New York City and while out of the range of our coast defense guns, proceeds to batter the town to pieces. This seems to have oc- curred without the formality of a declaration of war, but it serves its purpose for the pic- ture story. The city capitulates and the In- vader is upon our shores. They swarm our streets and their hosts are innumerable. One can recall R. H. Davis' description of the great grey cloud that marched for hours through the streets of Brussels only to fade like a mist in the distance. At the home of the Vandergriffs all is in turmoil. The Har- rison boys, after having been to their own home to And both mother and sister dead, rush to the home of their friends. The peace-advocate-spy has about revealed him* self and as Harrison is about to pounce on him he draws a revolver and fires twice through a window. Below the Invaders are marching past, the shots fell two of the soldiers and the house is at once broken Into. The spy calmly informs the officer In charge the elder Vandergrlff procured the revolver and that Harrison fired the shots. Both are placed under arrest and taken with a number of other men to a building where several store are lined against a wall and a machine gun turned on them. The remainder of the Vandergrlff family in escaping pass the scene of the slaughter and in taking a last look at their dead discover John Harrison is still alive. They place him in the car. Before the escape from the home the Vandergrlff women were in the building with the spy and his assistant, the governess. The spy tries to make love to the daughter of the banker and she takes a revolver from his coat pocket and kills him, forcing the governess into a closet and locking her there. In making their escape from the city in the car the Vandergriffs are overhauled by a squadron of cavalry the commander of which commandeers the ma- chine. The men in the car make an effort to protect the women and are bayonetted by the troopers. The women are taken to a country house by the commander and the three locked into a room. The mother realizes her two daughters are to become the prey of the soldiers after they have filled themselves with liquor and she takes the revolver with which the girl killed the spy and calmly shoots both of her children, becoming Insane with grief immediately after. This is the close of the picture story and the allegory follows. It would seem the picture would have had greater effect if the last two reels could have been devoted to following the invading army on their course into New Eng- land, rather than the showing as it does of a lot of pretty pictures. The acting cast with which Charles Rlchman, who is the star of the production, has been surrounded Is one of tremendous strength and the work of Mrs. Mary Maurice, Miss Louise Beaudet and Norma Talmage is particularly worthy of individual mention. From a pictorial standpoint the picture is a revelation. There are a score of panorama scenes, some of which have been taken from hydroplanes flying over New York, which are little short of wonderful. The pic- turing of the bombardment of the city has been worked out in a manner which will win universal admiration, and the fleets and forts in action adds much to the stirring value. Fred. THE SECRET ORCHARD. Cora May Cleo Ridgeley Diane Blanche Sweet Duke of Cluny Edward Mackay Helen (Duchess) Gertrude Keller Lieut. Dodd, U.S.N Carlyle Blackwell Favereau Theo Roberts Diane (Aged 1) Cynthia Williams Nanette (Aged 17) Marjorle Daw Nanette's Mother Loyola O'Connor Nanette's Father Sydney Deane "The Secret Orchard" as a book was writ- ten by Agnes and Egerton Castle. As a play it was dramatized by Channing Pollock and as a feature film, made by Lasky (Paramount), and is at the Strand, New York, this week. From the unfolding it would seem that the book rather than the play had been followed, for this mushy twiddle-twaddle originally writ- ten to impress the youth of the English land, wherein it was probably first put out, takes the path of that sort of fiction. It's the same Story written a hundred times before and after, with merely change of characters and scenes. The girl ruined, the denouement and her "honest" lover! According to "The Secret Orchard," getting ruined Is not so awfully bad as we have been led to believe, for in this, through It if not by it, Diane, fresh from the convent, won a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy for her "honest" husband, and he killed Aer seducer, the Duke of Cluny, in a duel. Wherein lies the moral the Castles may have striven for in their fiction and fictitious tale, other than perhaps to be ruined is to be saved, does not appear In the film reproduction. Diane only knew the convent as her home. The first time out of it she visited her con- vent ch-im Cora May, and met the Duke on the beach. Diane must have met the Duke several times, always on the beach or near there. Moonlight meetings grew into a habit and from these the feature shows a final gath- ering when the Duke told Diana he would have to return home and gave her a string of pearls. She wanted to know if that were all she was to receive for what she had given u* and the Duke replied it was, he then sneaking off, left Diane and her pearls prostrate on the sands. But Diane kept the pearls. The Duchess of Cluny was charitably inclined. She did the mission stuff and on one visit to a hospital met Diane's mother who was dying then and did die imme- diately after beseeching the Duchess to pro- tect her Diane, again back In the convent. The Duchess promised and In pursuance called at the convent, taking Diane to her home, where the Duke, remorseful but hopeful of ultimate escape for his misdeed through Diane not having learned his name, again met his beach Infatuation. Diane was a fortunate, foolish girl. The first man she met ruined her without telling who he was. and the sec- ond man, Lieut. Dodd, loved her "honestly." Diane only met thews two up to the time the Picture ended. Dodd worked fast. He wanted to marry Diane right away after Diane had been importuned by the Duke and hla friend, Favereau, not to reveal past relations, as Fave- reau said, whatever the result the Duchess must be borne in mind and the honor of the family upheld. But when Dodd pressed his suit, Diane told him marriage with her was an Impossibility and when he demanded a reason, she referred him to the Duke. The Duke was up against the wall when Dodd spoke to him. All eyes were on him, those of the audience and Diane's, who was stand- ing behind a curtain. The Duke told the Lieut, to go to it. Diane could marry whom- soever she pleased. Rough stuff, thought Diane in her curtained enclosure, and, rush- ing to the centre of the room, after some conversation that only came out in captions. Diane must have said "You done It" to the Duke, for Lieut. Dodd slapped his face and killed him at sunrise with a pistol shot. Then the chivalrous commissioned officer told Diane he was no Injun giver, that she had his love and he wouldn't take it hack. Whereupon Diane felt the pearls around her neck, told him that "Perhaps, Some Day" (a new cap- tion) and then threw away tho pearls for a second time, as she allowed a sad expression to float across her countenance as the picture did a fadeaway for the finish, and it looked as though Diane was floating under a bright sun on her back. Maybe the Castles meant the finish to be a riddle—whether Diane again picked up the pearls or the lieutenant in the grand finale. Blanche Sweet is the starred player as Diane, and Lasky is continually giving Miss Sweet an exceptional cast in sup- port. Cleo Ridgeley did very nicely as Cora May. She was really girlish. If Miss Sweet did not reach all the heights of her role, she tried hard enough, but as a mistress of emo- tion, Miss Sweet appears often to get her lines crossed. Gertrude Keller gave a good performance of the Duchess. She was the type in looks and dignity of bearing. Theodore Roberts had his usual role, subordi- nated again, and Carlyle Blackwell as Lieut. Dodd was just that—a lover, the kind the girls like, probably. He didn't slap the Duke very hard on the face, and It's this same kind of acting Mr. Carlyle should strengthen up on, putting some force into Jt. Edward Mackay as the Duke was Just right, although his vlllianous sneer in the opening scenes was happily lost later on, when Mackay did much better. However, it is to the writer of the captions in this slow moving feature most of the credit should go. The caption maker placed timely wording, well fitted to situations, and they were not of the usual stereotyped sort. Perhaps they were extracts from the novel. However, that does not lessen their ef- fectiveness. The picture is evidently in five reels, sorely padded often. Sometimes It re- quired 200 or 300 feet for Diane to ponder, and she was some little ponderer. Then a caption called "Shame" had Diane for an- other ISO feet gazing into a fireplace. A love scene in a rose garden alongside a railroad track (freakish combination) raced along for another two hundred odd feet while they skidded the camera on the beach for long whiles. There Isn't much action to "The Secret Orchard" but the picture will act upon the young as the novel undoubtedly did. They will feel sorry for poor Diane who only made a string of pearls and a husband out of her ruination. Sime. isn't pantomime, nor expression nor expres- sive. "Sold" as a Famous Players release means little, in story, playing or production. Sime. SOLD. Nothing absorbingly Interesting in this latest Famous Players feature of "Sold," with Pauline Frederick now at the Broadway. It's Just a plain, mild tale without a thrill, and seems to hinge on the value of Miss Frederick as an artist's model, her value being assessed at $5,000 by herself. The film could have been called "The Secret of a Shirt Waist," for what Miss Frederick had beneath her shirt waist was what the artist paid the $5,000 for. Miss Frederick displayed a portion when posing, but whether it was $5,000 worth is a matter for artistic appraisal. Certainly there is enough acting in this picture, though. The actors are act- ing all over the studio, and the entire five reels were almost wholly made within the studio. The only exteriors are streets. It's a story of two painters and a girl, the girl the wife of the poorer one. With the other fam- ous, he comes to New York, where the mar- ried artist had been obliged to bind himself to a dealer in order to raise money. He got an advance of $5,000. Using his wife as a model he did a painting everyone marveled at. The other painter, visiting the married couple, remarked he would pay any price for the services of that model, but did not then learn her identity. When things got real bad with the married couple through the dealer denuding their home of its furniture upon the artist ruining the painting of his wife that the dealer wanted, the wife (Miss Frederick) called on Richard Wainwrlght, the other paint- er, and offered herself for $5,000. He ac- cepted. After a couple of poses the wife's husband learned of what she had done. He called at Walnwrights studio and while attempting to shoot Wainwrlght. shoots his wife. Then, with explana- tions, everything Is again lovely, al- though the picture falls to relate why the husband as an artist should be any more successful after his wife obtained his release from the dealer with the 10,000 received than he was before binding himself. But still this is as unimportant as the picture Itself. It doesn't seem as though the scenario could have exhibited sufficient strength to make the feature worth while, though there Is. of course, in It Pauline Frederick, without much to do excepting to manipulate a dressing gown. The busiest actor was the dealer, and second to blm the husband-artist. Wainwrlght was played by someone who had an exact Idea of what he was doing, but the others appeared to be thinking only of the camera. This halting and knowing smiles before the pho- tographer are growing very tiresome. NEARLY A LADY. Frederica Calhoun Elsie Janls Lord Cecil Grosvenor Frank Elliott Jack Rawlins Owen Moore Mrs. Reginald Brooks Myrtle Stedman Jim Brooks Harry Ham Elaine, a chorus girl. ...Roberta Hickman Elsie Janls in the five-reel feature, "Nearly a Lady," will be released shortly through the Paramount by Bosworth. The feature at a private showing this week developed nothing startling or unusual. "Nearly a Lady," how- ever is a pleasing feature which serves well enough as a vehicle for Miss Janls, simply because of the fact she is in tho picture. The little comedienne does not make a pleasing screen type in the first place, an; with a film scenario not as good, if not better than the usual run of stories, there is hardly any chance for her to score as she does on the stage. The present picture is a comedy drama with opening scenes laid in the west, which gives the star an opportunity to ride, do a lariat dance and strut about in a riding cos- tume. The latter scenes in New York permit of her appearing in a few evening gowns and later in a smart appearing suit of evening clothes. It is in the latter that she looks most charming. The story in Itself is too light and were it not for the fact that a star's name Is attached to the cast it would Immediately be placed into the class marked as ordinary. However, with Miss Janls' name to display In electrics the exhibitor will get full value. The story tells of a little western girl who has lived on a ranch all her life. She is engaged to marry one of the cow-punchers employed by her dad. He receives an offer of a good Job from a friend In New York and leaves for the east. Because of the fact that she has not re- ceived a letter from him after he has been absent for a month, the girl becomes piqued, and when Lord Cecil Grosvenor an English nobleman with a monaole screwed in one eye appears on the scene and becomes so capti- vated with the girl's easy mode of living and her wild outdoor existence that he proposes, she is almost willing to do anything to square accounts with her delinquent sweetheart, so she accepts the Englishman and sends a note to New York, returning her cowboy lover's ring and breaking off the engagement. Later she and her mother, accompanied by her fiance, come to New York to visit tho sister of Lord Cecil Grosvenor, who has married an American. There are a number of comedy scenes 'hat finally bring about the taming of the western girl s wild and woolly manners and her transformation into a society belle. In the meantime her father has written to her former fiance, informing him of the fact she Is In the big town. The latter immedi- ately calls her up and is invited to dinner. He has also undergone a transformation and Is now one of the "smart setters." Later at a swimming party which takes place in a tank, the little girl is about to drown when the westerner comes to her rescue. Returning to consciousness she clasps him to her and suddenly realizes that she did not want the Englishman. Lord Cecil has in his time been a pretty good sport, and was particularly sweet on one of the Winter Garden girls. She phones him on the night of the French Ball and asks him to take her to the affair "for old time sake." He agrees, but is overheard by the girl. She follows him, dressed in his brother's evening clothes and sees him meet his former flame. On returning home she Is seen to enter her own room dressed In man's at- tire by Cecil's sister, who does not recognize that her sister-in-law Is masquerading, but thinks it is a man. The next morning the little westerner runs off, meets her former sweetheart and marries him, returning home to tell them of the fact. The cast supporting Miss Janls, other than Owen Moore, Is nothing to brag about. The. direction at times showed several slip-ups In matter of using characters and doubling them. Fred. — ? •* THE SPITS FATE. The title of this reads as though it might bear on some war, but It Is not that kind of a picture. It is supposed to deal with secret service agents wherein there are some im- portant papers connected. There's play about a smelting concern that has amalgamated with some other firm and Sutro appears to be putting it over one Thurston, who be- comes mixed up with an Imperial secret ser- vice woman who in turn hands her running mate in the same biz the frozen mitt. This young male agent, working for Sutro turns out to be one tough boy, for he not only tries to kill Thurston, but would also do bodily injury to the other women. One of the women Is In the employ of the United States secret service. She and one moustached man named Mayer are supposed to be 8. S. agents with some a'deptness and smartness, but from the way they moved about In the picture their work was as crude as that of amateur detectives. The picture should havo been a one or two- reeler and let It go at that, but padding out and Jumping the characters about permitted Lubin to extend the story. The scenario may have been a prize in the reading, but in the enactment by a cast that did very little act- ing It turns out a badly bungled affair. The big climax is supposed to be when Thurston lets a puny young man knock him cold with one blow of his fist and tho latter turns water Into a walled up well or base IB cat wh«ro Thurston flounders around while the assailant looks on from an open window Just a few feet above the Jagged rocks. If Thurston had taken off his shoes he might have scaled that wall without any effort. Hut that would have cut the picture down about 500 feet. The feature misses everything. Jfarfc.