Variety (June 1916)

FILM REVIEWS 17 I I I I ' Illl I ■ I I = THE SORROWS OF LOVE. Beatrice Bessie Barrlscale Outdo Peril William Desmond Contessa Angelica de Vecchlo Ora Carew Prince Candonl Herschel Mayall Carlo Parodl Wedgwood Nowell Ince (Triangle) feature directed by Chas. Giblyn, story by Elaine Sterne and J. O. Hawkes, starring Bessie Barrlscale and Will- iam Desmond. Just what the story is in- tended to convey in the way of a preachment is very vague. An Italian Countess is placed in a nunnery by her guardian, Prince Can- donl, for deigning to fall In love with a low- born portrait painter. The Prince is the people's oppressor. In the nunnery she con- ndes In Sister Beatrice (Miss Barrlscale), who is known as "The Lily," and who has lived all her life within the convent walls. The young Countess dies and gives the "Lily" a ring to be delivered to the portrait painter, who had been sent to jail for con- spiring against the government. The Countess has said to "The Lily" that she (The Lily) knows nothing of the world and hence Is in no position to pass Judgment upon the Count- ess's love affair. "The Lily" decides to don the Countess's clothes and steal away from the convent to help in the outside world. She is at the jail gates as the artist is released, picks him out from among a mob and hands him the ring. Carl, the artist, swears ven- geance upon the Prince and "The Lily" be- comes part of the conspiracy, constantly preaching against force, saying, "There is a God of Justice and of Mercy. Without him you will never win your cause." And again "There la more strength in love than in vio- lence." She marries Guldo, the leader of the people. She sees him take another woman in his arms whom he Is simply consoling, and mistaking It for a love affair becomes jeal- ous, seizes a dagger, places it in her breast, steals up behind her husband and draws it to stab him in the back. In drawing the weapon It becomes entangled with her beads and her religious training asserting itself, she with- draws without committing the .crime. She leaves a note for her husband and goes away, and he, deprived of her influence, calls the populace to rise and they start for the Prin- ces' Palace. Hearing of it she rushes to the Palace and warns the Prince, who telephones for the Carablneiro. In the melee. Carlo is fatally wounded, but before dying stabs the Prince, and Guldo Is carried home also wounded. She follows her husband home and declares to the conspirators that she was the traitor who gave the alarm. Guldo protects her from harm and dies In her arms. She says: "He has won Heaven while I, a life time of penitence will not absolve my sins. The moral of which would seem to be, "Mind your own business." Magnificently photo- graphed and directed, an excellent simulation of Venice with its canals, gondolas and other stmospherlo details. But a gloomy, sanguinary story. * Jolo. BOBBIE OF THE BALLET. Bobble Brent Louise Lovely Jack Stimson Jay Belasoo Mrs. Stimson Jean Hathaway Velma Vrooman Gtetchen Lederer Henry Fox Qllmore Hammond Hook Hoover Lon Chaney Mrs. Hoover Lule Warrenton Bluebird feature, story by Grant Carpen- ter, scenario by Ida May Park, directed by Joseph DeGrasse. Just another of those im- possible stsge stories in which the rich young man backs a theatrical company owing to his Infatuation for the star, who is an adven- turess, meets the good little chorus girl who goes through all sorts of trials and tribula- tions and in the end marries the poor girl. Well enough played and produced, but the story Is altogether too conventional to hold any Interest. Jolo. THE SPIDER AND THE FLY. Delano Robert B. Mantell Blanche Genevieve Hamper Lantler Stuart Holmes Qervatse Genevieve Bllnn Coupeau Franklin B. Coates Nana Claire Whitney Richard Lee Walter Miller Helen Lee Ethel Bruce Father Rochelle Henry Leone The latest William Fox feature release, "The Spider and the Fly," with Robert Mantell and Genevieve Hamper as the stars, might well be termed a drama of Drink, Debauchery and Disaster. The scenario is by Franklin B. Coatee, who also plays one of the roles In the production. It has exactly three distinct plots, which wander back and forth through- out the Ave reels in more or less haphazard manner, but the strings are finally pulled to- gether In the last couple of scenes and the moral that Is pointed out at the finish Is that women, wine and song lead to destruc- tion. Plctorlally the feature Is all that could be desired, and the enactment of the various roles commendsble, with perhaps the excep- tion of Mr. Mantell, who appears entirely too aged for the character that he portrayed. The story Is entirely too complicated to bear tell- ing. Suffice it to say that Miss Hamper has the star role, whleh would have been a corker for Theda Bara. As a box office attraction "The Spider and the Fly" will get a lot of money, for it has a title that will catch the nickels, dimes and quarters, and the names of the two stars will also prove potent In at- tractlng money to the ticket windo w. Fred. If you don't advertise In VARIETY, don't advertise. S: TH NATIONAL DRAMA CORPORATE nnounces FIRST PRODUCTION ■L THOMAS DIXON VICTOR HERBERT DIXON IN A PROLOGUE AND THREE. ACT/ THOMA/ V author of "THE BIRTH OF A NATION" mu/ic ay VICTOR HERBERT AMERICA'/ FOREMOST COMPOSER LIBERTY THEATRE EW YORK TUESDAY EVENING JUNE 6 OFFICE/ OF THE CORPORATION ! 1480 BROADWAY, NEWYORK A GUTTER MAGDALENE. Malda Fannie Ward Steve Boyce Jack Dean Jack Morgan Charles West Halpln Billy Elmer Helen Oertrwde Keller Sheriff Barrett Robert Bradbury Goodwin James Nelll "A Gutter Magdalene," next week's Lasky (Paramount) release, la a good picture be- cause It will be a money-getter. But the story, by WHlard Mack, Is so conventional that It might readily have been adapted from an old Blaney melodrama. A crook lures an Inno- cent country girl to the city under the promise of marriage. She Is compelled to act as lure for his card victims. A westerner Is being robbed In a poker game, pulls a gun and Is struck on the bead with a bottle. Olrl runs away and Joins the Salvation Army. West- erner Is mistaken for a common drunk and sent to the Island for ten days. He enters the Ualvatlon headquarters in search of food, there meets the girl, crestes a disturbance and Is thrown out, run over by sn auto, car- ried back to the "home." and there nursed by the girl. He asks her to marry blm and she says she Isn't "good" and hence not eli- gible. Westerner arrested for theft of MO.OOU, out of which he was robbed. His pal, the sheriff, comes from Wyoming to get him out of the scrape. The girl goes to her seducer's apartment to get bsck the money for the man she really loves and In the struggle the crook Is shot. Sheriff enters st thst moment, takes the revolver and ssys he killed the crook for resisting arrest. And, of course, the girl and the westerner marry. Sounds mighty com- monplace In type, but In the screen visualisa- tion It Is magnificently produced. Incidental- ly, the star, Fannie Ward, Is marvelously ef- fective as "the girl." Her emotional acting on the screen Is on s par with the best and she Is deserving of unstinted praise. There are a few melodramatic Inconsistencies, but the continuity of the tele Is uninterrupted and this, with the good acting, direction and photography, makes for a first rate program release. Jolo.