Variety (January 1923)

. .. • ■ Thursd ay* January 25, 18 23 THE CHRISTIAN roldwvn production adapted from tha Sir w»n Caina novel of. the same title, directed £r \laur'-'a Tourneur. Special preview at fife?-™—-ftfi rsiorv Quayle ••»•<•••••. .Jtae Buscn Slither KhuI Oareta Hughca JJuy Love Phyllis Haver 5„1 Robert Ure Cyril Chadwick Horatio Drake Mahlon Hamilton Lther Lampieigu Joseph Dowllng Kr.t Si.,.ro. Claud* dtlMMwatar Par«on Quayle John Hcrdnian f lza Beryl Mercer Kev. (Mlahtly ..Robert Holder jgatron Milla Uavt-np-it u«.y .,.•••«• Alice He*se Lady Robert Cre Aileen rringle F*ro King Harry- Northrup Doctor .. .Kric M»yw- PICTURES 41 Coroner .William Moran Here Is a picture! A real picture with a corking story, a. great cast and finely produced. It should be one of the biggest box office winners of the year for the exhibitor, but if it isn't then no further proof is needed that pictures, good ones, and this is one of the best, won't draw. However, it seems hardly probable that this one will f.all down at the gate. Sir Hall Caine's story was a real tale for the screen. Jt was made about nine or ten years ago by Vitagraph. Uoldwyn secured the American rights from it. This ver- aibn should be able to go 'round the world. The cast selected presented a per- formance that needs a new ad- jective to express their work. That goes for everyone, but the perform- ance that stands out as a gem is that by Richard Dix, who, as John rm, presents a characterization ithout compare. After witnessing ix's performance in this picture, jthe Goldwyn people need not worry m to who should play the lead in n-Hur" for them. Dix has un- nlably won the right to It for his rformance of John Storm. Next to Dix, Mae Busch Is en- tled to a full measure. This girli s delivered a hundred per cent as lory Quayle, and then some, but t the same time Phyllis Haver as oily Love, on the strength of the eath scene ahfne, is entitled to all hat the critics can give her in alse. ^ To the many others a great deal f credit is due, especially Cyril hadwick as the heavy, and Mahlon amilton. In production, nothing has been left undone. The company, at least a part of it. was taken to the Isle of Man, England, and the original scenes as described by the author were utilized for the picturization. The direction could not go wrong with the story laid out as it was. and with the cast. The handling of the mob scenes was excellent, especially In the final reel of the picture. In lighting the photog- raphy is perfect. The answer is that if "The Chris- tian" doesn't get money for any theatre at its picture scale, then that theatre might just as well look around for a change of polfcv. Fret. PEG O' MY HEART Laurette Taylor in her famous play writ- ten by J. Hartley Manners, tl >ne Into a ^•tro-Screen Classic under directorship of vS* Vld0r - Screen adaptation by Jdary 9 Hara. Ifisa Taylor plays the part ahe treated on the stage. At the Capitol, New ?ork. week of Jan. 21. rfarjraret O'Connell (Peg). .Lauretta Taylor Mr Gerald Adair (Jerry)..Mahlon Hamilton JP O'Connell Russell Simpson Ethel Chichester Ethel Grey Terry Christian Brent Nigel Barrle *a w k a... Lionel Belmore Irs. '"hiehester Vera Lewis Irs. Jim O'Connell Sldna Beth Ivlns Llario Chichester D. R. O. Hatswell largaret O'Connell (Peg) as a child.... Aileen O'Malley » ut -*r Fred Huntly Peg on the screen Isn't the full, m, racy character she was on the tge, but still stands head and loulders over almost any panto- limic comedienne the screen has. liss Taylor does a unique piece of fork here. New to the camera she las mastered that pitiless instru- ment by sheer naturalness and ibandon. She looks 20 and acts 16 with an [exquisite grace that is memorable. Except for her deft and dainty com- edy the picture might be pretty [tepid. It took Miss Taylor herself no get the production over. If the ^action had been In any other hands mt hers the humor would all have Ren in the titles. But this con- lummare actress makes the little ip of O'Connell live and breathe. There can be no question of the >x office value of "Peg." It is al- lost in the "Ben-Hur" class as a Iraw, for it played from one end of he country to the other with half a lozen actresses in the name part for lore than 10 years, and was in the [Way Down Kast" class as a re- Jater. It is one of the dozen or so titles that will appeal to the whole public, for it is as standard as [David Copperfield." Mi<s Taylor's Presence givei it prestige, and the Result as far.as the box office is con- cerned is "in." Metro ami Mr. Vidor ha\e done handsomely by the production. It has some exquisite settings, authen- tic scenic background taken abroad, and interiors done in the best form of the best modern practice. The picture couldn't have cost an enor- mous amount to make, for most of the sets are simple. But they are real. The rooms of a well-appointed home are just that, solid, honest, plain but rich and without frippery. For once they don't drag van-loads of furniture to force an effect of elegance down your throat, and for once an English hall could be put in Madison Square Garden. The playing is in the lame mood of restraint. The butler is Just an uneasy and embarrassed servant in- stead of a clown, and Mahlon Ham- ilton makes his Jerry a wearied man of the world with posing in the fa- miliar lackadaisical, studio manner. Michael was a bit disappointing. He ought to be a disheveled bundle of rags, but the one they employed for the picture was too plump and actually a smug pup—not the real Michael at all. Perhaps the trouble with the picture is that they have taken liberties with the play. It was inevitable perhaps that there would be changes, but it is not easy to see that it was necessary to resurrect Teg's father and drag him through nearly a reel of picture at the start and bring him back for the finale. Peg gains sympathy from being an orphan. What was gained but footage to give her an absent but protective father? Half the pathos of the girl's position was her helplessness and her gallant fight not to be a lady against over- whelming odds. One has somewhere in the back of one's head all the time at the picture that Peg was a fool to stay and be annoyed. Why not chuck it up and go home? S. L. Bothafel has mounted the production nicely at the Capitol, with a striking bit of scenic setting showing the Irish moors, and a musical score of Irish melodies that is irresistible. Rush. OMAR, TENTMAKER Richard Walton Tully production, adapted from the stage version as also produced by Tully with Guy Bates Post the star of both. Directed by James Young - . Released through First National. At Strand, New York, week Jan. 21. ' i>mar, Jh»^TentiaaKer Guy Bates Post .Shireen Virginia Brown Fa ire Nizam ul Jrull; Nigtl de Brullere Shah's Mother.....' Rose Dlone Little Shlreen Patty Ruth Miller Hassan Douglas Gerrard Little Mahruse Will Jim Hatton Imam Mowaffak Boris Karloff The »'hr.!»t!an Crusader.. .Maurice B. Flynn Dinar's Father Edward M. Kimball The Executioner Walter Jxmg Zarah Evelyn Selbie Mahruss John Grlbner \ Gordon Mullen Emissaries of the Shah.... } Georg.. Rigas other. 'Tis romantic and grows sympathetic as mother and daughter find one another and huddle to- gether, to finally escape to save tluir husband and father. This vb iw of the two women is not tinlike the touch of the two sisters in "The Orphans." James Young will get an awful lot of credit for direction in lids, pic- ture, an awful lot for he has done an awful lot of * directing. Btlt Young may have to stand some criticism in the choppy manner at times the film ran at the Strand. It looked as though the Strand had done its own cutting to keep down the running time, as "Omar" ran but TO minutes Sunday afternoon, whereas, it had been reported "Omar'* held 0.000 feet in the orig- inal. If the Strand «lidn't cut who- ever did, made the early section often too abrupt. Mr. Post placed better as the youthful lover than as the aged and grieved husband and father bereft. Virginia Brown Fa ire "registered" well enough as Shireen but i* seemed more registration than play- ing. The Shnh of Norah Berry's is peculiar. The Shah was senile, as a caption mentioned, but Berry made him worse than that. And the captions were nothing to boast over at anytime. •'Omar - ' came near*approaching a special. It is of super range in pro- duction and for Mr. Tully's second film production ("Masquerader" first), he may also look unon It with great pride. Stmt, MILADY Henri D mant-Berger production, mad* In France under the direction of Dimsnt of the .-■equei to "The Three Musketeers." Dis- tributed through American Ke'eaMng. shown at the Cameo, New York, week Jan. It D'Artagnan Aime Slnvn-Glmnl »'on«tunce Honaclcux P.errette lladd MUady de Winter «.')au«le Merelle Cardinal Richelieu Monsieur de Max Atho-«.t Henri Rollan I*"rth«>s Monsieur Bterlntelll Annul- ...P. de Guinicuiul The Queen Jeanne Desclos DARK SECRETS Paramount picture presented by AdolrHi Zukur. Features Dorothy Dnlt. n in story bv Edmund (ioulding. with Victo* Fleming directing. At Rialto, Jan. 21. Ruth Rutherford Dorothy Dalton I*ord WalUngton Robert E'lia Dr. Mohninmed All Jose Ruben Mildred Rice Kllen Cassidy Biskra Pat HartIgan Dr. Case *• Warren Cook Faithfully Poi tray Full Negative Values There are sufficient elements in "Omar" to make it sure fire as a box office picture In the general re- lease way. It may not be unwise to predict that "Omar" will shoot ♦ he gross ahead of the usual release, for this is a spectacle of a film pro- duction as well as holding a story set in curious climes for the native American. Accepting that the widely played "Omar" of the stage failed to show before the majority of the film fans, this picture is complete in Itself. For the women it has a certain ap- peal through the love making of Omar with Shireen in the first reel; an element removed from the "sex" thing and still strong enough alone with* its suggestion to linger in memory. Guy Bates Post never missed a thing when he hugged Shireen aftv their marriage. He was stfll hugging and kissing her the fiext day, while Shireen herself was some little kisser after she got started, but of course she waited to pick her spot—Omar. According to the picture they did treat 'em rough in the Harem of the Perisian Shah. Women meant nothing to the eunuchs. And Shireen when torn away from her husband and sent to the Shah as the next addition to his Harem collection, was thrown into a dungeon when informing th*» f'hah she loved an- other. In a later reel Shireen in the dungeon had a babe. Since the Shah had forgotten Shireen follow- ing her consignment to solitary im- prisonment, everybody but Omar seemed to know Omar was the kid's pop. The Shah ordered the mother and child placed in a bag and thrown from a cliff. But the Persians were gyppers as well. They threw a diimmy for Shireen. for the mother had arranged to have the child con- veyed to its father, and then they sold poor Shireen into desert slavery. So the story runs, familiar to so many. In the lapse of 17 years, the child Slaughter) has grown up; the Shah has died and in his place reigns another; all interesting and growing more tmse as the film un- reels. There are mobs, tribes, denizens of the underworld, fights, and the Christian Crusader, made a stalwart figure by Maurice B. (Lef'y) Flynn, of invaluable assistance to this pic- Mire tow aid its finale. In the early part it might be said Ihe storj doesn't hold well; it's too legendary, but there is the always attractive production to offset It, The production and its picturesque people will make many forget the story until the latter reaches its ab- gorbpng portion. Amidst it *»H Is Omar with his ! philosophy, guarding his own child ; v.hi! I i» • vine Its fpfher to be an- \ Nothing inspiring about this fea- ture, which, incidentally, signalizes Miss Dalton's return aftev a some-* what prolonged absence. It is a so- ciety picture, migrating from this country to Egypt, having as its foundation the mystic power of an Arabian doctor accomplishing the task of making the social belle walk after hhe is, supposedly, permanently crippled. The familiar aftermath bargain between the patient arid the physician is alco an issue. The Him is minus outstanding Opportunities for Miss Dalton to the point where it must be simply a matter of routine with her. Robert L]llis supplies even support ( in the role of the fiance, with the others of the cast doing no better, or worse, than the average players in a general release. Fleming has turned out an Indecisive sequence of events from a manuscript that at best is woven from exceedingly light fabric, so perhaps it isn't en- tirely his fault. The photography and settings may be termed stand- ard. Buth Rutherford* is the society miss betrothed to Lord Wellington, whom she has previously met in Egypt. The film opens for an in- terior of the marriage proposal un- der the eastern moon, thence im- mediately switches to this country with a garden party and Kuth showing the wedding present from her fiance, which is a pair of Arabian horses. The girl scoffs at the warning that one of the animals is unbroken and that she shouldn't attempt to ride it in the forthcom- ing horse show. The effort leads to her being thrown and forced into a wheel chair, i The Arabian doctor is present at the time of the accident and offers to attend the injured girl, but WalUngton refuses his services on the ground that he (Wallington) exposed the practioner in Egypt in a political frame-up and does not trust him. American doctors can do nothing for Ruth, so she tella Wallington their engagement i« broken, and he returns to Cairo, where he takes to drink. The deplorable condition to which he allows himself to descend forces his service companions to send for the girl, who upon arrival realizes that her willingness to marry is the only thing that can save him. To this extent she makes the bargain with the Arabian, who is also on the scene, and he begins his cure. She is finally able to walk, bnt it leaves her under the mystic force of her benefactor's willpower. The situ- ation culminates in the brown- skinned doctor's demand that Kuth pay her debt with the usual "No, not that." a fight and the physician being stabbed by the girl's attend- ant. He lives long enough, how- ever, to pla^e a cur.^e of A Mali on her that forces her back to the wheel chair. The moral supposition she is under keeps the h] nil un- broken until the faithful attendant (eigne an attack on Wallington, which brings the g;rl cut " f Ihe chair to warn her lover—and finis. For those who arc very mu< h in favor of Miss Dalton thi; picture mrfy register for a fair amount of approval, though M is unlikely it will Impress the average film fan- cier as other than an ordinary ef- fort. Hklg. The % heavy vamp gets the axe at the end of about the seventh reel after she has gone through the pic- ture vamping, poisoning and stick-» ing daggers Into people. It would have been just as well had the axe fallen in the first reel and ended the whole affair right there. The pic- ture is a sequel to Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers," made in France with a French cast under the direction of a French di- rector and perhaps for French audiences, where they insist on their Dumas screened according to the original text. Perhaps this pic- ture is what audiences over there want, but in the U. S. A. they want things a little different and are not the sticklers for the original text. That's why a Doug Fairbanks "Musketeer" is worth about a whole gross of others. The D'Artagnan of Amie Simon- Girard in this picture hardly fig* ures. There would have been a bet- ter effect had Henri Rollan. who played Porthoa, been chosen for the leading male role. In one scene with Milady he showed a certain fire and ability that would indicate that he would have been a better selection. In sets, effects and In some spots photography this picture is good, and for the cheaper admission houses it will do, but It Isn't a big picture in the scene of. the Broad- way application to "a special." There undoubtedly will be some- thing of an audience for it in spots, tor the fact that the exhibitor can blil it as a sequel to "The Three Musketeers" will have ^ox office value, but In entertainment It Is lacking. This is partially due to the editing and titling that has been done for it, for it is far from setting forth the story clearly, and in this production "t>ne has to rely on the titles to tell the tale, for the action is far from doing so. The*"chances are that the picture was originally wOrked out abroad as- an exposition of the love affairs of D'Artagnan, that much is at least suggested in one of the earlier reels with the musketeer in the apart- ment of Milady, where the two are vamping each other at cross-pur- pose. If this was a fact there must have been a bit of cutting to get the American version past the censors. That in itself may have hurt the picture considerably. Vrr4. THE FLASH TroOuceil l»y Russell Productions In con- junction with Clinton Protlnction*. U^oiKe H y wrote the story, directed hy Wil« . in in Craft and featuring George Lark In. gram, "The plash" lmpr< sscd as being Just about the type which keeps a number of people out of picture houses. Pictures were made better than this release 10 years ago. Added to which the cast screens aa ex- tremely stagey along with u flagrant tendency to exaggerate. Ruth Stonehiiuse, as the daughter, seemed the only one who had any idea of how to work when the him was be- ing taken, and, although never a st:ir, this girl certainly de erves a better fate than to be in such sur- roundings, s, Which doesn't lessen the fact that someone, with a sense of humor, could have made a great comedy out of this picture. Bklg. THE GREAT NIGHT William Foa flv#-p««W»r atarring William Russell. Story by Jos. F. P.* and. Directed by lioward M. MltebHl. Shown at the Aoademy of Music, X. Y. Larry Gllmore...' Willr.m Rus ell Molly Martin Kva Novak IVplta Oongale*. WinlTred Bryaon Robert Ulimore Henry Barrowa Tack Denton Wade Bother Simpkina Harry I,onadal« Oreen Bnr.e Metcalf The Dream. San Diego. CeJ., has been purchased from James B. Mnson by Lowfe- 8t»H5. Much ado about a newspaper office, political boss, the chief of po- lice, his daughter and the star re- porter. It's considerable raelo and entails all the incidentals of such that combine for a hectic conglom- eration of automobile .-hays, fights and hurrah titling which produced more laughs than many a comedy can brag of. The picture even Includes a row- boat and water rapids incident with the gal deserted by the villain, in mid-stream, the hero going to the rescue, finally getting the girl to a rock which they can't hold on to. drift further with the current and finish by climbing out on the rock they previously missed. How, only they know. The directing and continuity all through are far from average. There is a woeful lack of attention to detail. An automobile chase re- vealed the cars going in the same direction, taking the same curves in the same way, whether going or coming—and how many times can a machine go around the same curve while headed in one direction? The boys must have chased up or down road for weeks when they were film- ing this one. The story tells of the head of the police department starting on a campaign to clean up a city, a-rous- ing the ire of the gambling and political element; the frame to get the daughter involved to make the chief lay off and the boy reporter always thwarting the enemies of noble ideals. The lead-off caption had something or other to do with greed and honesty. "What titles fol- lowed, and they were many, became more dramatic as they progressed. Scenes in the newspaper "edi- torial department" will never make any ■cribe who turns in copy for a daily burn up with envy. (Icorge Larkin as the lead reporter is pic- tured skipping into the copy room with a scoop, a big "inside" yarn, and team it off on less than half a sheet of paper. The editor uses a typewriter that couldn't be more than a thousand years old as a means of strutting his stuff. The howl of the film comes when the star member of the staff knocks his employer "cold," messes up the po- litical boss, ruins the department's furniture in general, and when the editor comes to he points to the door and states (title) "You're fired." Splitting a double feature pro- This feature started out big as a comedy, but was allowed to slip, ao that the verdict at the end of the fifth reel is that it is Just a fair pro- gram production. A bundle of laughs In the first couple of reels, with William Russell the hunted young man, with a fleck of women intent on marrying him. It Is a rather old story, that of< a young man who must marry by . a certain date to obtain his inheri- tance. He has 30 days, and the girls are determined to get him af- ter the newspapers publish the story. To avoid them he hides hia identity and becomes a member of the police force through the kind- ness of the head of the department, who is his friend. On his beat he sees a girl in a lunchroom and falls for^her, managing to wed her Just as the clock was ticking off the last minute of the time limit. Russell makes the role of the hero fairly convincing, and aa a copper has a chance to get in a couple df good rough-and-tumble rights. v Eva Novak, his leading woman. Is charming. The balance of the cast held Winifred Bryson as a- heavy vamp, with Earle Metcalf as her companion in crime. Had the pace that the picture started with been held to it would have been a winner for laughs, but after the second reel passed the pic- ture slowed down into an ordinary mush tale without anything to re- m jt * ' /Vfrf. PAWN TICKET 210 William Kox production ftarrlii* Shirley Maaon foundrd on the play bv iuvld Be- jMCO and C'iay At. Green. ' Directed by Scott Dunlap. Length 5 reel*. Shown at Loew'H N> w York, N««w York, douole fea- ture bill. Jan. :3, IMS, Rut "- ; Shlr'.ey Maaon < hick Snxo Itobr.t Agnew Ruth Stirnhold Ir< ne Hunt Ab»» Levi. Jacob Ahrama- Mth. Levi , Dorothy Manners Harria Levi i r ,1 Warren A human interest story of old New York, nicely produced and rather cleverly played, with the principal sympathy going to the character taken by Fred Warren, i Shirley Mason is appealing in the role of the adopted waif whom the pawnbroker takes into his home and rears, giving the mother who cannot care lor the child a receipt in the form of a pawn ticket, from which the picture gets its title. The picture ^s one that will fill in as the top of the average double fea- ture bill in the big houses and is strong enough to stand by itself in the email houses off the main stem. The etory in brief is that of * father and son who conduct a pawn shop. The wife of the latter de- serts him and on the same night a mother comes in who cannot care for her child and the deserted hus- band takes it and cares for it. After a lapse of years he is anxious to give the girl the benefit of other surroundings and arranges for her to live with an Influential friend of his. \At the finish he discovers the friend is not all he seems and that the boy of the neighborhood who is in love with the girl is far more worthy of her. The mother also re- appears after 15 years to claim her child. So there is an all-around happy ending. The picture will have an appeal in certam neighborhoods that will be greater than in others. That Is, the neighborhood houses will get the greater benefit out of it. Robert Agnew makes a pleasing juvenile opposite Miss Mason, whiie Fred Warren gives the role, of Harris Levi a characterisation'that is de- cidtHlly v\o«tli while. rrcd. MANAGER WANTED For large motion picture theatre in Brooklyn. Must have thorough knowledge of picture game, ADDRESS BOX 112 Variety. New York 3