Variety (May 1923)

VARIETY ... . ednesday, May 30, 1*23 B. F. KEITH'S PALACE, NEW YORK; NEXT WEEK (JUNE 4) THE ORIGINAL FOUR PHILLIPS "THE GREATEST FOREHEAD BALANCING ACT IN THE WORLD" (THIS ACT HAS NO CONNECTION WITH ANY OTHER ACT USING OUR NAME. GET THE ORIGINAL) » Manager MAX PHILLIP Direction H. B. MARINELL1 FILM REVIEWS (Continued from page 34; Identical with pictures that have gone before. The basic Idea has wealth as the cause of most evils. Husband ami wife are overcome by their sudden acquisition of means. The story is rather well worked out, considering the idea is of such ancient vintage. In addition to its old story, the photography would fit a production of IS years ago. There is little of the footage that reaches any kind of a satisfactory average in this di- rection. The cast is short and of seasoned players. The leads are Bryant Washburn and Eva Novak. Wash- burn takes first place in the run- ning, with no great opportunities offered him. Miss Novak is a blond miss who handles with comparative ease the ingenue lead. June Elvidge In a widow role is an important fac- tor in the story. Her work is that of an experienced player, with Phillips Smailey and Vernon Steele coming under the same classifica- tion. The sets provide a flash at times. The picture's greatest weak- ness is in the photography. In working out the story many of the old standard melodramatic bits are employed, with an auto- mobile race and a raid on a road- house being brought forth for the punches of the production. Hart. THE LAST MOMENT J. Parker Read, Jr., production, distrlb- uted through Goldwyn. from Jack Boyle's atory. Henry Hull. Dorla Kenyon and Louis Wolheim have the three major roles. Runs 01' minutes. At the Broadway, New York, In conjunction with vaudeville bill. How this picture escaped a Broad- way showing is something to won- SUMMER SHOES White, colors and chic com- binations in dainty designs for all occasions. ANDREW GELLER 1656 Broadway NEW YORK CITY At 61st .street ,der about. While not a sensational film, it has all the ingredients that usually m:rko up a feature booked at one of the mammoth palaces along Main street and is a good deal more interesting than many seen within the past several weeks. Possibly its Keneral reminiscence of something heretofore produced has something to do with it. The episode of shaqghaing the leading characters parallels that in Morgan Robertson's ''Masters of Men" at the Cameo this and last week. The introduction of the hy- brid monster with the form'of a gorilla and the destructive ven- geance of a human brute was the big punch of another Goldwyn re- lease some months ago ("The Blind Bargain," with Lon Chaney), which played the Capitol, Goldwyn's as- sured Broadway stand. The story opens with Hercules Napoleon Cameron (Henry Hull), a bookish young man who finds his heroic inspiration between bqpk covers despite his given . names. Alice Winthrop (Doris Kenyqftf is the girl. Following one of Alice's parties the girl insists on accom- panying Napoleon (Nap for short), to the Red Lamp, a watervront dive' periodically frequented by Pat Roo- ney, the aire of the young bootblack who visits Nap periodically and swallows Cameron's imaginative ex- ploits much to Nap's secret gratifi- cation. The slumming tour results in the girl, Nap and a third male acquaintance being shanghaied on a tramp vessel bound for the South Seas. The action aboard ship is inter- spersed with the skipper's brutal manifestations, the timid Nap shrinking in physical fear of the burly Finn's physique. Louis Wol- heim makes the character realistic- ally vivid. The Finn has in his pos- session this unnamed monster, which a scientific expedition had discovered and which the Finn had taken unto himself in the knowl- edge that scientists back home would pay handsomely for it. The punch of the story is the es- cape of the monster, with its sub- sequent wreaking of destruction o* everybody and everything it comes In contact with. The brutal cap- tain hides In mortal fear, while Napoleon, in a pinch, becomes en- dowed with truly napoleonic mental domination in facing the beast and subduing it much on the oider of a lion tamer who faces the king of beasts and dominates it. In view of the* prepossessing figure of the monster that is a bit hard to swal- low, but it la deftly smoothed over in the scenario transition. The monster has not been wholly sub- dued by Nap, however. After strangling the Finn he lies in wait Cpr Nap. Land is sighted and Alice and Nap decide to swim for it, with the monster following. It is the hero's intention to put into action an idea that has stuck with him through the years from his book learning that a pigmy can keep a giant under water and both can drown. That is his purpose, but it does not become necessary when an abalone, a submarine shellfish, grips one of the monster's paws and holds it until its captive succumbs. Nap rejoins his sweetheart on shore, and the third friend, hereto- fore boastfully disdainful of Nap's obvious heroic shortcomings, comes rowing from the boat, where he has been in hiding in the storeroom. As film fare it has the fact that it is entertainingly diverting to commend it. The cast takes care of its roles perfectly. Abel. defeats the criminals In their schemes and opens the way to a happy ending, with the cripple re- stored and in happy embrace with the heroine. A picture graded for the daily change houses, resting upon crude melodramatic device, al- though Cnaney has several effective passages. Rush. CROSSED WIRES Universal production, directed by King Raggott. Gladys Walton starred. At Lof w» 42d «t. May -»:•. Running time. S3 minutes, THE SHOCK Universal-Jewel production, featuring Lon Chaney. Directed by Lambert Hill- yer: author unnamed. Projection time, 87 minutes. This is just one of those things. Obviously made for the second and third-run houses, it succeeds, how- ever, i.. rising above the common- place several times. The titles are unusually good throughout, inci- dentally. The good old Cinderella plot is utilised and dressed up a bit, with Cindy a "woiktng gal" who wants to crash into society. Some of the character^ are well played, notably the "Tad" father by William Robert Daly. The fellow playing the "hick" boy friend of the heroine is inclined to overdo the part. He's "hick" to the life In ap- pearance, but - overacts too fre- quently. There's a dancing contest, one of those social club affairs, that's very finely staged. Perfect types and at- mosphere. A swell society function by contrast Is also excellently done. The latter part of the film runs to farce. A free-for-all scrap, taking place at the social club's racket, was an- other scene that reflected credit on the director. Story contains a good idea, but flickers out as it gets to- ward the middle of the fourth reel. The sets are well built and Indicate considerably money was spent for been standing in the studio and utilized for this picture. Gladys Wilton makes a pretty telephone gal, with a yen for so- ciety, making her role convincing throughout. Kate Price pleases as the mother. Good photography, with nothing out of the ordinary re- quired to unfold the story. A program picture with flashes much above the average that fits nicely for a double-feature bill. Ben. THE LEOPARDESS Paramount production starring Allra Brady. Adapted for the screen by J. Clark- son Miller from the story by Katherlna Newlin Burt. Directed by Henry Keeker. Shown it I^ew'i State. New Vorfc. for three days, commencing May It. Time. 70 minutes. / Ttare Alice Brady Scott Quaigg Montague Lov* Captain Croft Edward I .a ngf or* Angus McKensie Charle* Kent. MME. EVA 11 W. 63d St., New York City (for 22 years with Sherry's) CANDIES and CAKES in boxes for Gifts, Steamers, Parties or Homes Mail Orders Filled < v?y- vail clear your, head and improve your yoke AT ALU DRUG STOWCS SSND FOR ntCC SAHPLT CASMINC CO, 6E.UW ST..W.Y. wever, backgrounds may have Do You Smoke the I & Y CIGARS IF YOU DO, SAT I, IF NOT, Y Where the Profession Meets 708 Seventh Ave., Opp. Colombia Thea. NKW YORK CITY CREO STUDIO For Sensational Stage Dancing The only one of it* kind 170 WEST 48th STREET Just Off Seventh Avenue, New York City PHONE BRYANT 5156 $7-75 Black, White, Pink Satin, Patent or Vici Kid. Round or Pointed Picture Is an underworld story, with Chaney cast as a cripple, and the effort apparently was to give it some touch of the atmosphere of "The Miracle Man," in which Chaney came into fame almost overnight in ZZZZZZZr* if^"S US l pe the part of the "Frog." The sub- EI^AiE?^ ho ject misses by a wide margin the SOIT he backgrounds ma high aim of the other vehicle and degenerates into a cheap shocker. The punch is a mechanical repro- duction of the San Francisco earth- I quake and fire, designed as a bit of sensational melodrama, but falling in its kick because there is no tune ■when It is not evident to the spec- tator that the whole business is mere studio trickery. The display is accomplished by burning an open- air set, the flames appearing against a night background. Smaller inci- dents of the conflagration are cut in. and the whole effect is artificial and phoney. There are evidences that the cut- ting has been done with a heavy hand. The point of the story is that the cripple, Wlltse Dilling (played by Chaney), is miraculously made whole when he Is crushed in a fall- ing building while engaged in an effort to rescue the heroine from a band of criminals. The plausibility of the incident is spoiled by its in- expert management. We merely see the cripple under masses of fallen debris and then are informed that he can walk. The effect Is substan- tially as though all the Important passages of a play took place off stage and the audience only heard them talked about. The system makes for unsatisfactory drama. The story deals with a "queen of the underworld," played by Chris- tine Mayo, who dispatches one of her spies, a cripple with a twisted mind, played by Chaney, to accom- plish a mission of vengeance against a banker who had caused her to be sent to prison. The cripple instead falls in love with the banker's daughter (Virginia Valli) and re- fuses to carry out his bargain, actu- ated by her good influence. The "queen," falling in her scheme of direct vengeance, plans to punish the banker by the ruin of his daugh- ter and lures her to San Francisco. There are numerous passages of heavy melodrama concerning the plotting of the crooks and the coun- terplotting of the cripple, reaching a climax in the earthquake, which No outstanding feature to rec- ommend this Paramount release, which frames up as an ordinary program picture. It contains'a story of the South Seas mixed with the life of a barbarous Individual from civilization. The production is not an achievement for Alice Brady as a picture star. In the role of a girl brought up on an island, on which she and her father are the only white people, and her later experi- ences as the wife of an arrogant creature of wealth, she is given no great opportunities to display her VACATION SPECIAL A BF.AfTI II I PERMANENT WAVE ENTIRE tl n HEAD " • Oil or Steam Lawt 6-9 Months Thoiuancla of satisfied customarj. 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