Variety (July 1923)

w ^•^' % . T Thurwiay. July 12. 192? PICTURES '2-■■«": ■ ■>• •■V *'*'-«*^.^.''T'' 7."4.iWV'.^TV' ■ -"/-v.. i JtUPERT OF HENTZAy i^■ ^.JSSmr Hop*'* no^^ •( ***• ■*^* ■•<B«L ^fiSST*' »«<i invohriM U* •*!»• clMim«- '»h^or. Victor HwrmM. Bm«d *■ pr»- ™^ under th« •wp«rTl«lon of Myroa .iek Proi«ctk>ii tlBi«, M minute*. At fltru'nd. New York. July 8. in rUvl* iUftlM HammemtHn [od«lpb I ..••< Bert Lytell 5^!!I!.*t^of HentMO..^ Lew body JteMDteM Hel«« CUIre Windsor as:* ^r;;;;;;:::::::;.^?^"--"'?»"/;; *?{* " Mitchell L.ewls . Sont' RiWhenhelm Adolphe Mcnjou ' vh« Klnv's Poreeter..f Binno Lihooln lUuL von Bernen«t«ln...Irving Cumminci Uxher Holf ''fl!*'*!''!;* S~?T?" H^beH NiKel de Brulller ^to Uertru^t A»tor . jfRupert of Hentxau"'necessarily invites comparison with "The Prisoner of Zenda,'' elnce both con- cern the ramc characters and are done in the same romantic spirit, v'•Rupert,'* then, is a Kood picture, \ but f**" below th^ level of "Zenda" r both as to story interest and artistic * production quality. ' "-* *-' i The weaker story Interest prob- f abiy ffoes back to the novel it«elf. i There was always something false 4 and artirtcial about "Hentzau." The L' reader couldn't quite get r. out of T bis mind that the whole romantic i*:-* history was a bit of a literary hoax. ^ Indeed the same thing is more or r less true of nearly all "sequela" to \ tuccessfui stories. They seem to V be written, not from inspiration, but because the profit of the first •uc<;e«sful book Invited a like venture. It is particularly so with "Hent- tau.'^ vlt is hard to consider with sympathetic Interest a series of romantic and dramatic situations vi which are based on a woman's \- foolleh letter to a former sweet- I heart and the political consequences ?^tliat follow its capture by the ': anemles of Queen Flavla. You're , BKMre likety to be impatient with the queen than absorbed In her sc- ^ rows. Since the very foundation of the f Ic hac this suggestion of being :> phoney, so,>very development built V upon that foundation takes on' a ■': Ilk: coljr, and the whole thing has H, a touch of Insincerity. f But the Selznick organization has •- achieved some fine artistic effects. t Th' passage showing the royal wed- I' ding is a splendid pictorial effort, \ with big mass effects and compel- k ling quality of regal dignity and I' ceremonial. The aettings are ehor I, mous, showing the magnificent per ' sper^lve '' ' -"^ - -• — »-' CHILDREN OF ^AZZ Jssse 1^ lAaky preacnta the production ff'^^^'r*? *•*• •"•y- "Other Time..' by iUrald BrtshouM. Th* adaputlon \m made by B«olab llarie Dix and direction la In the banda ef Jaroma Storm. Projection tlma, •7 mlnntea. At tha RUIto July 8. Sli*^^^?'*"***' • • • • Theodora Xoaloff IM Cart«r......« XUeardo Cortei Ciirda DuBbay , Robart Cain "■D* jwaeton „ niaan Percy V w S""^" »••••......Irene Dalton John weatOB ..Alac. B. Francis Adam Forestall Frank Currier Bllvena Snlts Rdwards Deborah • Lillian Drew ••Children of Jaxs" Is done Ip strict accordance with an established for- mula, the design in this case being the exploitation of the supposed dis- aipationa of the American rich, with a lot of racy sex stuff thinly dis- guised and absurdly elaborated "so- ciety spectacle." The first part is a succession of scenes familiar to the fana as "cab- aret stuff." only here they are sup- posed to be Christmas parties and New Year's revels. All thia material deals with trivial make-belieira p«o« pie. and oa a picture of raal lifo la about as convincing aa a acena from the "Qreenwicb Villaga Fotllea." The peoplo aren't aven likablaj will |6« landing soon." The hero Is a bully and a good doaT ^...Xweodore Kosloflf has been handed of a cad. Just a aelf-aatlafled brag- gart The pretenae that ha ia a aort of Richard Harding Davla aoldler of fortune doesn't go down. The hero- Jnr'ls worse yet. a half-naked young fool who goes from one afffgr tO' another with the aweetheartv and hbsbanda of her Intimate friends and spends her time accumulating en- gaj:ement rings and consuming ayn- thitlc gin. It's a sweet picture of AAierican life to go abroad. The tale is never convincing, and in Ita screen form la on a par with some of the most trifling of the magaaine Action that la fed to the Juvenile conaumera of print. A drunken party of young people slip away from a New Year's eve party to "go to Havana for breakfast" via airplane, although the party appears to be heM in New York. The pictufe has aoma bright tltlea alao. A ateam- ahip la pictured approaching th4 Brooklyn Bri<^ge, and one of .the charactera ahrewdly observes, "We an Impossible role. This Intelligent actor does exceedingly well with roles of a certain kind, usually with a slightly foreign and bisarre kind; but here ha doean't come through In any capacity as the "cave man" mas- ter of the society butterflies. It's the unsympathetic role of a thoroughly objectionable person. The production must have repre- sented a considerable* outlay. Large numbers r * extra people are used In the party scenes, which Involve elaborate sets and costuming; a real airplane is wrecked and a four- masted schooner with a good-sised crew Is useii for several passages. These things and the big cast cost more money than the pl/^ture Is worth. Itichard Forestall. M adventurer, falls in love with Babs Weston, a society girl, and on his haaty depart" ure m\k* aeoapta hla engagement ring and pledgaa her word to wait for hla return. Later Richard comes back, to find Baba engaged to two otbar men, one of them not yet divorced, and he upbralda and repudiates tha girl and all she nipresents of frivo* lous Indulgence. To drown his sorrows he under- takes an expedition to aid a revolu- tion in Ban Sebastian, wherever that Is. and presently is seen piloting hla ship through a tempeat at aea. These storm scenes are exceedingly graphic. Vhe New Tear's party haa broken up meanwhile for the Ha- vana air trip, and by one of thoaa screen coincidences the ship and air- plane party fetch up on a strange, mythical laland, presumably In the Caribbean somewhere.* Richard's eccentric father and his lordly household ara the only Inhab- itants. The fplher'a hobby la to rt- produce on tna Island the Ufa of a century ago. with middle Itth een- tury costumea to match, and it \m ^ V. ^-.jf' I I t ■'*H atement t-, om Rl Grainger ■•J^'- ■•,->"• ■%. 'V'. «"." of a cathedral nave with ^ the Tshancel and surpllced choir in fr the distance. The wedding proces- |;iilonftl also is finely managed to i^'bring out the dignity of the cere- l^^aiony -without messing the screen up with fusey detail. Itumerous other passages aie as t aklllfully handled. It is desired t<y ^ put emphasis upon the loneliness of the mismated queen, and this effect la subtly i^ecured by having her move about a small solitary figure to trailing gowns in huge interiors. ^here are man^' such fine effecta, but there are other details where tflirectorial mismanagement strikes false notes. Some of the con- •tnicted street scenes are obviously ^ make-, jlleve, and it was a mietake ''"to show the whole Palace of Zenda. Rex Ingram sot bis effects by ahowing only portions of the palace tbaX suggested the scale of the Vhole building, such as the draw- bridge and palace portals. Here they picture the whole castle, and. although it la a huge setting, its affect Is inadequate, almost puny^ •ompared to the Imaginary picture conjured up in the Imagination from I one of Ingram's details. '%: For the most part, the designs ^ kre drawn on an Impressive scale v>f •imple Mgnlty, .but one scene (that I In which tha head huntsman reporta to Flavla that tha King will spend the night at tha hunting lodge) is •o clut^tered up with furniture and decorations the people are lost in thj confusion of detail. There Is another false no.e here. The situa- tion Is tense. The presem^e of the King at tbe hunting lodge thrcatene to involve the Queen in a scandal, but her loyal followers, Count Fritz (Bryant Washburn) anil Lieut. Bornensteln (Irving Cummings) find time to be amu.<$ed at the awkwardness of the hur man. The picture's costuming is bril- liant in its J. .geantry and the play- j Ing l« as near fiawless as It could' be made. There are no less than eight names that have been starred, | and they work out Into a compact, smooth-running playing organiza- tion. Elaine Hammerstein does some of the best work of her screen career. She gets over the feeling of '•gp.l dignity by the sheer simplicit.v and naturalne«s Of hrr bearing and commands- in situations where a kint of "acting " would have wrecked the character. Lew Cody in the dare-ilovii liii- Pcrt has a role made to order for kls peculiar style. There Is a sinis-. ter touch aboyt the character, re- lieved by a cynical gallantry, that fits Cody like a glove. His big scene with Lytell. a furioiin eword ^uel, ending with Ruperts game ac- ceptance of mortal defeat, is a .■■ . ■ ' •',• ■ " ■ ■' Vi" ', ".-■ • .■■•• .■■/'•■■■'■. , • "<- ^""^ -.^ '■. *■ , C ... ■ • ..« ...I.'. ■ .■ ,\. ■.■.'.;-:,■ -»■.,•»,..• •• ,. ., :, t. ..^_ 1 Having just returned from: a trip to each key^city of the country I am prepared to state that the big first run eX' hibitor^ are not onlf convinced of the magnitude of our productions, but they have also contracted for fearly show^ ing of our first releases* A^ong the prominent showmen * * ^ho will play the releases of Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan are; !• Libson who has contracted for Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus-* Balaban and Katz who will pre-release '^The Spoilers'' and ^^Three Wise Fools" at both the Roosevelt and Chicago Theatres— ^ William I. poldman who will show the productions of Goldwyn* Cosmopolitan at his King Theatre in St« Louis ^ and also gt the new St^TLouis Theatre upon its completion— ^ • The West Coast Theatres (Los Angeles) wUl play all Gpldwyn- Cosmopolitan releases throughout their circuit— '* - Herbert L* Rothchild who will play all of our releases at his four San Francisco houses— Xf J v v ' ^^* ii'iK ■^^y■ +-S-.J; A % IP Jensen ^d Von Herberg who will pre-release *The Spoilers'* in Seattle ^and also at the Rivoli in Portland- Ruben and Finklestein who wiH show Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan releases in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth^ Superior, Hibbing, Brainerd and Virginia City— v ?"" Fred Desberg will play all of the productions for season 1923-24 at the Stillman, State and Allen Theatres, Cleveland— ^ ? ♦ Rowland and Clark willplay all Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan product at' the State and Blackstone Theatres, Pittsburg,—also at Erie, East Libertyt and Braddock-^ . , -^ ; v * ■ ^ .^r Tom Moore will play all Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan at his Rialto Theatre, Washington— - < , i^^ ^ * ^ A* H^ Blank will play Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan in Omaha, Pes Moines and Davenport. ^ v «^"i % -33 *^v r-**) • ^^UiO/ \9riA.92A GENERAL MANAGER OF SALES 'oLdwyn 1* osmobolitan ht,-. "plendid bit of high romantic mclp- I drama. Huslu i I - f '4 #KV-I •» :.: a:-. . .-. ? ■■■'r; ■ .v