Variety (August 1925)

w VARIETY PICTURES Wednesdajr, August 5, 1925 FILM REVIEWS SALLY oiF^AWDUST D. W. Ur;mih dliecl«d proiiuclion. •dapted by Kurrc. Halsey trom tli<> staife ?itay "Poppy." Rel*a»e<t by United Art- ■ta (the final picture of Orlfflth'B for U. A., with hia n««t to be m^de for ramoua riayera). Tills jilcture made on the KamouH I'laycrs lot. on Long laUind lead to an Impp Malon It la Orlfflth'a firat F. I*. roloaae. l'*iri<t run in ChicaKo last week. Opened at Strand New Yo'lc. Aug. 2— we«k. Runninc Ume 104 mlnutea. eailr C*r«I Uempaler Prut. Buatace McO*l»te ....W. C. KleW» PaytoD I..ennox Alfred Lunl Jndce Henry L, Fto«ter BrrllU AMeraon Ida. Foater ■">• Shannon Lannoi, 8r Charlea Hammond The DeteoUve Roy Appellate Mlaa Vinton FTorenre Fair Society Leader lUrte Shot well THE UNHOLY THREE Tod Hn>wnlnc Production released by Metro-UolUwyn. Loa Chane.v atarrtsl, with Mae liuiM-h and Matt Moore featured. Story by C. A. R(/bbtna. Shown at the Capitol. N. T., week Aug. I. Running tlnae.yW minutes. Kiho, the Ventriloqulat Loo Ctasnay Roale O'Oradr Mae Huach Hector M(L>onak) Matt Moore llcTcuIea Victor Mct.aclen Tweedledee Harry BBrlea Recan Matthew Beta Announcer Walter Perry Jeweler Joh» Merkyt John Arlinstoa ...Charle* WeJIaley Butler Percy WlllUma Mra. Arllnstoa MarJoHe Morton Arlington Baby Violet ^»ne Police Comml—lOBir Lo« Morflaon judc* ~t^ Bdward Connelly Attorney for I>ifeB»e...WlllUra Humikhreya ProMcutlns Attorney A. B. Wfcrren << I A cinch for the picture houses through Its comedjr, supplied moaUy by W. C. Fields, with Carol Demp- ster's performanc* as Sally a de- URht. D. W. Griffith Is down to common picture making In this one. While It la strange to witness a OrifAth film directed by him In a straight- away manner, so forelg^n to his far- advanced ideas and Ideals for thp average picture fan, still Griffith with all of this and all of what he must have suppressed or suffered In the making of this picture, has sent many a wallop across for first aid of the box office. As W. C. Fields made his legit stage hit in the musical "Poppy" as the carnival showman, so does he here scream his screen delHtt as a film funny man In "Sally/* Mr. Fields has put In bits of business end* gaga that will make the Chap- llns and the Lloyds bawl out their gag writers. And Fields plays them &a well as though on the stage. He gives a smoothness to his comedy stuff and his playing that can not| be mi-ssed. While that Miss Dempster In this picture is a dear. As Mr. Griffith so truthfully remarked at the end of : the first showing Sunday at the Strand, when the two principals and himself made a personal appearance upon the stage: "As to Miss Dempster, I would like to Tonvey that In Sally, she is ' Baliy and plays Sally, not playing a 'movie queen.'" As a large pro- fessional contingent was In that over-capacity audience, they all got Mr. Griffith's point. Miss Demp- ster was Just Sally, & daughter of ' the circus, a little aprlte with the exact spirit of the role and the big top. "Sally" in not a great picture nor Is it a great oomedy. but it's a fine film comedy release, that must get over at any house, albeit the 104 » minutes are much too long. Wlth- ' out the footage that must have been removed, there are still hundreds of ^ feet that could go out Mr. Griffith from reports followed the stage story but sparsely. His picturizatlon la nearly an, original other than the characters. T)4k director slipped In pathos and senti- ment in his masterly manr)^ with- out too much of either, but he al- lowed the comedy to go at full tilt. There are one or two bits that were "taking (Aiances" but as the censors passed them, Griffith could. One of the Fields' bit is among those two. When Charlie ChapHn sees it he will wonder why he didn't think of it. for It's a bear and messy enou)?h In content to have been » English. Alfred L.unt is a so-so Juvenile hero, not over-burdened and making no particular impression. Close ups were employed of Roy Appel- gate as the detective, for no earthly reason. Effie Shannon was a Bweetly and saintly looking mother, while Florence Fair conspicuoiisly •food out as Miss Vinton. Sally is an orphan, her mother, a gentlewoman from Now England having married a theatrical man against her parents' wishes. When her mother dies. Prof. Oargle takes charge of Sr.IIy, bringing her up as his daughter with the girl unaware of her parentage. The finale is the restoration of the girl to her grand- parents as her grandfather, now wealthy and a Judge in his home town, Green Meadows, Is about to Send her to a home for wayward girls. She was charged with being an accomplice pf Gargle's In hl.i three-shell gyp. Gargle could deal three-card or shake the shells or sell Indian medicine; nothing about a circus or carnival with a dishonest dollar In It that he couldn't do or . «et—but he brought up Sally faith- fully and honestly. In circus scenes no extensive mat- ter was employed other than the equipment of a circus. Much of this apparently had been cut. Miss Dempster did a couple of scenes where doubling was probrbly uti- lized but skillfully. The general atmosphere of the |>icture is pleasant and inviting. Almost anyone who knew would •ay. "Attaboy, gave" for qcifflth when seeing thi^ knowing tNlit at the least he will get some money for himself out of "Sally" and all of the other regular prograaaers he will make while thinking only of the box office and not 25 years ahead as he usually has done. Here is about the beat bet from a box effice standpoint that has come along in a while. It'a a picture that win compel the t>ox office to get business on an enlarging scale as the days go along. That is saying a whole lot for any acreen produc- tion, with the pofwlMe exception of the outstanding one or two a year that come along. This is one of the exceptions. It's a picture that is going to be measured up to "The Miracle Man" b'y a lot of people who, the chances are, never saw "The Miracle Man" on the screen, and that includes a lot of reviewers of films in New York as well as elsewhere. This picture Isn't a "Miracle Man" and It won't be a "Miracle Man" In the point of outstanding box ofllce pop- ularity in this day against produc- tions that will conteiM with ft for honors. It won't overwhelm the field as did the production of the late George IxMtne Tucker in its day. but It is going to be liked universally and it will get money for thft ex- hibitor. It Is a wow of a story in the first place. One of these stories that one would expect to see the name of Train or some author of that ilk attached. It has everything—hoak, romance, crook atuft, murder, sus- pense, trick stuff and, above all. Is as cleverly titled «ji has been any produptlon In many moons. Why, they've even screenlzed a dirty story that Is four or five years old, the one abo'n#the gal that couldn't hold out on her pineapple after which he told her that "money got that way didn't do anybody any good." but the^^M cleaned it up and utilized it i^M^nanner that fits the story perfectly. It's a picture with a kick all right, all right. And there's another thing about this picture, and that Is that Lon Chaney stands out like a million dollars. He's done that before, but always with a more or less gro- tesque make-up. No make-up this time. He isn't all hunched up, he Isn't legless, he isn't this, that or the other thing in deformities. He's just Lon Chaney, and he's great He must have had-a hard time convinc- ing 'em that as Just plain Lon Cha- ney he could be as great as though he was this, that or the other form of a cripple, but from now on it's going to b« another story. An' May Busch! Well. Mae has Just gone out and done It, an' how? It certainly Is a far cry from Mae at the old St. Francis on 47th street to Mae Busch in the "Unholy Three." but Mae was a great little gal then and she certainly Is a great little ac- tress now. This picture more than proves it Matt Moore has the role with the majority of the sympathy, and he gives a performance worthy of the best screen traditions of the Moore family. ik'he story Is just one of. those ac- cidents that come along and hap- pen to be the thing that fits; that is, when it's properly handled as Tod Browning certainly did handle this. It opens in a dime museum with the announcer presenting the freaks. There is the strong man, the ven- triloquist the midget the cooch dancer and the rest of the "Weird Wonders of the World in Human Form." Chaney la Echo the ventril- oquist and Mae Busch is his gal. She's a gun moll, and she fans the chumps In the crowds for every- thing from their turnips to thei« leathers, and slips her swag to Imm guy, and because he promises W a big steak for dinner slips him a> extra watch that she htiA thouKht^ holding out "^ •* It's the midget that finally cavj a fight in the Joint which necek-, tates the cops being called In and I general scramble for a getaway on the part of every one, with ifiobo slipping the swag back to his moS when the bulls come on the sceaa but they all manage to get awam clean. Then the frame. It's BoK that has the idea. He can vent^ so next he is seen as an "old damV' who has a parrot shop. All tlM birds talk when the old lady aelia em. Get the Idea? ^^ But that Is only the stall. Wksn <*he .birds get^ome to their purchas- ers they BtoW talking, and the old lady comes up to see about It. That gives Echo a chance to look the joint over, and later with the aid ot his two confederates he returns 4a turn-off the place. The midKet-h great for the transoms, while the strong man can force the tars of a' window c^n with all ease. Meantime in the parrot shop, where Moore in the role of Hector Is the sap clerk, he and the moll have fallen for each other. In the end when the sap Is accused ot murder, a crime which two of the "three" are responsible for, the moll to save him Is willing to sacrifice ae ^ei ^our <^hape of this Treti.