Wid's Filmdom (1920)

Sunday, January 11, 1920 whit DAILY 9 RSA Nae ET NE TEI ILE ES SB A NTS EIT Good Thrills Surrounded by Story and Production That are Jokes “SKY-EYE” William Steiner—Sol Lesser BOR eT ee cr aes. oe oo Aubrey M. Kennedy AUTHORS..Aubrey M. Kennedy and Louis Lewyn eee Ye tes... Tee Aubrey M. Kennedy CAMERAMEN U. S. Army Photographers AS A WHOLE...... Several spectacular air stunts stand out in otherwise very poor picture. Se ACB as Ridiculously funny with no continuity of action and little respect for plausibility. DIRECTION:.3. . 0. Misses fire from first to last; all scenes handled in crudest conceivable manner PHOTOGRAPHY ...... Scenes in air fairly good; those on ground very poor. LIGHTINGS 2 2250.4. Ground scenes generally bad; cameramen have paid no attention to sun. CAMERAWORE...... Special stunt stuff in weeklies has shown better camera work than this although all thrills are fairly well handled. Vee pee ele © 2 LEADING PLAYERS...... Pretty poor actors, all of them; army officers have important roles in story. EXTERIORS...... Include shots of aviation grounds which interest. INTERIORS... 2... The real thing but lighting is bad DE ALS ae Picture might be improved by capable editing; a number of scenes show flocks of *planes in flight. CHARACTER OF STORY...... Villain’s efforts to ruin father of girl who turned him down. PENG? HO PRODUCTION. 3, 5,500 feet There’s nothing at all to commend this picture except several spectacular feats of daring performed in the air by Lieutenant Russel J. Hunt, who is seen in the title role. by his daring which takes form in changing from one He certailny provides a lot of thrills *plane to another by means of a rope, dropping off on to a moving train from his machine, climbing out on its wings time and again and rescuing the girl by the rope from a drifting launch. Outside of heartily commending all these thrills there is nothing to be said in favor of the picture. A story has never been more amateurishly contrived than has that which is the basis for “Sky-Eye.” Any attempt to point out all its faults would necessitate paragraph after paragraph. Suffice it to say that it has a villain who is relentless in his persecution of the hero, who tries in divers ways to kill him and ruin the father of the girl who turned him down. But the plot is never cleverly developed, it possesses no semblance of continuity and the titles are forced into making outlandish statements to hitch the various scenes together by the narrow thread that holds them. Few of the villain’s various acts are convincingly motivated and the manner in which he plays havoc with army rules and regulations is so ridiculous it’s laughable. The actors consigned to play the various roles for the most part aren’t. Harry Meyers is the best-known in the case. He appears as the villain but it looks as if nobody directed him and one is puzzled at times to interpret the meaning of his expressions. Lieutenants Hunt and Nutt of the army appear respectively as Sky-Eye and his friend. Both are nice looking fellows but neither is an actor. Others who appear are June Keith, Thelma Kenley and Peck Miller together with a number of other army officers who stand around and laugh at the camera. The photography of the ground shots is very poor and the work of the cameramen who photographed the air stunts has often been surpassed in special scenes enacted for news weeklies. A number of the scenes have been laid in the Texas oil fields and these, together with the scenes shot at the aviation field, are interesting at first glance. Special Mention of the Thrills May Get the Crowds In Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Airplane pictures aren’t common as yet and so you may be able to attract very large crowds by mention of the stunts performed in “Sky-Eye” and by following out the exploitation suggestions which the distributor has mapped out. And there are some crowds who may just feel goodnatured enough to laugh at the poor make-shift of a story that they will see in the picture and applaud the thrills. But most audiences have been educated up to better things than are shown in “Sky-Eye.” Even thrillers must be treated with some expertness to drive home their full value. And it will probably be the opinion of most people that they have been cheated after the picture has run its course. Of course there is the possibility of filling your house by sensational exploitation but a full house, if it is dissatisfied, is even worse than an empty one. So even though “Sky-Eye” affords all sorts of exploitation possibilities, it will be best to treat it very carefully.