Wid's Filmdom (1920)

= @ enn 26 (oii f DAILW Sunday, January 11, 1920 Ta EE 9 a Nothing Much to Talk About Except Some Good Auto Racing Stuff Edward Earle and Gladys Hulette in “HIGH SPEED” Hallmark DIRECTOR oie. 05... sae Charles Miller AUTHOR 2 0ii. onus Se Clinton H. Stagg SCENARIO BY 1.05 2. We. ee John J. Glavey CAMERAMAN? 2... =.0 +: cee ees Not credited AS A’WHODE. 2 s5.9e Works up to a fairly good climax but the end is obvious at the very beginning. SLORY Se Features automobile racing and has slight romance that doesn’t thrill; drags badly at times. DIRECTION. oo Deserves credit for the way he has handled the bigger moments and the racing sequences. PHOTOGRAPHY 2 eat, tee eee Not the best LIGHTINGS Sia. kee Very bad at times CAMERAGW. ORK... ye ee ee Satisfactory S LARS teers Carry on an annoyingly shy love affair; fill the requirements of their respective roles SUPPORT ee) No one deserves special mention EXTERIORS. ---ee Some good race track scenes INTERIORS“. (lay setae tek ae eee Studio sets DETAIUA ote eee cee Nothing terribly wrong GHARACTERLOF STORY). ne Hero suffers much hardship for the sake of a woman he doesn’t know. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION ye 4,636 feet The only thing that will save this is the racing sequence for the director has put over a few good stunts. One bit particularly is very well handled and furnishes a momentary thrill. A small racer, making 91 miles an hour, skids, dashes. off the track and crashes into a tree. This has been well directed and the film has been cut so that the accident seems de cidedly real and happens as unexpectedly as might occur in reality. The titles are hopelessly hackneyed and the attempts at comedy are pathetic. The writer must have had a bad case of “wordorites” and his humor ran something like this: “He can’t catch it; he can’t even catch cold.” And where do they get these heroes? Great stuff! Folks are going to wonder how they do it. Eddie Earle, winner of the “Vanderbilt Sweepstakes,” gives up his title and loses his qualifications just because some woman whom he doesn’t even know, begs him not to expose the fact that her husband framed the race although hero had nothing to do with it. Besides having such an impossible hero it is the kind of a story that the audience has all doped out soon after the picture gets started because the minute Eddie comes to Gladys’ rescue when she is attacked by her chauffeur, all the “movie hounds” will know that a romance between the two will eventually close the picture. Shero’s father rewards Eddie, who is down and out, by employing him as chauffeur. Eddie finally tells his employer that he is Billy Brice, ex-speed king and disqualified from competing in any future races on account of an alleged acceptance of bribery. Shero’s father, manufacturer of the Rhodes automobile, has a car entered in the forthcoming race. Shortly before the big day an enemy contestant wrecks the racer and the driver is seriously injured. Gladys’ married sister, the woman Eddie owes his hard luck to, arrives and confesses that she has begged Eddie not to deny the bribery charge which would expose some phoney work on the part of her hubby. This clears the winner’s name and he gets his entry card in time to go in and win the race for the Rhodes company. Play Up the Sport Idea and Make Special Appeal to the Men Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor An audience will probably pass’ this off as “fairly good” and the thing that you should confine your promises to is the auto sequence which is the best thing in the production. You can say it contains some real race track atmosphere with all the excitement and confusion which is part of the big races. This part has been well photographed and there are some good shots taken on the track with the machines in action. Make your appeal to the men folks. the. sport. end: vol | jit They will be interested . from and They will be interested from the sport end of it and for the women you can say something about hero winning the race and winning the girl, or work up some catchlines which you think are best suited to win your folks’ attention. If you care to use the names of the players give Edward Earle his share of publicity. In case you have played any of Vitagraph’s O’Henry pictures, your patrons will recall Earle as the pleasing hero of these films. Miss Hulette’s name may be familiar although she has not done very much recently.