Wid's Filmdom (1920)

Sunday, March 14, 1920 (0 Ke J DAILW 31 a, Story as Reasonable as an Attempt to Prove That Black Is White Dorothy Dalton in “BLACK IS WHITE” Thomas H. Ince—Paramount-Artcraft EUAN Cd 10 a er Charles Giblyn SUMMER Stic oo sees c.. George Barr McCutcheon ESR ROLE oe tere et) E. Magnus Ingleton Ree Et teeC EAL fags. oc-By hooves ess John S. Stumar AS A WHOLE...... Just about takes the prize for impossibility. MERU ere ots Fails to convince because of extreme _basic situation while there is insufficient substance to the plot. ADRS SEM OU UR bape a ee Commonplace PPO CAN iter eye etl, coh ad. SIS Very good Meee Piva Crea earn oie ol). a fee . Effective ReeeVE Ee Bs ORV CL ae opens, tos ap wrdiece se 4 cue vv ae Good SLA Rew.) Plays easily and surely but fails to look old enough in latter reels. Ba inicrides OS Re Miae oC Se ows ads Baila ay ola! die aS Very good OSG MS on od ll OS Few (UE 5 Sa SS ae Handsome and appropriate ETAL Teens se ste he Comedy “relief”’ fails to register CHARACTER OF STORY...... Built on situation of man marrying the same woman twice and not knowing it. Ben LieOmPRODUGCTION ... 2.0.0.5... 5,562 feet Anyone would have a pretty hopeless task in front of him if he set out to prove that black is white. No matter how seriously he took himself he’d find his audience laughing at him before he had gone far. And that’s akin to what the producers try to do in “Black Is White.” They show you a man married and a father. The man is jealous and finally comes to doubt the | parentage of his baby. He denounces his wife and leaves her. Fifteen years later he marries again and doesn’t know that she’s the same woman. Doctor, please have the gentleman’s eyes examined. The whole framework of this adaptation of a George Barr McCutcheon novel is built on this situation and as a consequence the picture reaches about the far limits of impossibility. After the couple’s second marriage the jealousy of the husband is aroused again because he sees his wife so much in company with his son. He mistakes her maternalism for sex attraction and finally winds up by shooting the boy. Then he is at last informed that his second wife is none other than his first and so after he has suffered considerably, he is forgiven by wife and son. In addition to appearing utterly impossible, this situation is practically the only one of consequence in the entire picture. And certainly it doesn’t deserve so great an amount of footage. They have tried to bolster things up with a numbr of scenes between mother and son but instead of appearing beautiful and sympathetic these sequences are commonplace. On the other hand the attempted comedy relief in the introduction of the two old men is quite ineffectual. The picture has been handsomely dressed up in a number of splendid interiors and the technical and camera work is almost flawless but the actual dramatic direction reveals nothing out of the ordinary, no originality or feeling. Dorothy Dalton plays easily and surely in all her scenes and put conviction in her work despite the handicap of the plot. But her makeup in the latter reels denotes no noticeable maturity of *character over her initial appearance, and in her scenes with her son she fails to bring out the complete spirit of maternalism necessary. Some of the blame of this rests in the casting of Jack Crosby for the son. A younger appearing juvenile would have been better. H. E. Herbert’s characterization of the husband is sincere and his playing shows his usual skill. If You Play It Cite Central Situation and Work It Up Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor The average audience will hardly take this one seriously but if you find yourself in a position where no other feature presents itself you might use this and prepare your advertisements around the central situation, working it up prominently. Then they won't have a chance to kick if they find they don’t like it. This situation can be presented more or less sensa tionally by use of readers on the order of the follow ing: “After fifteen years he married again and later found that she was the same woman.” “His jealousy had caused their separation. After fifteen years he met her again and married her, never realizing that she was the same woman as his first wife!’ Use the name of the author. It carries weight and some may countenance the idea if they know it is his, whereas they wouldn’t if it was written by an unknown.