Wid's Filmdom (1920)

Some Short Reels Log of the Cruise of the Moewe—International When the Moewe, a German raider, sank several vessels, prior to the entry of the United States into the war, several of the incidents connected with the destruction of the different ships were photographed. International has secured about 2,000 feet showing the work of the Moewe, and will divide it into four portions, each about 500 feet long, to be used in one of the news reels of that organization. Had this stuff been secured some months ago, prior to the release of other pictures showing similar scenes, it would have been a sensation. The fact that other sinkings have been screened more in detail previous to this however serves to take most of the edge off it. Considering the conditions under which the material was shot, the technical end of it certainly is creditable. There are nine sinkings shown, together with scenes depicting the transfer of prisoners on the doomed ships and the raider’s crew at play. After the release of the news reels. International say they may release it as a two reeler. “Squeaks and Squawks,” Vitagraph Just enough laughs to hold it up are to be found in this two reel slapstick comedy which has a few novel bits of knock-about business, some that are not novel but also laughable and a number that are neither out of the ordinary nor mirth provoking. Jimmy Aubrey is featured in the piece which has been photographed and directed well. It is set in a village where the smithy has given way to a flivver hospital. Aubrey and the mustached villain ‘battle for the hand of the heroine, much of the stuff being centered about the manner in which the various cars are detached and. re-attached. One scene in which a revolver is fired at a machine and it falls to pieces is clever, and the portion wherein the villain fashions a cigar out of some ‘‘makin’s,” only to have Aubrey get a calabash pipe out of his is the biggest laugh in the production. Some of the material connected with the chase of a wagon, automobile and motoreyele is also up to the mark, but a great deal of it has been used on more than one occasion. As a whole, an elaborately produced riotous two reeler that will about manage to hold its own. Pathe Review, No. 41 Practically all of the Pathe reviews hitherto have had one colored portion each, but this one has two. Tangiers, Morocco, is. the scene of the first one, while in the second, the manner in which Germans are helping to rebuild northern France, cutting lumber under the supervision of Canadians, is shown. Mounted policemen on_ their steeds are seen in the slow-motion study, and Dr. Ditmars discusses prairie dogs in the section in which some of the little animals are seen. To wind up, Madame Zamura renders the Dance 'of Algeria. “One He Man,” Universal On occasions innumerable, have they turned out shortlength western dramas in which the basic theme concerns the abduction of the heroine by a group of bandits and then her rescue by the blushing, dead-shot, clean-cut youth, who holds up the villains single-handed, and receives the osculation and matrimonial promise as a reward. Jack Perrin, who not so long ago took dozens of falls and defied death otherwise in one of the Universal serials, is co-starred in another such two-reeler with Josephine Hill, who incidentally looks very sweet and pretty as the heroine. George Hively wrote the story, Henry Murray directed and_ together with Reeves Eason got out the scenario. “Edgar and the Teacher’s Pet,’’ Goldwyn-Tarkington ” “Pdgar and the Teacher’s Pet’ is the first of the Goldwyn two reel comedies by Booth Tarkington to be released under the general title of “The Adventures and Emotions of Edgar Pomeroy.” The picture contains just the sort of incident that one would expect from the pen of the author, who is famed for his realistic and genuinely humorous stories of adolescents. The scenes of Edgar in school, writhing in agony when his sweetheart sticks her tongue out at him ‘conjuring to his mind just what he would do to her if he was leading the town band down main street, and had soldiers at his command, or again those showing his dis‘astrous attempts to make friends with her after school with the result that he is thoroughly doused with the hose, and ‘his presidential dream while sleeping, are realistically contrived and appropriately presented on the screen with the result that they will be thoroughly enjoyed by any and all audiences. It’s not the uproarious type of humor but it is so well done and so fundamentally true that its appeal will, mayhap, go deeper into the hearts of its spectators. A natural and apparently camera-wise youngster is seen as Hdgar while even Tarkington himself can hardly complain of the production, so true in all details and atmosphere that IE. Mason Hopper has given it. “The Champion,’’ Victor Kremer-——State Rights “The Champion,’? by no means one of the lesser Chaplin Essanay pictures hasn’t got the wonderful steady comedy kick that is evinced so often in his present productions. While the Chaplin fans will doubtless enjoy watching him go through his antics in the ring to some extent, the comedy striven for in this sequence has been copied so often since that the effect it had when new is materially lessened. Victor Kremer, who is releasing the picture, has inserted a lot of new subtitles which fail to fit in with the action and stand as awkwardly out of place. Chaplin relies very little on subtitles, the few he uses being brief, to the point and usually explanatory. Kremer has striven for more comedy in them and this attempt seems to have further lessened the comedy power of the star’s antics. “Ship Ahoy,” Paramount—St. John “Ship Ahoy,’ one of the first two reelers that Al St. John has made as star under the Warner Brothers management, shows that this comedian and his aides have not as yet mastered the art of the knockabout type of comedy. As one of Fatty Arbuckle’s main supports, St. John often proved that he had the stuff of a real eccentric comedian in him, in fact he showed to such advantage that at times he outshone the heavy-weight comedian. The stuff is surely still there but in “Ship Ahoy” they enter into a wild orgy of slapstick fighting, besmattered with some attempted comedy gags that aren’t handled expertly and don’t register and some few more that get over. St. John’s oriental dance is the center of the best sequence in the picture but otherwise the subject shows little that is original or out of the ordinary in this type of entertainment. “Cut and Dried,’ Ford-Goldwyn Starting at a lumber camp, and ending with scenes showing some of the final uses of the finished product, this Ford industrial does not devote very much footage to any particular phase of the work. All of the exterior scenes were taken in the winter and the photography is not always clear as a natural result. It moves at a satisfactory tempo, but the subject is not a new one, and there is very little information offered that the average fan does not know something about.