Wid's Filmdom (1920)

@ $< 18 oi ce DAILW Sunday, August 29, 1920 ESN cee Me TEE TR TA I Wierdly Fascinating Tale With Many Aspects of the Ghost Story Maurice Tourneur’s “THE WHiLLE CLIRGCEEZ Paramount DIRECTOR. eee eee ee Maurice Tourneur AUTHOR... =e ee Robert Louis Stevenson SCENARIO BY .. Jack Gilbert and Jules Furthman CAMERAMAN .2...0..22...) (ee enen Alfred Ortlieb AS A WHOLE ...... Very wierd and fascinating production; has many of the aspects of a ghost story; gripping SLORY, 2euese Adapted from Stevenson’s “The Pavilion on the Links” DIKECTIONS2 ear Highly imaginative and tremendously effective PHOTOGRAPH Vie ee he eee Splendid LIGHTINGS i4 7ee Unusual; excellent in effect CAMERAUW ORK? cca ieee eee Excellent LEADINGSPLAVEKS= =e Janice Wilson a real find; all others very good also EXTERIORS ease. Contribute wonderfully to wierd effect of the story INTERIORS Ss. Whee ee eee Same DET AL eae eee tose eee Very good CHARACTER OPSS RORY 9. Has a romantic element but features characterization of an old man afraid “to face the music” LENGTH! OFsSPRODUGLIONS 42.242 4,017 feet This is something decidedly different in the picture line. Maurice Tourneur has taken Robert Louis Steyenson’s story “The Pavilion on the Links,” a story providing him with splendid opportunities to unleash his imaginative and artistic senses and has produced a peture that contains many of the aspects of a fascinating ghost story. While there is an important and beautifully played romantic element coursing through the story, its main elements are represented by a pecutiar characteriza tion of an old man, a moral coward, afraid to face the death that he realizes full well is coming to him by violence, and an unusual sort of adventurer who fills the role usually occupied by the conventional villain. -The story relates how Northmour secrets Bernara Huddlestone, an old Englishman, who had embezzled funds belonging to an Italian patriotic society and his daughter Clara, in his bleak old house on the desolate coast of Scotland, on condition that Clara marry him. There they encounter Cassilis, an old enemy of Northmour’s. Years before Cassilis had demanded satisfaction for an insult and had fired at Northmour and missed him. The latter has deferred taking his shot at Cassilis, but still holds the right to do so. Old Huddlestone is seized with a paroxysm of fear when he realizes that members of the Italian society have surrounded the house. In his imagination he dies a thousand tortuous deaths until finally courage is awakened in him by the simple words of Cassilis’s companion, Ferd, a boy. Fully in command of himself. He then leaves the castle and is felled by the Italian bullets. As Cassilis bends over the fainting girl, Northmour claims his shot and then on the spur of the moment his mind changes. He sees himself doomed to the hopeless monotony of married life—his desire for adventure restrained. He departs leaving them in each others arms. Janice Wilson as Clara is a new picture find. She has the most expressive pair of eyes seen in many a day. Her face is mobile, almost eloquent. And she is pretty. Spottiswoode Aitken is thrillingly realistic in bringing out the frenzied fear of Huddlestone. Harry Northrup is a peculiarly fascinating Northmour and Jack Gilbert is a good Cassilis. Jack MacDonald as the Italian leader and Wesley Barry as Ferd are both very good. A Fine Picture For the Better Class Theaters Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor It is probable that the average audience will find this rather peculiar—a little too peculiar for it to swallow with a gratified expression. The elements prominent in it are so different from the ordinary that they take one unawares. However, the better class audiences will certainly appreciate this for what a thoroughly artistic presentation of a wierdly fascinating tale. Such audiences will sense the fine characterization of the cowardly old man and realize the simplcity and it’s worth reality of the scene between him and the boy when he finds courage to face the issue. Such audiences will also get the satiric humor of the final scene when Northmour decides to remain the adventurer instead of becoming the husband of a beautiful girl. In fact “The White Circle” is distinctly a high class production for the high class audiences of the country. You who cater to the cultured clientele, can make a very big thing of it. . wm te PR a el PT! teens ee PA