Wid's Films and Film Folk (1916)

* ‘ % f * JR aT eae |S TRA Rt * =e husband, leaving him and his wife in peace. . i _ their cells. we found the degenerate father and the hunchback £P PT dinner party, however, the director decided that it was unnecessary to put up another set, and so he moved a big table into this same set and converted this room into a dining room with the staircase still looming up in the background. After the plot was apparently ended, with the hero and heroine happy, we were dragged through a number of additional scenes which diagramed the _ fact that the hero was to be made general manager, the discharged employee who sneaked in in time to see the theft, was made foreman and the general manager and the crooked foreman were shown in Then the crowning climax came when brought in as reformed sinners, working successfully in the factory of the millionaire. WID’S Thursday, May 25, 1916. This thing started out with padding, we had padding all the way through and it was padded right up to the finish, but the padding was the least crime of it all. When I see such offerings as this it seems a marvel to me that the film business succeeds in spite of such insults to the intelligence of faithful fans. The audience laughed through most of this, but just the same it hurts. All the way through the titles were decidedly bad and never at any time were they anything like what the characters really might have said. | Among those in the cast were V. T. Henderson, Mrs. Belle Hutchinson, Antrim Short, M. K. Wilson, F. M. Van Norman, Francis McDonald and W. Rogers. WEAK STORY MADE FINE OFFERING BY STARS AND HANDLING. Norma Talmadge in GOING STRAIGHT Fine Arts-Triangle. DERHOPORG 5 icc eicpend oc, sel. C.M. & S. A. Franklin PME GIN DAES N CP ED W cous ctretaue slo: re) + tees Bernard McConville AS A WHOLE............. Made fine by handling BEA DEU A Lek reig sta 3 5g 40 ae ....Ancient, unconvincing PRN ERE CHULOPN cust c ete ts hsiha cea tteyene «aie one es we) Splendid EPO) GRR EN Veo tceeaknc oss... meee ye: «fais sue Very fine LG ERIN GIS ayo Pe) «Sie ics est ena Exceptionally effective PA MERAS WORK res < o.. eo p el c cis wee ene Hxcelient PSA U Mchet run ait Bos saueaaeds watch suis cshis. < costs Forceful, appealing PUR e MCR NR Med cocks aco ts Nave warts. 5 Gatens Exceptionally fine ON PROS fc siscckarcleliste ae sdekers Very well chosen RUNS RODEESS Cian dy wy ai 865,320 * Wan shiga terse sr.s Very good BURR AeA RR eR Rcbacnt a tsieh ere oho cones +. diets Sopiduche oft race's Good PRIN ARM EM ieuiix Lenk eer sg Giles ede ace call ecass Five parts HIS is a remarkably fine example of what can be done with poor material, as to story, by splendid direction and a capable cast. The story builds around the situation of one of two crooks, who has served time, trying to live straight with his wife and family. His former partner in crime accidentally meets him and threatens to send up his wife, who was at one time a member of the band, unless the husband does one more job with him. This request comes after the crook had secured hush money sev eral times from the husband, under the same threat, and the chief weakness of the story is to find the husband agreeing to do this job with the crook. It is rather ridiculous because he can certainly know that that would not be an end to the crook’s hold upon him, since it would really only help strengthen this hold. We then have a bad co-incidence of the husband and the crook going to rob a house in which the -husband’s wife and children had agreed to stay over night. We find the children discovering in the pantry a little ragged newsboy, who had been placed there by the crook, and yet the children never speak:of this unusual event to their parents. A little Jater we find the crook in the wife’s room and the husband reaches her in time to save her from an attack, but the family is aroused and he explains that he had come for his wife and followed ‘the man in at the window. Later, the crook calls at the husband’s home and is “conveniently” shot by 597 This story has been done before, despite its weaknesses, in mueh shorter length. It can certainly be said, however, that, despite the failings of the story itself, this is a very good bit of entertainment, ope surely the production has been splendidly handed. At the start we get some wonderfully effective scenes covering the life in the underworld and showing the breaking up of the famous gang by the police. The escape and chase from the gang’s headquarters was an exceptional bit of good tempo, the cut-and-flash method being used here to very fine purpose. Afterwards the kid stuff was nicely balanced in between the dramatic situations and this light relief, which was intelligently placed throughout the offering, really helped decidedly in making this a very good film. The lighting in this production was very good, with the exception of one important scene, that being the one in the wife’s room, where the crook was about to attack her, and here the lighting was very bad, there being practically no difference between the light before being turned on by Miss Talmadge and after. Ralph Lewis, as John Remington, gave an exceptional performance, and Eugene Pallette, as the crook, registered one of the best crook characterizations I have seen in some time. The children were all very good with the exception’ of one little youngster who insisted on looking at the camera.upon all occasions, with the result that several rather. good scenes were spoiled. Norma Talmadge, as Lewis’ wife, gave one of the greatest performances she have ever given in any screen work and certainly this will do much for her as a star. She had many important scenes with varying emotions and she certainly registered her points nicely throughout. It-is really the work of Miss Talmadge, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Pallette and the exceptional handling by the directors which makes this a very much worthwhile film. I am quite sure that this offering can be played in almost any house, with the result that it will be declared a splendid offering. The story has some very weak spots, to be sure, but I believe that these will be overlooked in consideration of the other decidedly unusual merits of the offering. The cast included Nino Fovieri, Francis Carpenter, Fern Collier, Ruth Hanforth, George Stone, Kate Toncray, Carmen DeRue and ‘Violette Radcliffe.