Wid's Films and Film Folk (1916)

Thursday, June 1, 1916. band at the first reception which she attended, and then it only remained for the crooks to try to force a marriage between Miss Sweet and one of their band, allowing the hero to rush in at the psychological moment and save her, he being reinforced in his saving by the police, who had waited until this time to arrest the crooks. The police had been trailing these crooks ever since they left the college town, and, in fact, they had arrived at the flat just after they slipped away from them, but they did not get to the house to which they had all moved, in a western town, until just the right moment to stage the fight between the hero and the “willun.” If the Lasky people consider this sort of thing good scenario material, some one should take them off into a dark corner and speak roughly to them. It is undoubtedly true that you can “pull” money with this offering because Blanche Sweet has a cer WID’S tain following and really she has always been very good to my mind. The name of the offering sounds good, and you can conscientiously promise them that Miss Sweet does some decidedly pleasing work. — The film as a whole, however, will hardly please or satisfy. It seems to me that in advertising this it would be advisable to emphasize the presence of Miss Sweet above everything else. I would talk about the artistry of the Lasky offerings, because then the few good lightings which you get will register with particular force, Do not promise them a wonderful story or a perfect production. You will not be able to deliver on either count. Others in the cast are James Neill, Horace B. Carpenter, Lucille LaVarney, E. L. Delaney and Camille Astor. GOOD CHARACTER POSSIBILITY BUT POOR PRODUCTION AS IT STANDS Adele Farrington in WHAT LOVE CAN DO Red Feather DIRECTOR). 3.0. a... » eee Jay Hunt ASUMIGH © Raay: coe eee o Gertrude H. Anderson SCENARIOU BY... oc 5... 0... See: Jay Hunt CAMERA: MANS... 2.00620... epee Friend F. Baker ASTA WHOLHE 2 ..... 0.0 eee Rather tiresome STORY] 3) oct Good idea, painfully developed DIRECTIONS Wee. us sie ses) eee Poor PHOTOGRAPHY: &.. 3...)... . Ve een oe Fair LIGHDING 7. eet. eee Ordinary CAMERA “WORK: :...>..¢..: .; See eee _ Fair SOA Ree ee ees aoe Good, except drunk scenes SUPPORT? ease. 3. oe eae: Ore Arm waving mob EHXATERIORS 2.00000 .0.0... /0 eee Acceptable INTERIORS | .300 25%... 0% . 0c eee one Fair DETAIL ..0.552% 22.2.6 es. eee Fair PENG Ree eee ees dad. eee Five parts HERE was a very good central idea in this story, but the handling of it is surely very bad. The plot centers around a characterization which is well known in big city life, and had the story been properly developed this could have been made into. a very powerful offering. As it has been handled it becomes very crude and decidedly tiresome. There is plenty of continuity about the development of this story because there is more of “people in and out” than anything else. Adele Farrington has the part of the central figure, being a reporter on a daily newspaper who had had an affair for the past five years with the owner of the paper, who is a widower. At the time the story opens we find the owner tiring of the woman and turning to other women. He resents her refusal to take any gifts from him and becomes angry when she speaks of his daughter. He gives her to understand that he does not feel that she belongs in the same class with his cherished child. The reporter has written a magazine article called “What Love Con Do.” Since she is “fired” immediately afterwards it seems appropriate that she should then write a story “What Love Does Do.” 614 She determines upon revenge, but in the final — scenes, when the home of the newspaper owner is attacked by strikers, she throws herself between the angry mob and the man she loves and is wounded. This sacrifice brings the newspaper man to his senses and he asks the reporter to become his wife. The business of the strikers is dragged in by the long arm of necessity, being painfully and obviously © a subterfuge to secure some means of violence for the final scenes. The strikers figure through many scenes, in all of which they are a mob of arm-waving extras and this soon becomes decidedly tiresome. Miss Farrington is quite satisfactory in her part and is a good type, but her drunken scenes were rather objectionable. It seems to me that this was a bit overdone since the sympathy was supposed to be retained by this central character. All of the men “acted” a little bit too much, but their work will be accepted. The chief fault with the offering was the failure to properly develop the story, the tremendous amount of unnecessary scenes and the painful frequency of the arm-waving mob scenes. In one place we find a small army of men with rifles unable to check this mob, while a dozen police© men with clubs come in soon after and quiet the © disturbance—some police. This production is offered in the form of a story written by a woman wha applies for a position as an actress, in the first scene; at the finish of the story there is a title which says: “The end of a per= fect story,” and there we see this woman go into the office again and the manager engages her imme© diately to play the star part in this drama. It seems to me it would require quite a lot of nerve on the part of any writer or company to put such a label as “perfect story” at the end of such an offering as this. It was a good idea, but as we see it on the screen it certainly is not a perfect story. — As a sample of the direction, there was one place where one of the men sat down at a desk to talk,to another man and there was a telephone directly between his face and the camera. Instead of stopping the scene, moving the telephone and taking this bit of action over or have the man move naturally into another position, the director evi