Wid's Films and Film Folk (1916)

WID’S dently yelled to the character to move the telephone, and he nonchalantly did so for no other reason than to allow the camera to catch his face as he sat talking to this man. It took the entire first reel of this offering to _ plant the characters, there being no action whatever, which also gives an idea as to the direction thereof. There was a hotel scene taken in a regular hotel lobby in which scores of people moved hurriedly back of the principals while only these four or five characters did a scene in the foreground without anyone nearer than fifteen feet. The crowd in the ‘back moved, evidently under instructions, from one side to the other, giving what the director might have thought an “air of activity” to the place, but unfortunately the activity seemed to be all in one place and many of the active members insisted upon looking at the camera. Taken as a whole this is just a fair melodrama with a few good moments because of the thought of the story and some very bad moments because of the weakness of the melodrama. Thursday, June 1, 1916. One of the reasons given for many scenes which were used, was that the owner of this newspaper was keeping the news of the strike at his oil wells from all of the other papers. This in itself is ridicu lous because it is certainly impossible to keep news from the world simply because you happen to own one paper. In a theatre where they accept melodrama as it comes and are not particular, this might get by. It will never please a critical audience. In advertising this offering I would refer particularly to the characterization of Miss Farrington as a newspaper woman of ideals, who finally conquered because of love. Do not lay too much stress upon the strike scenes because, for the most part, they are rather bad. If you have to play this I would slide it through easy. Others in the cast were Walter Belasco, Violet Schram, Margaret Mayburn, Mrs. Jay Hunt and C., N. Hammond. UNCONVINCING, UNIMPRESSIVE LITTLE KINGDOM, ANARCHIST STORY Bessie Barriscale in THE SORROWS OF LOVE Ince—Triangle Be Feri ee) Reade eat rckscs . . TOs gs Charles Gitlyn SOR Ya B Viner ons Elaine Sterne and J. G. Hawks ae ime WV BLO) Ly nsc4 dane cers « . Getteaicsd os: Unconvincing SPIRO Mar nate eRe ree che ss «AM Skes enone se Does not grip ae oa ON erate coc. . MB sec., tiese sae 0 Just fair Ee OC TIRA PALLY ae soca fale «EME als One Fs, «sais moe Good EE PIN GS Grae oe: + Atetice sibeserecaie Ordinary TG ECA WY CIR re 5. . Hors. hayes a 4 Just good Be re We es. Sure ssts, a. + « oEtaies« « Quite appealing Sate leew a ee, . MEY Go. se ote Fair PONE COR OA eae le ania... SNR aes a Seemed stagey BNE eT CIR Sh pases y bastclas, « + Rida oes vs Fairly good ae eA Maret Rr Nee oS co's + EBS = 0 000 Didn’t convince OUD S14 BS ic ge Ah os Aas RR Five parts HIS is one of those stories of a small imag inary country, where the people’s party, which was composed of a score of men so far as we could see, most of whom were anarchists, was bent upon murdering the tyrant who oppressed them. A nun heard of the terrors of the world from a new arrival and started out to explore. She met the leader of the people’s party and learned to love him. She prevailed upon him not to allow violence and he tried in the council to sway the vote for a victory for the people, but was unsuccessful. She saw him comfort a poor woman whose husband had been injured and she suspected him of being unfaithful, leaving a note that she intended to go back to the convent. When he saw the note he tore up his next speech pleading against violence and led the workmen in the charge against the tyrant’s palace. She warned the tyrant and as a result the workmen were nearly all killed. Her lover died in her arms and she returned to the convent. Most of the action in this offering takes place in exterior sets which are supposed to be Venetian. They are for the most part concrete or stucco buildings alongside canals and they have a decidedly stagey or new appearance and certainly did not really give a Venetian atmosphere. The action does not grip at any time nor does it convince. 615 Miss Barriscale was very good as she always is, but her part was not strong, there being very few emotional scenes with any possibilities, 1950 acting of William Desmond and the other principals was decidedly unimpressive. As a whole this moves along in rather a matterof-fact-melodrama imaginary-kingdom-plot style without at any time really gripping the audience. consider it one of the poor Triangle offerings. In one of the important dramatic situations, where Miss Barriscale starts to stab her lover and then changes her mind, she hurls the dagger on the floor just after she has stepped behind some curtains and still friend lover does not hear the dagger fall. This was rather a shock. In the titles, which were rather too flowery in spots, we find all of these foreigners speaking English and saying such words as “palazzo,” which made it a sort_of broken dialect—why, I cannot say. If the speech titles were to be given in English they should have been given in straight English. In a number of places in this offering the film jumped very badly. This unsteadiness was noted in about fifty scenes shown in different parts of the offering and the operator projecting the offering insisted that it was in the film and not in his machine. If this is a negative fault it would seriously interfere with the showing of this offering. I would investigate this point and be sure that the print you receive is in good condition. ‘The best possible talking point about this offering is Bessie Barriscale. Another angle which might interest some, is the fact that this is a story of a nun who reproached, in no uncertain terms, a young girl who had sinned and then came to the convent, When the sinner indignantly told her that she had no right to reprimand when she knew nothing of the world, she journeyed forth to meet her big trials only to learn that it is easy to err. I would not talk too much about the imaginary kingdom stuff and the anarchist-tyrant stuff; whenever we have seen that in pictures it has generally been rather unconvincing. This is not as good as the Triangle standard and I would go easy in advertising it. Others in the cast were Ora Carew, Herschel Mayall and Wedgwood Nowell.