Wid's Films and Film Folk (1916)

un x “Oh, ‘Godt what a beim fs “Youth, youth, “how buoyant are thy hopes.” wretch!” “What a handsome man! How is it T have not met him before.” This last quotation was .from stepdaughter to her stepmother, speaking of the “wiljun,’ who was calling on the stepmother. Miss Kane and Mr. Love: did their best as the unfortunate leads, but it was very hard for them to appeat, human in such situations as were to be portray ed. Arthur Ashley, as the “willun,” was “wery wicious.’ re Pellet. i zm few: “You at times. _ Muriel Betriche, as the foolish stepdaughter, gave one of. the werst performances. she has ever registered, evidently because of the direction. She seemed to be un Florence La Badie in fi DIVORCE AND THE DAUGHTER Thanhouser-Pathe Bae si. eee Frederic Sullivan RTE E hs Yeo ein hk Me ee Agnes Johnston BAMBI EAINEAIN oc: 5522028 khan ee Charles W. Hoffman AS A WHOLE....Some good choke with good and bad : portrayal STORY... “Contrast” vate with daughter’s error pointing moral ‘DIRECTION... Allowed mechanical playing, but provided some good moments BPHUROGRAP EY). 6000-5... bce Generally good ety ee AT pe A few fine; some too uniform CAMERA WORK spe MS. tN Good and fair aes coe it Te Played humanly; helped decidedly Oboe Ole dees eT Camera-conscious; mechanical Be TORS 5.5. eS A few very good BIN THRIOR S12. A few fine sets; others ordinary Meee es alto Generally fine; a few bad spots Be ee oo Goan nnt nn nae ‘Sixty-three minutes HILE this is far from being a big offering, It has some good underlying thoughts and will undoubtedly prove rather interesting to most audiences because it presents a discussion of several angles of divorce. This story is so constructed as to pro mother and the daughter, the daughter’s “faith i in the success of marriage being shaken at a critical moment when she finds that her father and mother are not. happy. The daughter had two lovers, one of whom wished to _ marry her, while the other told of the wonderful freedom of love which didn’t need fetters. Fearing that the _ bonds of marriage might bring unhappiness, the girl decided to go to the man who spoke of free love. After _ going to his home she soon found that he was unwilling to wait the six months which she asked as a sort of _ engagement period. In the struggle which ensued the villain was injured, and the daughter hurried to her home, where she found _ that her parents had been brought together by the reali_ zation of the fact that their estrangement had caused the near tragedy in their child’s life. While the actual situations of this were decidedly ancient, their relative importance to the divorce theme made the story rather interesting, The moral will undoubtedly impress many.’ _Unfortunately, the supporting cast was rather weak, is< being particularly true as to the work of the her, sno was peeuity theatric. This part was “e ‘must | ‘save her!? © in fact, he was so “wicious” that he was almost funny PROBLEM SCENARIO WITH GOOD AND BAD SPOTS vide a contrast between the father and. 1127 ney M EE aE alt Teg oe Sear Ph. sist *y certain as to just what she was supposed to portray, and was very camera-conscious in many,of her scenes. — The Box Office Angle. Although you have several names to play up here in your advertising, I would be very careful about booking and exploiting this, because it certainly lacks most of Rae es coals needed for pleasi ng your audiences. The you Will einiy get many kicks on it ir you run it. ¢ In case you have to play it, it seems to me that it would be advisable to sneak it by as easy ‘as possible, without. making very much noise ‘about it. There is no possible angle to exploit without encountering a comes back, and so I’ll have to simply tell you to play dead.. played by J. i Gilmour, and he was so cameta-conscious that all of his scenes were ruined by his gestures. Many of the bthers, were unable to play sn noothly, with the reg sult that their scenes didn’t impress. There were many close-ups of Miss La Badie whist were intelligently handled and well-lighted, and these lifted the offering out of the rut. We also had a number of very effective lightings, which acded a bit of distinction. There was one beautiful sunset which wi cause a few “Ah’s!” and “Oh’s!” even though it was not properly ft oheds with the other lighting. et Others in the cast were Edwin Stanley, Sam Niblack, (Continued on following page) VIVIAN (MARTIN as SY) MOROSCOPALLAS STAR