Wid's weekly (1923)

;^n i SATURDAY ( Zfm/JMm rf NOVEMBER 3, 1923 -WEEKLY 1 * Interesting -Good Characterizations But Misses as Drama The Light That Failed Paramount Length 7 Reels DIRECTOR . George Melford AUTHOR . Rudyard Kipling’s story, adapted by F. McGrew Willis and Jack Cunningham. CAMERAMAN . Charles Clark GET ’EM IN . Feature Percy Marmont of “If Winter Comes,’’ and talk about characteriza¬ tions given by Marmont and Miss Logan. PLEASE ’EM . This has excellent atmosphere which holds the interest, and two very good characters, but it wanders and stumbles very badly as drama. WHOOZINIT . Percy Marmont, Jacqueline Logan, David Torrence and Sigrid Holmquist. SPECIAL APPEAL . It is from Kipling’s classic, but I would concentrate attention on the English atmosphere, and performances of Marmont and Miss Logan. STORY VALUES . There isn’t much plot, it’s fairly well known, and those who don’t know it will anticipate climaxes all the way. TREATMENT . It is interesting, but construction lets it sag badly, and emotional highspots really don’t hit, despite some clever characterization work. CHARACTERIZATIONS . Marmont ’s personality lifts it, and Miss Logan is permitted to domi¬ nate. Torrence is good. Miss Holmquist thor¬ oughly blah. ARTISTIC VALUES . Atmosphere throughout was excellent. This alone makes it good entertain¬ ment. Photographically this was very well handled. I believe most fans will consider this reasonably worth while for two basic reasons. One is Percy Mar¬ mont ’s personality. The other is seeing Jacqueline Logan do a characterization that gets across. Those who are not familiar with this story will be pretty well ahead of it most of the time, because the mechanics are very simple, decidedly obvious and eas¬ ily anticipated. It is one of those plots where the sympathy goes out in chunks to a little street walker, while the sweet sliero sits around on the sidelines and waits for the clutch. The casting of Sigrid Holmquist as “Maizie” in this made it that much more certain that Miss Logan, as the Coster waif, would get all the sympathy. Miss Holmquist was hard, cold, and very blah from start to finish. You know that it isn’t right for our blind hero to fall in love with the little girl from the streets, but the fact that he doesn’t gives this an ending that is really almost tragic insofar as the reactions of most audiences will register. Several times in the course of this story it dies pretty dead. The tempo of the action is not so good, and the continuity carries us along through great chunks of stuff that is really not dramatic, and cer¬ tainly does not advance the story effectively to the emotional highspots. Somehow the emotional climaxes, with very feiv exceptions, miss. I believe that this is principally due to the action building up to them. The biggest kick in all the footage comes in the bit where Miss Logan pleads with Torrence to let her live with him, and Mar¬ mont discovers them embracing. This was very well handled. Technically, they get over the gradual coming of Marmont ’s blindness very effectively, but the coming of the blindness, and the final destroying of the paint¬ ing, were not as dramatic as they should have been, principally because of tempo and action development. I am mighty glad to give Miss Logan credit for the very good work she has registered in this. Her characterization really does a lot toward carrying this along and holding your attention. Miss Logan, Mar¬ mont and Torrence carry the burden, and where the fans have patience and are willing to accept rather a quiet story development, this may be regarded as a very satisfactory visualization of the classic. There is rather an awkward spot in the story where they bring Marmont and Miss Holmquist to¬ gether by means of having Percy find a dog which “jest happens” to lead him right over to his child¬ hood sweetheart. The offering is decidedly slow in getting under way. The thing really doesn’t take hold until Miss Logan comes on. One of our old-time friends from the earliest days, Robert Brower, makes a bit stand out very effectively. Mr. Brower is probably the oldest active film actor, in point of service, as well as years. In billing this I would recommend particularly that you play up Percy Marmont as prominently as you do Miss Logan. Marmont has made such a success in the Fox production “If Winter Comes” that I be¬ lieve his name will have a decided value in helping to pull some real business. David Torrence, brother of Ernest, has done some mighty good work in several big features, and will probably be remembered by many, so that you should also step a little heavy on mention¬ ing him in your billing. Miss Logan is properly the star in this, because despite the fact that Marmont, as the painter, is the central figure, Miss Logan’s char¬ acterization sticks right out of the offering, so as to dominate a good part of the action. Don’t figure this as a big winner. It will just about get by satisfactorily. The fans will never race around to the back fence to tell their neighbors to be sure and go see this one, so you can figure it as a very well staged offering that will probably satisfy and get through without any serious kick back.