Wid's weekly (1923)

Comedy and Suspense Values Make This Entertain The Green Goddess Inspiration-Goldwyn Cosmopolitan Length — 10 Reels DIRECTOR . Sidney Olcott AUTHOR . William Archer’s play, adapted by Forrest Halsey. CAMERAMAN . Harry Fishbeck GET ’EM IN . Go heavy on this as comedy melodrama, promising real entertainment. PLEASE ’EM . There is excellent element of suspense here, with good subtle comedy values. WHOOZINIT . George Arliss, Alice Joyce, Dave Powell, Harry Morey, Ivan Simpson, and Jetta Goulda. SPECIAL APPEAL . Play up fact this was very successful play, in which Arliss starred, and go after those who appreciate subtle comedy. STORY VALUES . This was great character study of polished willun with a sense of humor. TREATMENT . They should have started this as in the play, otherwise play’s values have been nicely retained. CHARACTERIZATIONS . Arliss delightful, Simpson as valet great, others very satisfactory. ARTISTIC VALUES . Mysterious Oriental atmosphere nicely established. Photography generally very pleasing. I think this is great entertainment. In the play Arliss made a tremendous success, prin¬ cipally because of the comedy values that topped off the tense melodrama. The plot mechanics of this are worthy of a serial. The comedy dialogue is delightful. The central char¬ acter is quaint, to say the least. There is nothing more sure fire for entertainment purposes than a comedy villain. In this story Arliss is presented as a highly educated ruler of an isolated kingdom in the Himalaya mountains. Arliss is the sort of man who tells you that he intends to have you killed in the morning, but insists upon your dressing for dinner and enjoying yourself while you are still alive. The play has to do with two men and a woman landing from an aeroplane in this isolated country, where they are made prisoners by Arliss, whose broth¬ ers are about to be executed by the British Government, for political reasons. Arliss, a graduate of Oxford, is most polite and a marvelous host, but explains coldly that he intends to kill the two men, and also the woman, if she refuses to become his mistress. There is a great comedy character, an English valet, who makes a fine foil for Arliss, and the melo¬ drama has to do with the efforts of the players to get a wireless outfit and send a rescue message. They have to deliberately heave the valet out of a window, for a nice little fall of about half a mile, over a precipice, in order to get to the wireless, and Arliss shoots and kills Harry Morey when he finds him sending the message. Just as his priests and the natives are tor¬ turing Dave Powell and Miss Joyce, aeroplanes begin bombing the town, and they are released. This may sound very wild. In a way it is. You will never know what good entertainment it is, how¬ ever, until you see it. The titles from the play are delightful. In a sense, they are poking fun at the more or less wild melodrama, even though it is played seri¬ ously all the way through. As a sample of this, Arliss, when lie is about to torture Mr. Powell and Miss Joyce, turns to Miss Joyce and says, “When next you see me I will be a priest instead of a king.’’ He waits for that title to sink in, and then turns to look at her and says, “Ridiculous, isn’t it?” Arliss, in a way, in his character, keeps you from laughing at the melodrama because he is laughing at it with you. There is a wonderful tag line, which they kept in from the show. After all the uproar about Arliss try¬ ing to keep Miss Joyce for his queen, we find her rescued at the last minute, and as the lovers depart Arliss stands and thinks a moment, and then says, “Well, she’d probably have been a damned nuisance anyway. ’ ’ Although the very first shot, showing a foot pull¬ ing an overhead fan, is a great bit to establish the India atmosphere, I believe that they have made a rad¬ ical mistake in failing to open this with the wrecking of the aeroplane, just as the play was opened. There are some very effective shots of the snow-clad moun¬ tains, with the aeroplane over them, and by all means I believe that they should still cut this film to open with these shots, and then go right into the first scene, where the natives discover the English trio. The suspense and the surprise of finding Arliss an educated man would be tremendously better with this treatment, and it would start the picture with the same bang that made the play opening effective. Nothing is gained by the opening as screened, and as a matter of fact, much is lost, because some good suspense values are tipped off entirely too soon. It would be very easy to edit this film at the first to make it conform with the play, and I certainly think that that should be done. Naturally this entire production is centered around Arliss. Ivan Simpson, as the valet, who did the part in the play, is the next important character. Miss Joyce, Morey and Powell hold down their parts very satisfac¬ torily, and Jetta Goulda is just elusive enough with her rather attractive face, to make the bit which she did stand out. When I saw this first, as a play, I considered it great screen material. I am very glad that Arliss did the part on the screen, and I think they have given us a bit of entertainment that will make many new friends for the screen.