Wid's weekly (Jan-Oct 1925)

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I Want My Man First National This is just one of those things. The title has a certain amount of definite box office value hooked up with the fact that you have Milton Bills, Doris Kenyon, May Allison and Phyllis Haver in the cast. The story is one of those blind soldier-nurse love affairs that comes to life after the war when the hero with his regained sight is about ready to marry an¬ other girl. I was glad to see May Allison back at work because May has a lot of very definite values. This is centered around the conflict between Miss Allison and Doris Kenyon for the love of Sills and they go right up to a marriage situation between Miss Allison and Sills, breaking it at the last second by having Phyllis Haver’s hubby shoot himself. And of course they never get back to the altar because in the next reel Sills discovers that Kenyon is his long lost sweetheart from “Over There.” In many First National pictures in the past year or so I have observed a constant use of a rather weird lighting arrangement which is for the most part de¬ veloped by splashing spots of light hither and yon all over the set. Someone must have decided that spot¬ lights were for spotty lighting because they certainly insist upon delivering a very weird lighting arrange¬ ment in most of their productions. Possibly this is artistic. I don’t know because I know T am not artistic. Anyway it seems messy to me and it may so impress many others. Your gang may not kick you on the shins for play¬ ing this and it has a pretty good title so that possibly it is a safe bet, but I wouldn’t rave about it if I were you because the emotional moments do not really stir you. They talk entirely too much. DIRECTOR . Lambert Hillyer AUTHOR . Struthers Burt’s novel, “The Inter¬ preter’s House,” adapted by Joseph Poland and Earl Snell. CAMERAMAN . G. C. Von Trenn WHOOZINIT . Milton Sills, Doris Kenyon, May Allison, Phyllis Haver, Paul Nicholson, Kate Bruce, Theresa Maxwell Conover, Louis Stem, Charles Lane and George W. Howard. Eve’s Lover Warner Brothers This is great entertainment until they ran wild at the finish. The artificial arm-waving mob climax may send your gang out with a had taste, possibly dis¬ counting much of the entertainment value that has been previously delivered. Through the first four or five reels the personali¬ ties of Irene Rich, Bert Lytell, Willard Louis and Clara Bow provide scores of comedy bits that are eure fire audience stuff. There are plenty of good gags and Bert Lytell gives one of the most pleasing performances that he has ever registered. Miss Rich, as a business woman anxious for romance, makes a difficult character most convincing and Willard Louis and Clara Bow ring the bell every time with their comedy clashes. The hat gag, which is not particular¬ ly new, was developed into a real riot by the manner in which it was played. Every time Miss Bow and Louis got together she smashed his hat and this thing was pyramided in such a manner that it really became a yell. It is too bad that someone let this run wild into some artificial melodrama having to do with labor troubles at the factory when they got to the final reels because this very crude movie stuff rather put a curse on what had been a very pleasing bit of entertainment. This was one of Roy Del Ruth’s first feature efforts and he certainly demonstrated a directorial knowledge of playing little bits of business which should make him a good bet if given the right sort of story structure to build upon. DIRECTOR . Roy Del Ruth AUTHOR . Mrs. W. K. Clifford’s Novel, adapted by Daryl Francis Zanuck. CAMERAMAN . Byron Haskin WHOOZINIT . Irene Rich, Bert Lytell, Clara Bow, Willard Louis, Arthur Hoyt, John Steppling. The Crowded Hour Paramount A mechanical movie about the war with plenty of argument concerning heroes and patriotism and a lot of news weekly war stuff scattered here and there is what they delivered in this. Possibly this might have been made distinctive entertainment if the characters had been made more believable. As it stands the gen¬ eral impression is that of a lot of people who run around through a war background without any of the things which they do registering convincingly. The emotional conflict in the breasts of the char¬ acters concerning the problem of whether or not a man should enlist is not so good today because with the war over and many people disappointed regarding the consideration being given at this time to our heroes there is hound to be in any audience a decided differ¬ ence of opinion as to whether or not a man should have stepped out to do the heroic thing. The situation centering around the spot where Bebe saved a thousand men instead of her sweetie had a certain amount of basic melodramatic appeal, but the artificiality of the whole kept it from carrying a great emotional wallop. You can sneak this one by, but it is a long way from being a truly impressive picture. I have yet to see a production where news weekly material cut into the action has genuinely added to the reality of the production. DIRECTOR . E. Mason Hopper AUTHOR . Channing Pollock and Edgar Selwyn’s play adapted by John RusselL CAMERAMAN . J. Roy Hunt WHOOZINIT . Bebe Daniels, Kenneth Harlan, T. Roy Barnes, Frank Morgan, Helen Lee Worth¬ ing, Armand Cortez, Alice Chapin, and Warner Richmond.