Judge — October 2, 1920 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

=e NE ip eee Seas Sagging a a ee IN THE Drawn by Heawas Pacers Pulling a By Myrox M. Stt N enthusiastic audience, watching a Griffith first night of “Way Down East,” saw Lillian Gish, the lovely party of the first part, start to throw herself into the Connee- ticut River for drowning purposes—and applauded to beat the band Fact Behind the peculiar psych tration lies. the ecratic construction of a Griffith “masterpiece”? that is at once an event, a triumph, and a great disappointment in the motion-picture world. D. W. Griffith, unquestionably the greatest story-teller in this our first movie generation, is a strange bird. And real genius nearly always has fool feathers. Of all the producers, “D. W. out with great whcle-evening pictures, th: in the making—“ The Birth of ation Intolerance,” “ Hearts of the World,” and “Way Down East.”” These pictures have given him a unique positicn, a unique prominence, a unique prestige; he is the screen's first novelist. So far, practically the only one. This gives him weight. Others watch his werk. He sets the pace. Like O'Brien, The Boston Transcript All-God of American short fiction, he stands alone. He saw it first. So, “D. W." means a lo A leader always does. He is subject to the high praise of ap- proval, as well as the sharp stabs of critic n be spared the unimportant. For poleon leads aright, the whole army triumphs. But when the misguided goat Napoleon’s pardon for mixing the metaphor jumps into the river! God pity the poor fool p that follow. \ Griffith first night is in itself anevent. As great’ showman as a_producer—perhaps ater—Griffith is sure to seize, and capitalize, the expectancy with which his admirers and detractors alike await his latest move. So we come to Broadway, and the premitre of “Way Down East.” Everybody agog with interest; everybody garried along on the current of the moment, everybody ready to break into tumultuous applause at the first sign of new power, the first reappearance of old power re- newed, Exerybody applauding the heroine’s determina- tion to commit suicidel Surely something wrong there. Unquestio: ably something wrong. On the surface the applause is logical enough. ogy ef that alone has had the daring to come took months and millions that ca A CUMBERLAND when } Diluted humor One of the first films. De Mille drama psychology. THE WORLD AND More farce than HUMORESQUE* mother love. EARTH-BOUND natural. duction and swi * Exceptionally good Pictures Worth Seeing: WAY DOWN EAST Griffith at his best, and worst. Simple story of fine realism. CIVILIAN CLOTHES THE JACK KNIFE MAN SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT healing at the end. IT’S_A GREAT LIFE audience—as with “Intolerance "—may be part The good humor of school-boy 1 Fine tragedy with @ weak ending. | unworthy of a real leader. THE WHITE CIRCLE ‘A melodrama of pictorial mood. 45 MINUTES FROM BROADWAY superlative artistry of scene and action, Lillian Urpretentious character-story of ‘Well done story of the Super WHILE NEW YORK SLEEPS Questionable film, with fine pro- Griffith Anns (“Lenso”’) It is awarded the daring beauty of the soft focus storm scenes through which the lovely Lillian is blindly ping in a smother of snow. But below that: the true story-teller’s power that “Grif” has shown in the past, and that is revealed again in great f “Way Down East lacking in the snow-storm story. Else, even rst-night audience would never have applauded a heroine in misery. Did any audience ever applaud the same Lillian in the terrible closet of * Broken Blossoms”? Inconceivable ‘The answer? Slapstick. And cheap siaj at that. ‘The screen is still in a crucial period of development. Few enor of its artists and artisans have had the vision to see the truth—the necessity for truth, fer fidelity to life, for sincere art. ne healthy influence, no bright horizon, can ever be built on lies. Mack Sennett horseplay leads to oblivion. I cannot bring myself to betieve that Griffith doesn’t k Hitherto, his greatest claim to real greatness has been the inherent f his work, the fidelity of his characters to iife. But the tesque caricatures that gi pmic relief’ to “Way Down can no more be compared to, for instance, The Little Disturber in “Hearts of the World,” than mud to marble. “Way Down East” is a relatively trite melodrama. In the picture, Griffith’s genius clothes the bony structure with the wonderful effectiveness of flesh and blood; then, just as an unbeliev- able villai becoming believable, and a worn melodrama is turning into real drama, we sink into the tawdry realm of the hack cartoonist, 4 ow this, ROMANCE* and the illusi js gone. Afterwards, superlative artistry rebuilds our truly whimsical drama in part—but we never reach the great heights of “The Clansman” and the rest. We applaud the heroine on her way to death, with impossible Qt To tell a story above the heads of an avera ss, but savors of nobility; to tell it HIS WIFE* beneath the intelligence of that same average is— Be sure to see ‘Way Down East.” It ha fiction. Gish never did finer work. New color effects continue the best Griffith traditions of cont nental innovation. And in the tense riv scenes the great producer “pulls a Griffith that probably out-ranks anything he has ever done. But prepare, even at that, to be disappointed. Griffith is grabbing for Mack Sennett’s crown, and the whole movie world is the loser. ipes from Zola. | comicbooks.com