Judge — July 28, 1923 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

OME MONTHS ago, when we saw a very fine performance of “The Prisoner of Zenda,” with a brill t, including Alice Terry, Bark LaMarr, Lewis Stone, Stuart Holmes, Ramon N ro and Robert Edeson under intelligent direction, we thought to ourself, we thought, the movies are not as black as they are printed. Then when we learned that the sequel to this delightful and fanciful tale of Anthony Hope’s was to be screened and heard that a really honest-to-goodness all star cast was to do it we drew a deep breath and squared our shoulders. “Now, what will the people who frown down upon the fillums But we are too impetuous. We are the world’s greatest conclusion jumper—“Rupert of Hentzau” is not himself at all, and not more than half as good as he in the earlier pic- ture. HE story isn’t direct. Many promises ion are made, but few are carried ion and the light of the all star is blanketed behind a cloudy sce One thing, however, stands out lently to the eye, and that is the photog- raphy. since Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have we seen street scen¢ beautifully constructed and lighte and every one of them isa behold. Elaine Hammerstein is not a queen. Not the queen to our ¢ heart, however lovely she never once felt that she wasn’t play- acting before a camera. Claire Windsor, on the contra: our regal mind, has the poise and cratic mien that we have "S associ ated with the throne. But a count was as high as she was rated by a m guided casting director, and as such she hid her charm bencath a bushel of activity. Lytell, as well as Bosworth, Wash- burn and Menjou overacted, or rather Rudy’s shoes. PICKING ON THE PICTURES by George Mitchell seemed to act up to their flashy costumes. “We are at court,” one tht have heard them whisper. got to swank it, boys.” Lew Cody, of the men, alone was convincing and. sincere. He's a sure-fire actor, and when you've 1 only half said it. He and Claire Windsor pleased us—they and the sry. But the rest of it is another version of “Much Ado About Nothing.” © picTURE that we have seen in the r is so aptly named as Nothing to us seems so befuddled as this picture, which has for its exalted purpose the education of parents in the development of their offspring, but which in its exploitation leaves the mind so completely in a thick pea-green haze. We see a lot of pictures. grow weary of them, no matter how tiresome they may be. But we do grow sad at times, and “The Fog” left us in tears. We are still wondering why it was done. Life wouldn't scem ‘quite so sorrowful if we could explain “The Fog” to ourself. If we were told by some good Christian that it would brighten up some corner where we are; if some good political leader would tell us that it would solve the League of Nations tangle and make the world. safe. for hypocrisy; if some such altruistic, though improbable result’ might obtain from it, we would suffer in’ silence. But when we get from it nothing but the boredom of an hour and a half, we say it makes us sad, It isn't even well acted, although Mildred Harris and Cullen Landis do what they can to snap out of or into it. We never sad. To sum it up, “The Fog” is just fog. Thick heavy banks of it. And if you like to grope about in the dark, go to it. There's enough of it in this picture to satisfy you. 7 I ONG BEFORE Rex Beach dreamed of 4striking gold from the silver’ sheet he pattered out on his six cylinder type writer a book which he called “The Spoilers.” That was way back in 1906. But you'd thought he had had the screen in mind, so really a moving picture is this thrilling story of the Alaskan gold rush that Goldwyn has prepared for our enjoyment and has so lavishly produce “The Spoilers” is one of those big, outdoor things that contains enough story to fill up and spill over into four other pictures. It isn’t a great’ work of art, and not much time has been spent worrying over the beauty of its scenic investment. Nature does the trick well enough when not interfered with do most of it is set out in’ the open where an all-wise Creator builded better than his creatures. The best thing that Goldwyn has done is to let nature take its course and supply the characters with actors to fit them. This he has done splendidly. Milton Sills, Robert Edeson, Noah Beery, Mitchell Lewis, Fred Sterling, Robert McKim, Wallace McDonald and Sam DeGrasse is a line-up that is good enough to make fifty dollars a week look ashamed of itself, and with Barbara Bedford, Anna Q. Nilsson, Louise Fa- zenda and Kate Price added, well, we don’t know where Goldwyn got all the money from to pay. salaries. The picture itself is tense with melo- dramatic interest, and there’s a heavy- weight fight between knock Sills and Kid Beery that puts them in line to challenge Mr. John Dempsey of Shelby, Montana. Some beautiful shots in the rain of a man hunt with little waterfalls drip- ping from men’s noses and cars are splendid bits of realistic hokum, and all in all you'll like “The Spoilers” if you like to give your heart a run for its money. have comicbooks.com