Judge — October 25, 1924 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

-——— Seconding the Motion Pictures by George Mitchell HEN I gi fully fox-trotted down the aisle of the enormous Capitol Theater one busy afternoon I was shocked to see so many able- bodied men and women sitting com- fortably wasting their time. The | house was jammed. I blushed in the dark that so many American business people should have played hookey from their desks. But when I saw “The Navigator” I realized that they weren't wasting their time. I wondered why all the others could be foolish enough to be at their de: “The Navigator” is a picture so good, so funny, so well played by Buster Keaton that I believe it’s everybody's business to leave their business to go see it. A motion picture critic is a half- wit who receives a salary (if you'd call anything so small by so grand a name) for telling the public (who, as a matter of fact, know twice as much as the half-wit does) what is wrong with this picture. | To tell what is wrong with most pictures is the work of a child. To | tell what is right with them is an | iron horse of another color. | I will therefore |: to the criticism of er myself open ies when T say 1913. “SEE THE TATOOED MAN Sanp-Box Soton (during pause)—I do hope th’ politickal sitooation'll hurry up an’ git sot, Abner. m whittlin’! that the only thing that I can see wrong with “The Navigator” is that it isn’t twice as long as it is. If you can watch Buster in a diver’s suit wash his hands on the bottom of the ocean, dry them on his handkerchief and empty the pail of water back into the ocean and not laugh your head off, I wash my hands of you. If you can see him chased all over A medium on his way to a séance, stops to vote, and falls into a trance in the booth. I'm turr'ble behind in the deck by a little cannon after he has lighted the fuse and caught his foot in the string and not bust the buttons off your vest you ought to have a cannon turned on you. I believe that this Buster's best, bar none. lieve that there ar picture is I also be- more laughs to the footage in fhe Navigator” than there are drops of water in the ocean he so nonchalantly lifts to so high a tide of hum ‘ D picture that is easy to criticize in that there is almost nothing the matter with it. I was curious to see what Frank Tuttle, the new Famous Players director, would do with his first picture in big time. Well he’s done this at least: he’s made me an admirer of Bebe Daniels. Hitherto I've not been strong for the Bebe but Tuttle has lit her like a rocket without the stick. Bebe does things in this picture, too, she’s never done to me before. She's more human and develops a sense of quict comedy. I for one poor nut have never seen better work Yes, the Bebe has growa into a very charming comedienne. The picture is full of heart inter- est, sincerely told, and holds you till the final fade-out. There are some lovely photos of Italy. Lago Maggiore and all that (Continued on page 28) nGERous Money” is another