Life — February 8, 1923 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

“Second Fiddle” HEN a number of enthusias- tic young graduates of Har- vard, Princeton and Yale get to- gether and say, “Let’s form a movie company and uplift the screen,” the wiseacres loafing around the cafe- terias on Hollywood Boulevard chuckle quietly and prepare them- selves for the echo of a dull, sick- ening thud. In no business or profession in the world is an amateur more hopelessly at sea than in the movies. The si- lent drama, because of its complex- ity, is baffling enough to those who have been working at it since its earliest infancy. Those who at- tempt to stalk into it with no previ ous experience are instantly and sys- tematically smothered. Consequently, when the Film Guild was formed by Frank Tuttle (Yale °14), James A. Creelman (Yale 715), J. R. O. Perkins (Har- vard 714) and Townsend Martin (Princeton ’17)—we old timers of the picture game enjoyed a hearty laugh. So these poor little babes in the celluloid woods went to work and produced a photoplay entitled, “The Cradle Buster,” and made a great deal of money out of it. It was a perfectly legitimate success. They have now supplemented that with a second production, “Second Fiddle,” which is better in every way than their first venture. From which we are compelled to conclude that one of us is wrong. HE element of surprise plays an all-important part in the dramatic value of “Second Fiddle.” It starts off meekly as a_ nice, g wholesome little comedy, with Glenn Hunter behaving just about as Glenn Hunter would. Then, with practically no previous warning, a packet of cannon crackers is exploded directly in front of the spectator’s retina, and he realizes suddenly that he is beholding a sin- gularly lurid melodrama. I must admit that the young col- legians of the Film Guild have not mastered all the technical intricacies of the screen art, and that their act- ing is inclined to be amateurish— but they can certainly teach their elders a great deal about plot con- struction. Frank Tuttle wrote the story of “Second Fiddle,” and it is a com- mendably workmanlike job. For which he deserves unlimited credit. Fighting against the overwhelming tradition which decrees that college graduates are high-browed sissies and therefore unfitted for the sterner struggles of life, he has won a great moral victory for old Yale. “Drums of Fate” PEAKING of Yale, as I was, not two minutes ago, the lead- ing man in “Drums of Fate” is none other than Lefty Flynn, the port-sided punter who played on the Big Blue Team the year it lost to Harvard by a score of 20—0. Mr. Flynn has been a movie actor for some time, but the influence of his bright college years is still with him: he acts with his left foot. As a result, his screen characterizations are never very convincing. In this weird photodrama, the stalwart Mr. Flynn appears as an African explorer who, between trips, is married to Mary Miles Minter. Miss Minter never played on the Yale varsity. In fact, she has grown up in the movi And yet, as an actress, she is just about as left- footed as Lefty Flynn. All of which goes to prove that life is illogical that philosophy is fallible, and that this review isn’t getting anywhere. To sum it all up, “Drums of Fate’ is a very stupid picture. “Gimme” Rupert Hughes’s latest opus is called “Gimme,” and the advertise- ments lead one to believe that it is concerned with the mendicant streak in wives. As a matter of fact, it is nothing of the kind. It is a study of the new woman, who yearns for spiritual in- dependence, just as every woman has yearned since the good old days when husbands ruled their homes with stone hatchets. The heroine of “Gimme” asks her husband for just one thing: Equal- ity. And when he refuses to give it to her, she walks out on him. Of course, she later sees a picture of the Madonna and child, and regrets that she has been so hasty. The hus- band also achieves enlightenment, and they end up in the conventional clinch. This simple theme has been han- dled intelligently by Mr. Hughes, and the resultant picture is dignified con- siderably by the sympathetic per- formance of Helene Chadwick. “Gimme” is no world-beater, but it is several notches above the aver- age—and several miles above “The Old Nest.” R:: Be Ss (Recent Developments, with a guide to the best current films, will be found on page 30.) comicbooks.com