Life — July 8, 1926 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

TESILENT DRAMA“ “Variety” NCE more the great Emil O Jannings has contributed to the screen a performance rich in dramatic vitality, warm with human understanding. In “Variety” he wears no whiskers or regal uni- forms; he is a trapeze performer in a German vaudeville theatre, who runs away with an unscrupulous muscle-dancer—and then loses her. Jannings makes of this absurd character a being whose every mo- tive is recognizable. He shows us a poor, slow-witted, foolish lout who commits one grotesque blunder after another, and he earns for this miserable man an amazing degree of sym- pathy. Thus, Jannings is the out- standing figure in “Variety,” just as he must be in any pic- ture which makes use of his apparently unlimited talents. Aside from him, there is much in “Variety” to praise—with the same critical enthusiasm that “The Last Laugh” in- spired; there is also some- what to condemn. In the latter connection, I may mention two pretty bad performances, by Lya de Putti and Warwick Ward, and a few instances of over- emphasis in the narration of the story. HE director of “Variety,” one E. A. Dupont, is new to me; his name is French, but his method is distinctly German. Like Lubitsch and Murnau, he knows how to use his camera to marvelous ef- fect. At all times, he avoids the obvious in composition; he strives for the most unusual and most effective expression of the mood which he wishes to convey. The first scenes in “Va- riety,” of a honky-tonk amusement park in Hamburg, are indescribably effective. So are the later scenes of trapeze artists doing their death- defying stunts in a Berlin Winter- garten. Dupont has imparted a fine qual- ity of fluidity to the whole picture. The characters and backgrounds flow through the film, and the spectator’s interest flows with them. AS for Lya de Putti, who has lately been imported to Americs I don’t think that her work in “Va- ROOM FOR INSTRUCTION Salesman (giving driving lesson): wave you Got YOUR BRAKE ON? Fair Young Thing: ou, po 1 HAVE TO WEAR A BRAKE? is particularly impressive. s satisfactorily abandoned and occasionally seductive, but she is just a shade too arch to be a valid com- petitor of such as Pola Negri. The main trouble with her seems to be that she hates to smear the rosebud make-up of her lips. THINK that “Variety,” unlike “The Last Laugh,” will be suc- cessful with American audiences. I hope so. It is another genuine demonstration of the amazing scope of the movies. R. E. Sherwood. Recent Developments The following current pictures, previously cwed in Lire, are recommended: Silence. H. B. Warner as a benevolent crook who pays and pays and pays. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp. An exceedingly comical tramp across country, with Harry Langdon. Aloma of the South Seas. A foolish picture, made exciting by Gilda Gray Hell-Bent fer Heaven. Ef- fective melodrama of religious fanaticism in the hill country. For Heaven's Sake. Harold Lloyd about as funny as ever. Mare Nostrum. Foul play in the Mediterranean, directed by Rex Ingram. Ben-Hur. Biblical spectacle on a huge scale. The Black Pirate. Douglas Fairbanks runs wild in the rig- ging of a pirate ship. Moana. A really lovely pic, ture of real life in the South Seas. The Volga Boatman. Cecil De Mille wades into the Russian revolution. The Big Parade. If you haven't see it yet, don’t blame me. Sparrows. Mary Pickford in a grim but appealing story of the dismal swamps. Fascinating Youth. This one got in here by mistake. comicbooks.com