Life — October 21, 1926 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

N “Tin Gods,” Thomas Meighan makes a heroic effort to rise from the rut in which he has been traveling these many years. It wasn’t exactly a rut, either: it was a nice, smooth, shady path—an un- eventful trail that led nowhere. Along its course one might observe such pleasant milestones as “Our Leading Citizen,” “Pied Piper Ma- lone,” “Old Home Week” and “Back Home and Broke”—all of them ex- alike. in Gods” gives Mr. Meighan the chance to detour through rougher but more interesting territor. It is by all odds the most dram of his offerings since “The City of Silent Men” and “Manslaughter.” The story is surprisingly sombre, with two violent deaths to jolt the ul Mr. Meighan from the happy lethargy into which he had de- scended. He is forced to betray ac- tual emotion—and he does tremely well. His representation of a man in the depths of hopeless r is appealing and. sturdily convincing. In the Gods,” assistance rily sens: SO €X- latter portions of Mr. Meighan receives invalu- from that extraor- >, intelligent actress, To say that she is up to form is to sz “Tin Gods,” ring true—but this certain] fails to isn’t the Life pio MENU WRATA “py am fault of either Thomas Meighan or Renée Adorée, for both of them emerge from the picture with honors. “The Fighting Marine” HEN Gene Tunney was com- paratively obscure—with an outside chance to be matched with Dempsey and no chance at all to win the title—Pathé signed him up as the star of a serial called “The Fighting Marine.” Now Pathé is cashing in on the results of a wild but incred- ibly lucky guess. one installment of “The Fighting Marine” and I am more than ever convinced that Red Grange’s performance in “One Min- ute to Play” is a remarkable achieve- ment. Gene Tunney, on the screen, is about as ani as graceful, as unself-conscious, as inspiring as a studio portrait of President Calvin Coolidge. Those of his admirers who sce him in this highly unfavor- F medium will want to look the other way As to “The Fighting Marine” itself, it was an interesting novelty for one who didn’t believe that such s could still exist in the movies. » the silent drama in its other activities has been leaping forward through the years, film serials are still exactly as they were when Pearl White gave “The Perils of Pauline” to posterity. For every inch of pic- torial action, there are ten feet of ex- planatory sub-titles, describing at great length the story thus far. And what a story it is! GEXE TUNNEY seems like a nice boy, and I'm glad he’s the heavyweight champion of the world. But I don’t think I shall see any further installments of “The Fight- ing Marine.” By Way of Reply HEN | intimated recently that 1 might not be a mean old crab, an anonymous correspondent hast ened to give me rgument. She (I judge it was ady) accused me of cruelty to the late Rudolph Val- entino, saying, man has to die to get a good word out of you.” Turning back through the tiles of Lire, I find that I said, over five years ago, “In the leading role isa newcomer, Rudolph Valentino, who has a decided edge—both in ability and appearance—over all the stock movie heroes, from Richard Barthel- mess down. He tangoes, makes love and fights with equal grace. Both he and Alice Terry, who plays op- posite him, will be stars in their own right before long.” That was in a review of “The Four Horsemen of the Apoc: alypse,” which remains in’ my estimation the greatest of all Vs alentino’s triumphs. R. E. Sherwood. EE Recent Developments You'd Be Surprised, Raymond Grif- fith attempts an ambitious satire and succeeds in putting man of it across, The Waning Sex. I don't like pic- tures of this type at “all, in case you're interested. Hold That Lion. Douglas MacLean in a rowdy comedy of the jungle. Diplomacy. Complicated and rather dull intrigue, with missing papers, mon- ocles, etc. The Strong Man. Harry Langdon i augh if you can restrain the sobs of sympathy which he inspires. So This Is Paris. Weak work b Ernst Lubitsch, but don’t let what I say deter you from secing it. The Show-Off. Ford Sterling and Lois Wilson are really fine in this, Mare Nostrum. The low-down on the German submarines in the Mediter- ranean, directed by Rex Ingram. Battling Butler. Buster Keaton in a fast, furious and exceptionally funny comedy. Nell Gwyn. A spectacular drama of life in the Restoration period, with the alert Dorothy Gish. Don Juan. John Barrymore and sev- eral lovely ladies prove that necking was not invented by the present generation. One Minute to Play. Undergraduate pranks and heartaches at dear old Par- malce, with Red Grange doing surpris: ingly well. Ben-Hur. huge, gargantuan, quite good. Aloma of the South Seas. Gili Gray is very alluring indeed in another of those things. Mantrap. Somewhat satirical iarce @ yIvan setting, with Clara Bow to make it interesting. Beau Geste, The Scarlet Letter, The Black Pirate, Variety, Sparrows and The Big Parade. Previously recon mended. Colossal, stupendous, vast mammoth—and_ also comicbooks.com