NEWS AND GOSSIP OF PLAYS HERE AND TO COME; WHAT NEWS ON THE RIALTO?
Date: 08 June 1919
THE heat of the last week played its customary hob With Cheat rical attendance, and there was no play so popular that it was not in some degree--and in many cases some ninety degrees--affected. One of the biggest successes of the season reported a drop of $400 in its ...
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WRITTEN ON THE SCREEN; IN THE NEWS NET.
Date: 08 June 1919
THE announcement that Helen Keller is soon to appear on the screen in "Deliverance" has been received with interest. George Foster Platt directed the production, which, in three episodes, shows the childhood, girlhood and womanhood of Miss Keller, setting ...
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THE SCREEN
Date: 09 June 1919
Hall Caine's "The Woman Thou Gavest Me," transferred to the screen in part by the scenario writing of Beulah Marie Dix, the directing of Hugh Ford, and the acting of a competent cast, is the photoplay at the Rivoli this week. Among those in the cast are Katherine MacDonald as Mary, the woman, Jack Holt as Lord Raa, her nominal husband; Milton Sills as Conrad, the man she loves; Theodore Roberts as Daniel MacNeill, her father; Fritzi Brunette as Alma, who attracts Lord Raa, and Katherine Griffith as Aunt Bridget.All of these persons are well and favorably identified with the screen, and each of them has contributed good work to "The Woman Thou Gavest Me," but, whatever Hall Caine's novel may be in a book, it is not strong enough to sustain its own weight as a photoplay. The weight consists of scenes heavy with emotion and ugly realities. Such scenes, to be justified, to be impressive, must have the support of clear motive and sound reason. In "The Woman Thou Gavest Me" they lack this support.But no individual seems responsible for this. Certain it is that those in the cast, so far as acting goes, are sufficient. And there is evidence that Mr. Ford's skill as a director did not foil him in the making of separate scenes. Miss Dix's dramatic continuity is at least continuous. The truth seems to be either that the available material in the novel was not adequate, or that those who co-operaed in taking the photoplay from the book saw in the original only the plot of a melodrama. And as melodrama "The Woman Thou Gavest Me" may please many. It is pretty strong stuff for melodrama, though.The story, briefly, is about a woman driven to marry a man she hates; left by her husband, she yields to the man she loves, loses him for a time, seeks to sell herself to save her baby, and finally meets the child's father by accident and is restored to happiness and prosperity. Also respectability.The Rivoli program includes the interesting Pictorial, a Mack Sennett comedy entitled "No Mother to Guide Him," and musical numbers by the orchestra and Greek Evans, baritone."The Other Man's Wife" began an indefinite run at the Park Theatre yesterday afternoon. It was directed by Carl Harbaugh, its "continuity" was written by Mary Murillo, and in its large cast are Ellen Cassidy, Stuart Holmes, George Jessel, and Evelyn Brent. It is rather confusing. There is so much in it so scattered about. Among its contents are some well-done scenes, especially those played by George Jessel, Evelyn Brent, and several others not mentioned on the program, who enact the members of a Jewish household.The story is about the experiences of a number of persons during the war, and in attempting to cover the whole war period and seeking to develop dramatic interest while it preaches or affirms the desirability of patriotism, the equality of women and men, the brotherly love of capital and labor, the breaking down of race prejudice, and other things, it gets itself pretty well lost at times."The Submarine Pirate," a Mack Sennett production featuring Syd Chaplin, brother of the better-known Charlie, is a hodge-podge of slap-stick and cutting-up, with a great deal more of the spectacular, and of the genuinely funny, too, than most of its kind. Syd Chaplin has many of his brother's characteristics as well as individual ability to make people laugh. But he is not so finished a pantomimist.In addition to the music on the Park program, there is an interesting edition of kinograms, or news pictures.After an overture, the Strand's current program offers its consistently entertaining Topical Review, and then "Wrangling Dudes," an Outing-Chester picture showing the activities on a Western ranch supposed to be run for the benefit of tourists looking for the wild and woolly. Next there is a pleasant little scene in which Ethel Newton and Richard Bold sing "Upstairs and Down" to introduce the photoplay of the same name.The photoplay, enacted principally by Olive Thomas, Robert Ellis, David Butler, Mary Charleson, Rosemary Theby, and Andrew Robson, is a screen version of Frederic and Fanny Hatton's stage play, and, with the aid of subtitles, has much of the flavor of the original for those who like it. It relates the experiences of a supposed group of fast and fashionable persons and their servants, with comic and satiric emphasis."Ice Skating," an analysis-of-motion picture, and Mack Sennett's comedy conclude the pictorial part of the program."The Knickerbocker Buckaroo," with Douglas Fairbanks, which was at the Rivoli week before last, is at the Rialto this week, accompanied by "Squared," the last comedy for which Sidney Drew acted before his death.
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