The Washington times., 1914-11-11
4 THE BEST
fPhotoplay Department in
WASHINGTON
Combine Screen and
Stage in Ne70est
of New York
MelOdrdmdS

The first serious attempt to COM
bine the motion picture with
the stage play has been the
production of the big melodrama,
Life at the Manhattan Opera
House in New York. The play has
been greeted by the New York critics
as one of the biggest things that has
ever been done on the stage. The
play deals with a conventional melo-
dramatic subject. 1t is necessary to
bring in number of big scenes, such
as a boat race, an escape from prls-
on and the chase of the guards after
the escaped prisoner. These things
are ordinarily simply suggested on
the stage With the help of the mo
ton picture the action is carried on
continuously. When the limitations
of the stage are reached. the story
jumps to the film and is continued
there until such time as it can again
come back to the STAGE when the
return is made.
The use Of the pictures is still in
the experimental stage, and much
must be done to perfect the manner
in which the changes are made from
stage to screen and back again. In
the opinion of some reviewers the
film seemed secondary, and the
screen was used, according to these
critics, only for such time as the
stage hands required to set up es-
pecially big scenes.
A brief resume of the story of the
play gives an idea of the opportuni-
ties that present themselves for good
moving pictures, opportunities which
were realized to their full advantage.
The story is a connected, thrilling
tale of conspiracy and crime, pitted
against clean, young manhood, that
is really carried out and developed
logically. The hero, Bill Reed,
stroke" of the victorious Yale crew.
and Miss Stuyvesant, millionairess,
fall in love at first sight. The villain,
in her fathers business, contrives to
have Bill charged with theft, defal-
cation, and finally murder, for which
he is actually sentenced to death in
Sing Sing. OF course, the villain
really killed the good old man, and
of course. there was a man behind
the curtain who saw the crime, but
the villain murdered the witness
right i'm front of St. Patrick's Cathe-
dral on Fifth avenue on Christmas
evening This produced a scene sell
dom equaled on the stage. when a
priest took the dying mans confess
sion right on the stage.
But, alas, death came too soon to
permit the man to clear "Bill" Reed;
the confession was not completed,
and in a flash the moving picture
machine revealed "Bill'' in the death
house at Sing Sing, marking an
other day off the calendar that rep
resented his span of life. Then came
the escape from Sing Sing, realistic
and hair-raising, presenting the first
real human detective ever seen on
the stage. Bull Anderson, VINO
had sent Bill up, realized his mis-
take. and 1t was he who engineered
the delivery.
Probably the most wonderful
scenic effect ever produced on the
stage was presented in the race for
life at seventy miles an hour IN
autos. The car in which Bill Reed
and his wife are fleeing is shown on
the stage, going so fast that the au-
dience can hardly breathe. Then
comes the onrushing car of the pur-
suers. Shots arc fired and just
when il seems that the officers viii
oyertake the prisoner, the pursuing
car strikes a tree and is smashed TO
smithcreens This auto race scene IS
the greatest in this greatest OF all
melodramas. The boat race IN Whlch
Yale and Harvard crews are SHOWN
in actual contest, right on the stage