New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-17
"Peer Gynt" Put on the
Screen with Huge
Success.
THRILL UPON THRILL
IN PICTURE PLAY
Cyril Maude Gives Test to Part
Which Calls for Many
Stunts.
By HAYWOOD BROUN.

My book IS poetry sam H'"i 81"
rbsen when he finished. peer Gynt,'
"and if it Is not. tnen 1t will be-
SO much Of the future the Norwegian
saw, but the film fate OF the droma
was beyond his vision. The hand OF
Ibsen now clasps the foot of Charley
Chaplin.
peer Gynt" was screened yesterday
at the Broadway Theatre IN a private
performance. and the film will be put
| on exhibition for all Corners beginning
next Sunday. Cyril Maude, better
known AS Grumpy, is the Peer of the
! play.
Strangely enough, this, one Of the
first OF Ibsen's plays TO reach the
screen, is drama which has puzzled
! the scholars more than any other. per-
haps. George Brandes found Its lat
ter part scarcely comprehensible, and
Clemens Petersen thought it full OF
riddles which are insoluble."
There are no riddles in the film. The
camera has clarified everything Go
roundabout" was the command which
ever haunted Peer of the play, but that
is not the motto of Peer Of the picture.
Slam bang, and straight through thick
end thin, like Harvard halfback in a
Yale football game. goes the movie
Gynt. And this is in quite the right
spirit. With all it's symbolism and its
satire "Peer Gynt" ~ first of all a
dramatic romance. and it contains more
action than Hector IurnbulPs "0ut Of
Darkness" or any other popular pict-
ure play we have seen.
The action comes through 10 the
screen, all of il and more. but practically
! all the satire and most of the symbolism
are left behind. No matter. lbsen him
| self rebuked those who tried 10 dig
/ into his play in an effort to expose
more than lay on the surface.
| Speed is a dominant quality OF the
! play. The reader is rushed along like
/ Peer on the back Of his reindeer. Pict-
ures accelerate the pace. Added to the
breakneck ride along the mountainside.
there is fight with a blacksmith, an
abduction of bride from a wedding,
a pistol duel, a knife-to-knife struggle
between trapper and an Indian in
! the middle of a lake, two shipwrecks
and a little affair with n lion, not to
mention an escape from slave ship.
Yes, there is action enough in Peer
I Gynt" to satisfy any moving picture
| fan. lbsen should not receive credit
for all the action. Although we have
searched from cover to cover we cannot
| find the incident of the trapper and the
Indian. the pistol duel or the escape
/ from the slave ship. Nor do we think
/ it was Ibsen who suggested the close
up, in which the lovely lady winked.
But the dramatist was a busy man. II
may be said for him that without doubt
/ he would have included all these
/ things If he had thought of them.
] ftA, he al 10
not very clear in the picture form. A
person who does not know peer Gynt'
! will be puzzled, we think, by the scene
in the hall of the trolls. There is nc
fundamental difficulty in making the
scene clear, and in particular we felt
that the very dramatic moment when
the king offers to clarity Peers sight
I by cutting out his eyes was not dwelt
on sufficiently. Perhaps we underesti-
mate that wonderful "movie" mind OF
/ the average spectator which makes II
possible for him to grasp IN ten sec
onds that which would require halt
scene in the spoken drama. q,
1 At any rate, no great complaint need
/ be made if this or that point in the
| picture of peer Gynt" is obscure, for
! long before n body can begin to rack
/ his brain along comes something else
to district his attention. One me
scene. the battle between Peer and the
voice. has been wisely omitted, and the
death of Ase loses much through want
of dialogue.
Cvril Maude. the star, is not pct
ure veteran. but his talents seem to be
equally available for screen or stage
His Peer is remarkable piece or work
artisticalIv and physically, too, Tor
that matter. One cannot help BENG
inst a little startled to see the man who
totters through Grumpy at the Empire
| Theatre every night carry medluhl
sized moving picture actress up
mountainside and dive head foremost
from the deck of schooner. Maude
must have rejoiced in the part, since 1t
gave him so much opportunity to IN
dulge in his favorte sport OF making
I'M. He WAS as young a Peer as any.
body could wish at the beginning OF
tho nlay. and at the end he was we'll
nigh as gray as Grumpy. AS slave
trader he raised mustache and goatee,
and there were all sorts of gradatlonS
in age.
Fanny Stockbridge is an excellent
Ase and MYRTLE Stedman is pleasing as
Solvcic. Charles Ruggles, the funny
man of Rolling Stones" plays the put
ton maker with much skill, and each OF
the many women whom Peer loves IS
amply beautiful.
poor OF the pictures is calculated 70
rIease those who think, but there lsnf
anv reason in the world why an Anltra
With empty forehead vault cannon
like Il Just as well.