New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-10-13
Actress Soon To Be Seen
Here Is Shown in
Picture Play.
DENUNCIATION OF
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Stars of the Stage and Their
Mission in the World Of
the Movies.
BY HAYWOOD BROUN.

=
new Metro picture, entitled THE Final
Judgment" The film was produced by
the Rolfe Photoplay Company. Al
though distinctly pleasing In pictures,
We prefer the spoken version of Miss
Barrymore. Hers is charm which
is more than visual. The voice of
Miss Barrymore is missed, although
she is already a screen veteran.
The Final Judgment" makes no
great demands upon the actress, even
though she solves a murder mystery
and saves her husband from the cleo
trio chair The film has a clever in
PRODUCTION, showing Jane Carleson,
Miss Barrymore's picture part, in the
big scene Of her play.
After the play Is done the actress
receives her admirers. They are three.
Henry Strong is millionaire, and of
course that eliminates him. Hamilton
Ross Is a chemist and at least forty
years old, which naturally puts him
out of the running and leaves the field
clear to Murray Campbell, a rising
young District Attorney, who wins the
actress as a wife.
A disappointed chemist is one Of the
most peevish men in the world. Ross
discovers Il new volatile poison in Rus
STA and dstils a little for his own use.
A mean man, as we said, he sends an
anonymous letter TO Campbell warning
him that Strong is attentive to his
wife To make matters worse, he
smears the flap of the envelope with
poison. An anonymous letter writer
will do almost anything.
Through a series of circumstances
the letter is opened, not by Campbell,
but by Strong, who dies from the ef-
fects of the poison. Since the two
men had quarrelled just before the ar
rival of the letter, Campbell Is con-
victed OF murder.
In an exciting series OF episodes
| Miss Barrymore fastens the crime on
! the true culprit and saves her hus-
band. The picture confirmed US in our
belief that the screen is a much better
medium for mclodrama than the stage.
| Not only can the moving pictures keep
complicated story clear, but they
can hurry it along at a much spryer
pace than the spoken drama.
"The Final Judgment" makes one or
/ two heavy demands upon the credulity
| of the audience, but such demands are
much more readily granted 10 the film
/ than to the play, because one has less
/ time TO think them over. H. Cooper
Cliffe, who plays the part OF the viii /
/ famous chemist, is finely adapted to
/ the films and takes the honorE of tho /
/ picture play in spite of the skill OF
| Miss Barrymore. The usual order OF
things has been reversed IN the present
production. for "The Final Judgment"
/ which was written by George Scarbor-
/ ough, is to be seen later as spoken
drama.
Charlie Chaplin was not the first 10
realize the dramatic value OF custard
pie, but he has developed u. Ger
/ tainly, no one will deny that he wears
plastic pastry to more humorous I'D
vantage than any living actor 1t is
( bit of a shock, then, to find that Ia
"Shanghaed," the latest Essanay
comedy, the art of Chaplin has yetro-
graded, prandially speaking. The man
J of the minute has substituted soup for
/ pie. Fortunately his comic touch is
/ lust as firm In the softer medium.
Mr.. Chaplin also has discovered that
| il is more amusing to kick man oil n
/ shin than to kick him downstairs. Not
/ only is the fall longer, but the splash
alone is worth the difference in cost
between a staircase and a schooner. in
/ addition to messing about in soup ard
/ impelling persons overheard with elther
/ foot. Chaplin in his new picture deals
/ in the effects which pork is calculated
/ 10 produce upon travellers at sea. Tho
| vulgarity of the Chaplin pictures can
/ not be denied. They are altogethe.
/ lacking in subtlety and their appeal
| must be directed toward low order OF
/ intelligence. They are scathlnB IN
/ dictment of public taste, these Chaplin
/ pictures, and that Is why we blush Tor
shame in confessing that we laugh our
/ head off whenever we see one
To see Mary Pickford at the Broad
way Theatre this week in the Famous
| PLAYERS film "A Girl Of Yesterday" is
/ TO appreciate the fact that there IS sucn
a thing as film technique. Picture pro-
/ ducers who profess TO hnd great arts
tic possibilities in movies" belle their
own words, we think, by their policy Of
/ taking stars from the legitimate stage
/ and putting them into pictures without
any preliminary training.
If Tom, Dick and Harry from the
theatre can make picture actor al
minutes notice there is no art IN
movie" making. As matter OF fact'
Tom, Dick and Harry are CANDLES IN
the picture world. Now and again an
actor-as, for instance, Douglas falr-
banks. In "The Lamb"-makes a big
success in his first picture play, but ior
every Fairbanks there are ten other
stars of the theatre who have failed TO
achieve anything like the best POSI-
bilities of the moving picture play
A good actor, Of course, has had some
OF the training necessary for pictures,
but We contend that only IN rare IN
stances can he hope TO equal the WORK
Of the man who has made business OF
playing before the camera.
The best comedy work we have ever
seen in moving pictures was done by
Sidney Drew in film by Richard Hard
ing Davis called Playing Dead IRAN
els Y. Bushman is much better equipped
10 play romantic roles for the screen
than any actor Of the regular stage, no
matter how great his reputation may
be, and. in our opinion, no Coincidence
unframed in picture work could hope 70
realize anything like the possibilities
which Mary Pickford makes actualities
in "a Girl Of Yesterday"
Not few stars come before the cam
era with the belief that there is no
subtlety in moving pictures. They play
only for big effects. We confess 70
belief that shading is even more essen
tial for the screen than the stage. Mary
pickford is able, for instance, TO anuse
Won simply by the way she takes off
Ter hat. because she has devoted her
self 10 study of the eloquence OF
gesture. Actors who have relied on the
voice for effects can't begin 70 realize
how much can be said with an eye or
an arm, or a shoulder. For our part, we
like picture plays by picture people
limited States Trust Buster Marries.
Snecial Assistant United States At
torney Claude A. Thompson, OF me
- .s,a.s. ~