Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-01

Three hours of beauty and emotion; the
finest stagings of battle scenes yet ac-
compished; the most poetic handling OF
nature and man in the large; the biggest
'thrlll' on Broadway-that is the monster
photoplay. THE Birth of n Nation"
Not the least marvellous thing about
"The Birth of n Nation" is that It sue
ceeds in putting over" at last Thomas
Dixon's "Clansman." Mr.. Griffith,
Southerner himself, has kept the thesis
of the book a picture OF the sufferlngs of
the South under the atrocities of recon-
struction. But he has so ennobled It pic
torically and so massed the whole strug-
gle of the Civil War about 1t that the
result achieves a dignity and interest that
Mr.. Dixon is not at all responsible for.
NThe story Is as romantic and impos-
slble as in the book. The Northern cou-
sins meet the Southern cousins before
war breaks out and acquire attachments
both friendly and sentimental. The boys,
two pairs of them, meet on the battlefield.
The men and women, two more pairs fall
in love and wed. But all this common
place romance is driven into the back
ground by the power and terror of the
scenes of war.
After preliminary views of tho South
Carolina town of Piedmont, resting in the
sot, leaf-hecked light of the rosy days
behre the war, the film throws us bodily
into the most remarkable battle scenes
eVet staged. One shows us the taking
anH burning of Atlanta, swinging the
Nsion of the lense from a ruined noun
tin shack down 1O-mile valley of
.. ferman's charging army, to the fame
liked streets of the city. Still more re-
rhrkable is the final battle where the
clsins meet. The camera shows alter
naly the battling trenches of the oppos-
inlarmies and the sweep of the rebels
spss another great valley, taking line
ter line of entrenchments, and falling
tho last man as THE Little Colonel"
ANS the flag of Lis State down the
moking cannon in Federal breech.
The handling of crowds-1s0O0, the man
agement tells us; and 1t looks fully as
many-is marvellous. The intensity and
yet the clocklike and perfect pre- cision;
the sweep of the armies and mobs, and
yet the myriad individual detail of fall
ing men. stricken horses, bursting shells!
The acting-never obtrusive, always per-
feet, even when Lincoln, Grant and Lee
are on the screen-is a thing to admire
for itself. But 1t fades before the han
ding of mass In the last act, devoted
mainly to the vengeance of the Ku Klux
Klan, the white array of the marshaled
and then whrl past at the charge is only
final proof of the wonderful art that
lies before the cinematograph in the
creation Of scenes of sweeping stirring
beauty
Changes in KriteriOn
A complete reorganization has been ef-
fected in the Kriterlon Film Corporation
The former officers have been supplanted
and complete new policy instituted.
A. Nj. Kennedy. who has been long
known to the motion picture business as
n man of the initiative, supplants j.
Auchincloss as president A. B. Graham
Is now treasurer. succeeding c. Whitmore.
While the kriterlon under the old regime
had enjoyed splendid success, II Is ex-
pected that with man at the head who |
is as thoroughly familiar with every
angle of the business as is Mr.. Kennedy, |
and with his broad experience in the ex-
ecutive end of the game. 1t will propser
even better than 1t has in the past.
About Mary Pickford
There is an unconhrmed rumor in the |
film world that Mary Pickford will leave |
her present employers and appear under |
the emblem of the Fox Film Corporation. |
IL was impossible to substantiate this |
report either in this city or in New York. !
There have been no Pickford releases for |
the last two months. and the curiosity |
for this Photographic silence on the part |
of the producers,
Answers to Correspondents
JOE KEENAN-Charles Chaplin was
not injured. a broker named Chaplin
was hurt in an automobile accident In
Los Angeles not long ago and 1t is
thought that this is what started the ru-
mors OF chaplin's death. He was born
In England.
aRAcE-cannOt reply to first question:
CHTT,DR EN'