The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1915-05-15

passes Even Her Own
Great Genius, in William
Fox's Production Gamma
/ Karenina."
The second of the great Betty
Nansen, made IN America series
now being filmed for the Fox Film
Corporation; William Fox, presi.
dent, shows Miss NaDsen IN A
more powerful Characterization
than any IN which she has hereto
fore been i'll this country, or in
Europe. Anna Karenina, Count
Leo Tolstoi's masterful analysis
of woman's soul, affords Miss
NaDseD a far greater Opportunlty y
than did even "The Celebrated
Scandal" to display to the full her
! wonderful dramatic gifts. OF
the part itself Miss Nensen says:
"Anna IS one of those women
who are preordaiped to lead lives
that prove and try tLem as in sa
CRITICAL fires. She has been mis-
judged in much of the cOntrover-
sial storm that has ragged about
Tolstoi's book. Being Anna Kar
emma che could not have done
other than what she actually did
Had she trOdden the straight and
narrow path prescribed by con-
ventioD, she would not have been
Anna.
"Surrounded by the oppressive
gloom and grandeur of a high
Russian officials home, restricted
in her very natural impulse. all
her affectionate advances checked
by her iron willed, impassive hus
band. a woman like Anna would
naturally do as she did. Seek
consolation elsewhere. And let
me remark here that women in the
position of Anna are by no means
so uncommon as may be supposed.
To each of them there is bound to
i come some day a "Pfince Wr0n
sky" What happens then de-
peDds upon the woman. Ii she
has great moral strength in re.
serve, not even her misery will
permit her to weaken in her
marriage vows. Her heart may
break, bat she will remain nn
flinchingly true to the moral
standard demanded by modern SO.
clety.
"But suppose she is 'an Annai
What theni She will endure
struggles, long solitary vigils but,
at last, she will yield, because she
believes that happiness is the Dl
innate end of existence. And,
with her yielding, comes the be
ginning of the end 1t is as inev
liable as a Greek tragedy. Such
an equation always works out in
the same way.
First comes GOODNESS between
the erring couple. If, as was the
case with Anna, the guilty woman
has left child behind her when
she was driven from her home,
that complicates the case. No
matter how low a woman may
sink, the maternal instinct will
still maintain the ascendent. In
Annals case it is Wronsky who
tires first. He is not particularly
brutal; but Anna sees and knows
the symptoms Of his waning love.
ssThen one day Wronsky Is
gone. Alone in the midst of the
collapsed ruins of the happiness
she promised herself, Anna sees,
too late. the fearful mistake she
has made But even then she
does not realize the penalty. that
she is to pay. She still cherishes
hope that perhaps, now that she
Is broken aud hnmbled, her hus-
band will allow her, once more, a
place at his fireside; will let her
take the child for whom she yearns
ID her arms.
.sBut she is mistaken. Al
though his great heart is break
ing in silence, Karenina is out
wardly as cold as ever. Harshly
he orders the wretched woman,
who has come to abase herself
and seek forgiveness, from his
house. 1t is the old story OF the
woman paying. And pay Anna
does. With her love for her
child eating her heart ont, she
drags through her drab miserable
days. Time and again she seeks
Karenina's forgiveness, but he ia