Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-28
DOlVS 50 POPULAR
! WITH PHOTOPLAYERS!
|lton Sills, H. B. Warner and
Others Languish Behind
Penal Bars
HONOR SYSTEM" is GREAT
BY the Photoplay Editor

BY the Photoplay Editor
4 <1<ANf.Ey-....'rhe Honor system," Eox. witt
&!lton si,ls and Miriam Cooper story an, an,
81 " pal Cawson.
<< After calm. the storm after tedium In
* lDrest: after the lame duck" movies of thu
NG weeks. ''The Honor System" 1t Is 9
4 10 melodrama, this Honor System"-melo
4 rama because II has hero, heroine. vii
\ hiness and villain: big because 1t unite'
.Duspense, preachment, plastic art and gooc
Qetlng. BY all odds II is the most sus
+ thinedly fascinating picture play since In
0olerance." Into Its making have gone great
Western spaces, fine little touches. senti-
Wents bright as swords, sudden and eager
Uoauty OF face and tint and landscape. The
dpectator who can take his eyes from the
,ncrsen during these two and half hours
Achs proper optical keenness or sense OF
1he human. II Is disputed point whether
nAotcplay must not always be melodra-
ouatic. II so. we prefer TO have 1t like The
Qoner System" rather than the pure
penny dreadfuls." In the former. though
Uome roles are black and bad and others
white and good. there is a delicate grada-
\ zion OF character, nice appreciation of
Inference. a discarding of haclcNeyed types.
The vampire is a genuine woman, moro in
6olent and moralless than richly Rbed and
1urid. The hero is a chap OF good average
character thrust into a helish predicament.
. sort Of Arizona version of Galsworthy's
ssJustice" The corruptness of the Senator
Denies no actuality The heroine is poetic
pretty and suggestive of purity without
mawkishness. Even that familiar friend. the
sheriff Is made individual and convincing.
All this humanization OF common movie
standards Is unusual and gratifying. But
20 such merit the director has added with
perfect effect the wild existence of border
towns near Mexico. the simple lovelness OF
,,,1 3 sVl,a ausIt Lett ~
sIifsrs" in old-tlme prisons. touching each
sort of locale and incident to issues of law
lossness, cloistered calm or tragic solitude
BY means of closeup, panorama, iris and all
the expedicnts of the craft. Though pal
pably written and produced under the in
nuence of Griffith. The Honor System"
does not shame the master, but only reflects
credit on the pupil. It's propaganda is real
and tender when not biting and scornful.
It's simple plot is justified a thousandfold
BY the treatment. Its detail is intelligent
It's technique above criticism. The best bit
Of acting is that of Gladys Brockwell as
the lazy harpy of the dance hall. Milton
9ills too reserved a man for so emotional
3 medium as the cinema, nevertheless finally
suggests the desired character of the i'm
prisoned hefo. Miriam Cooper and Char
lotte Clary are well fitted with other roles.
Man." Sheriff.. with II. b.
Scenario by Anthony =. Kelly. Directed by
George irving. Photographed by William
Reinhart.
Stone walls may not a prison make. but
they do constitute vital factor in the man.
ufacture of movies Warner gets into Jail
for about one-fifth the time Milton Slls
spends there but the whole point Of Gods
Man Is the link between that New York
way that leadeth to destruction" and the
cell The author has tried to put over a
htehh fhan hat t.,,t pat
much of his talk about philosophy, Metz
oche. "the eternal why" and the rest of
The Washington Square chit-chat comes out
visibly. Largely this is due to the treat
ment, which Is abrupt overloaded with
"new thought" and slang of "the elite UNI
derworld," as the billboards put it, and
weak on continuity and acting. The story
- not without interest. Even in its current
form u Is entirely too long. Casual photo
playgoers will accept much of it because it
gives Warner chance to be manly and
UNAFFECTED. and because emphasis put upon
the lure of the city" But the tutored
eye is quick to catch such absurdities
(small ns they are) as an "heir apparent"
20 an ecclesiastical seat, a city editor order
ing a two-column head on scandal story
before 1t has broken" and the usual over
heated attacks on electrc-light ads, the
yipping evil and the cruelty of employers
Once these were good cry. but n some
what reiterated cry today. But Warner is
dne; he always Is. And at one point the
Droducer has struck new note In lighting
by the use of vari-colored tints thrown on
q dancer.
VICTORIA THE Silent Witness -Four.
seuars, with Gertrude Mccoy Story, by Otto
D. W. Gobbett "
The Victoria evidently considers this
feature rather joke. Else why put Miss
4cCoy's name in shouting type under a cut
OF Kathlyn Williams on the neat program
Founced on the play of the same name,
the production has no positive faults. and
positively no surprises For when you show
. closeup of corpuscles at the first revolu.
tion Of the projection machine 1t will take
= pretty dull fellow not to forecast the
wind-up. Miss Mccoy. who used to be a
great Edison favorite, appears in about
100 Of the 700 feet of film, the rest being
devoted to the apparent murder of an
onemy by her son, court proceedings and
Do FORTH The picture suggests the good old
days In everything but plot-tensity and ex-
pert treatment. 1t is an amiable melo-
drama rather In need of some of the COR
puscles 1t discusses.
y This Is the last week of "Redemption"
1t the Forrest and The Crisis" at the Car
rick The Palaces bill is headed by "The
Lone Wolf" The Girl Without a Soul"
u at the Regent, while the Strand is snow.
lng Down to Earth" already reviewed ir
mis- newspaper
Platinum Beauties-Cross Keys