New-York tribune., 1918-12-23
On the Screen

me further we went yesterday tho
more enthusiastic we became, for the
Christmas programmes at the motion
picture theatres are simply stupendous.
r'rst we stopped in the Broadway
lheatrc and saw "The Heart of HUI
mahity,' and then we shut our ewes
ana ran past the Rialto, where Mar
e"'e' clark Is appearing in Little Miss
i'orher,' because we aren't going to see
mat until tonight, and then we went
up TO the Strand and saw "The Greatest
Ihlng in Life" and from there to the
h'Voil' whore ALA Nazimova is hurl-
ing herself through eye for Eye"
here at least is one part which does
not Call for repression, the lack of
which we have found at times irving
IN Nazlmova's screen portrayals.
Eye for Eye" is taken from Henry
hlstenmaeckcr's "L'Occident" and it
was directed by Albert Capejlani. which
IN part accounts for it's excellence
Nazlmova Is cast as Hassouna, q
bedouln girl belonging to the fierce
tribe called Two Roses. She is the
wild creature of the desert every mo-
ment, and some of her scenes are so
daring that they make the more con-
vcntional gasp.
Sharies Bryant is Captain de Cadiere,
French naval officer, who ia captured d
py the Arabs and freed by Hassouna.
OF thls aiding of a foreign God she is
condemned to die, but is rescued. from
livng grave, only to be sold to a
travelllng ciicus as a dancing girl.
ne scene which thrilled us so that
we, we wanted to spring up and shout
11h hliah Is great" was the one where
tHtaSSsouna throws the dagger between
Cadlere's wife and her lover. And.
best of all, the ending is not what vou
expect. Lack of space prevents us
from making this review complete, but
we must speak of the beauty of the
desert scenes and the realism of the
scenes IN the Orient.
IN the cast are Donald Gallagher.
sally, Crute, f. L. Fernandez, Hardee
kirkland and others
=, Hugo Riesenfeld has written a
Christmas fantasy which is beautifully
done 1t shows a boy and girl asleep
IN front of an open fireplace, from
which Santa Claus emerges with two
nuge boxes containing dolls which
dance. The dolls are pupils of Luigi
Albertieri. John Wenger designed the
setting
The comedy is Mutt and jeff in "A
Lot Of Bull"
The Rialto male quartet sang "Noel"
and Ring Out, Sweet Bells Of Peace"
The overture is the wonderful ballet
music from "The Queen of Sheba,"
The picture at the Strand is a Grif-
fifth war picture, not unlike his two
recent pictures, "The Great Love" and
"Hearts Of the World" in its theme
and in its treatment, but the charac-
ters are quite different. One may trust
Griffith for that. He is always con-
ceiving new people for us to smile at
and with, people who are so real and
so human that We feel as though we
had known them always.
Lillian Gish and Robert. Harron are
the boy and the girl. but they are not
at all like any of Mr.. Griffith's other
boys and girls. Lillian proves that she
is a great deal of a comedian, and she
plays her part with all of the niceness
and the daintiness which are hers. She
~
whose father owns a cigar store in
Greenwich Village. to which comes Ed
ward Livingston from Washington
Square. Edward has never been able
to find any men who he thinks are
noble enough to associate with himself,
and so ne is rather alone in the world.
But along comes the war, and per-
haps it is, as Mary Nash says, chance
to make men out of people. At any
rate, it made man out Of Edward and
Jeanette finds that not only did he
look like her ideal, but that he was
her ideal. Most Of the scenes are laid
in France during the war.
Adolphe Lestina does good work as
Leo Perev, the father, and David Butler
is excellent as M. lie Bebe, funny
Frenchman who is elevated to the rank
of hero by the war. "The Greatest
Thing in Life" is a delightful picture,
filled with delightful people.
There is most pretentious Christ
mas extravaganza called "The Revolt
Of the Toymakers," in two scenes. The
first is the home Of St. Nicholas in the
woods and the second the palace of the
comedy, something like "Babes in Toy
land" and is perfectly fascinating,
whether you be five or ffty-fve.
The overture is Barratt's "Christmas
Morning. Carl Edouarde conducting.
"The Heart Of Humanity" at ths
Broadway is GOOD picture. In fact,
it is almost a great picture, and the
war scenes are the best we have seen
in a long time.
Dorothy Phillips is the star. She
plays Nanette, French Canadian girl,
who, on the day Of her wedding is
asked to give her husband to the army,
which has been summoned away to the
great war.
Miss Phillips does as i1ne work right
here as we ever have seen done on the
screen. There Is a sincerity, a sweet
ness and gentleness about her that
is most satisfying, and her wonder
fully expressive face is very lovely.
She Is not like anybody else. Marga-
ret Mann does splendid work, too, as
the mother of five sons whom she
scnds to war.
We wish we knew the names Of
those sons, for their parts were all so
we'll done, but there were no pro-
grammes. One of them, we know, is