New-York tribune., 1918-05-08
Drama
Remarks on a Western
Movie and Some Pictures
About Birds
By Haywood Broun
rsons who never go to the movies

BY Haywood Broun
Persons who never go to the movies
and there are still surprising number
of them-might we'll begin by seeing
"Playing the Game" at the Rialto The
atre this week. 1t is a movie melo-
drama Of cowboys and bandits and such
like, and it seems to US indisputable that
the screen is far superior to the stage
as medium for stories of this sort. OF
course, the West has been desperately
hard used by the movie men, but there
is still life in it. The picture which we
| recommend marks no innovation in the
field, and the plot in which the young
waster from the East makes good on
the Bar X, K. @ or other alphabetical
! ranch has been used number Of times.
playing the Came" however, tells the
story with charm and skill: 1t pos
sesscs a pace which would be impos-
sible on the stage, and, of course, the
characters fight all over the landscape
Yet never is fight or holdup or bit of
trick riding allowed to continue sec
ond beyond the moment when the action
begins to lose interest. The love scenes,
though efficient enough, shoot by as
fast as galloping cowboys. This is we'll.
There is no need of spending much time
on the love interest in such picture,
since everybody knows that the mill
lonalre hero, who is pretending to be a
common cowboy, will marry the heroine
IN the end right enough. Or give her a
good case for breach of promise. at any
rate.
Charles Ray is the hero of this lively
and amusing picture, and he seems to
US to be in the front rank of film
Juveniles He is perhaps little less
humorous than Douglas Fairbanks and
not quite his equal as a performer of
stunts, but, on the other hand, Ray is
almost free from aggressive manner
isms. He is easy and agreeable and
not good looking enough to be often
sive.
We hold no brief for the ethics of
these pictures in which wild young
mlllionaires reform on ranches. 1t is
true that they always reform, but they
seem to have mighty good time in
the gilded cafes of the East first, and
or two in Arizona to get back into
shape. By the way, one radical change
seems to have become firmly estab-
llshed in the movies. Time was when
stage and screen invariably picked
their dissolute heroes from New Haven
Now they all come from Cambridge.
Maybe it has something to do with the
new subway, which takes a student
from Harvard Square to Boston in
eight minutes.
The men who run the big movie
houses of New York undoubtedly know
their business, for the theatres are al
ways crowded. Moreover. nobody can
deny that the varied performance
which they. present, with pictures and
singers and orchestral music is fine
return on an admission investment, but
we never cease to wonder which part
OF the audience comes to see the travel
and educational pictures. Last night,
TOR instance. there were several min
utes of waterfalls in Spain, and we
must admit that they left US very cold.
We could see no fundamental differ
cnce between the one called Diana
and another known to the Castilians
as the Horses Tail. Waterfalls seem
to run slngularly true to type.
nature as shown on the screen never
m, makes 8 particularly strong appeal to
US; Some little time after the water
falls there were birds in colors. There
are never any surprises in such pict-
ures. When the preliminary CAPTION
announces the Red-headed Amidine he
turns out to be just as red-headed as
advertised. Likewise the bird called
The Dotted Monk" proves to have
black and white spots on his stomach.
AS a matter of fact, the only thing we
learned was that one specimen of bird
among a group designated as "Small
Birds of Warm Climates" "keeps its
feathers in excellent condition bv
preenlng." We can't use that to anv
good effect just yet because we've for.
gotten just which bird that was.
The selection of subjects for toni
cal weekly usually displays the broad
est interests After the Anzacs or the
Blue Devils or the Pershing soldiers
sweep by along will come an exhibit
tlon of blooded cattle some place or
other, and as like as not the launch
ing of ship will be followed bv
"Weighing $4,000 babies in Cambridge
in week" This last commands uni
versal interest, of course, but for our
part we don't see how $4,000 could
possibly be weighed in a week. We
understand that it takes an entire
morning to weigh one. The system is
complicated. First he is weighed with
his clothes on and then with his
clothes off. Then the clothes are ire
weighed and the result divided by
three. We hope that's right. The
whole thing is more or less quixotic,
because it always figures out that he
has gained two and half pounds
since the last Sunday or something
like that which can't be so. and it
usually gets down to people saying,
"Well, he seems a lot heavier when
you pick him up" However, Cam
bridge has got perfect right to weigh