The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-09-21
KAISER EXPOSED.
Silent celluloid Speaks Louder Thar
Words in 1.-THE Kaiser, the Beast
of Berlin"

With never a word spoken, a pow
erful patriotic appeal is going to be
heard at the Strand Theatre lex We'd
nesday. Hamlet says Murder, though
it have no tongue, will speak with
most miraculous organ,"and so speaks
the motion picture story, 1.-THE Kaiser,
the Beast of Berlin"
In the past, film shows, too often,
in their stories merely have limited at
the ena of the Prussian autocracy
to the world. They obviously have
meant Germany as the sinister plot.
ting nation fostering that menace, but
they have merely alluded to its steel
helmeted invaders as being soldiers
of a certain foreign power. 1.-THE
Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin does not
hesitate to call a Hun a Hun. There
are big scenes splendid in their action
and wonderfully realistic. The pho
Biography itself is far above the aver
age, and the acting of the highest or,
der.
The story of "The Kaiser" for the
most part, is. historically accurate. 1t
first shows Belgium before August 1,
1914, a land of peace and happiness.
Then the scenes soon shift to the Pal
ace of Potsdam, where the kaiser,
strikingly portrayed, is discovered in
all his cunning hatred and cruelty
surrounded by his fawning ministers
and aids, plotting his campaign of
world domination. The mar of Eu-
rope is shown and before it stands
the kaiser pointing the road to Paris
through neutral Belgium. '
There follows his campaign of ter
ror. Louyain is laid to waste, its wo-
men seized and the men who strive
to rescue them are not even given a
chance to fight, but often shot in the
back by Prussian soldiers. That is a
story the world has learned all too
well, so the scene shifts again.
"The Lusitania" is flashed On the
screen in big letters. The audience
sits up a bit more ~eYpectantly, but the
actual sinking of the giant liner is
not shown. However, the heart-rend-
ing tragedy is again driven homa most
wildly. The captain of the J-boat
that destroyed the Luistania is shown
being decorated by the kaiser. Plain
ly this young naval officer already is
half distracted by the monstrosity of
his own deed. Won Tirpitz, chief
sponsor for the submarine reign of
terror, stands by. "There can be no
blood upon the hand of the man who
obeys his sovereign" he tells the cap
tain. But-"There is the blood of
many women and little children" the
U-boat's commander replies in his
agony. Finally he returns home and,
being greeted by his wife and own
little ones, he goes mac from contem-
plation Of his wholesale murder by
drowning of so many other mothers
and babes.
Gerard, in "a most realistic scene,
tells the kaiser that the continued
placing of Americans in jeopardy on
the high seas will be looked upon by
the United States as being "deliber-
ately .unfriendly' on the part of Ger
many, and the climax of the picture
soon follows.
81 shall stand no nonsense from
America after this war;" the kaiser
tells Mr.. Gerard.
The American ambassador looks
at him in amazement, then is seer to
glance down at his own coat lapel,
where a small American flag is pinned.
The significance of that glance is
brought out a few scenes later, where
President Wilson and his cabinet are
seen signing the declaration of war,
Then thousands and thousands of Am
erican soldiers pass in quick review
on the screen, the United States navy
is seer in action, other nations of the
world join against the common enemy,
and the kaiser realizes his days are
numbered.