New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-02


however she may fail us in the re-
ligious ectasies of Joan or even in
the pseudo ectasies of a serpentine ad-
ventures de luxe, such as many peo-
pie admire her in so much, for us she
never fails in the fullness and genuine
ness of personal feeling. She shows
us the soul of that unhappy girl with
a sober sensitiveness and simplicity
which hold a light that reveals with
out glare or dazzle, and if she finally
RECEIVERS the temperamental Farrar
splendor, it is only to put it to the
gravest uses, to vigorous, a somehow
classic naturalism like the still vigor Of
statue so that when, in the rusty
has been driving her across the prairie
20 a new life of his fashioning, she
stands above the body she has just
struck dead and takes the rcins into
her own hands to drive whore she will,
the movement is not only as bold but
as fine as that in which Lucreta lifts
her knife
We ask ourselves, then, why "The
He'll Cat is not perfect picture in
the sense in which Maria Rosa" was
a perfect picture. But we have only to
remember Maria Rosa" trimming
like legend with the wine of an emo
ton into which every richness had been
prodigally compressed to realize that
"The He'll Cat" failed to grow to it's
full stature simply for lack of nourish-
ment. Except the heroine herself,
there is not single character whom
the author has enriched with any
human identity or upon whom he has
spent two cents worth of work or feel
ing. He has had fine situation, he has
had magnificent notion for prespec-
tive, historical and scenic, and he has
also had a capital though wholly irrele-
want title. These three separate keys he
mas hung together on a key-ring and
tossed Tor the director to catch without
being at the trouble to offer them his
own almost unrivalled gifts Of dramatic
and humorous characterization and Of
truly welding fire. There are, however,
people from whom we have had so much
that our greed can never cease to ex-
pect more, and we continue to long for
real scenario of Willard Mack's when
ever he shall have brought himself to
take the time for it.
After heroines so opposed in their
claims on sympathy it remained for us
only to see how Theda Bara and 1.-THE
She Devil" would claim it. Bot it re-
manned for Theda Bara and "IHhe She
Devil" to play US a strange trick; they
didn't claim it at all
For never devil lived so self-suffi
Gent as she who fled before us through
those reels of mock romance, mock
comedy, mock sentiment, but in enter
tainment and amazement as genuine
as day. We are often enchanted at the
movies, out rarely surprised. The sur
prise of THE She Devil" lies in its
apparent carelessness to the enchant-
ment which it weaves merely by pur~
suing the laws of its own outrageous
but agreeable being through world
which is like golden afternoon For
+ we had cast but one glance at the cot
tage on the crag when we knew we had
left prohibition and the settlements of
/ shipping boards far behind; teat we
eXuberant as cakewalk and as non
sensical as though mad hatters and
March hares and purple cows we're its
best voters, an extravaganza engla-
incurred by 4 photography fairer thar
morning that shines upon q country all
cliffs and vineyards and stage coach
roads and castles in Spain. 1t was
that photography which kept from oul
lips the phrase comic opera" fol
comic opera could indeed have giver
Us the dancing plot, the diyertinf
titles, but never that bloom of light
in which summer wraps the shapes OF
mountains And we thought: OTIS I
, fairy tale! No, comedy. It's 70
nance Why, of course-it's a plea
rescue farce" And we have since
, looked up picturesque" in the diction
airy and found ourselves even righte,
than we had known.
> For you understand that the Sh
, Devil is no lady. What she is may b
Z most fatteringly stated by calling he
: Carmen a la Marguerite Clark. She i
e brave and wicked butterfly, hum
ming bird more tenacious than Sata
himself, at sight of whom she woul'
r probably burst into prayer; 1T is wit
the most childish grace in the worl
G Shat she pursues the lover she desire
and captures him and--we we're abou
- 20 say eats him, with remorseless
4 ness as engaging and ridiculous a
:, that with which she betrays and rob
= and fights the brigand, the peasant!
ii the Parisians, the lovers who desir
r her.
" The picture carries these adventure
= on it's light, swift tide as streal
(, carries a boat, and some day we ar
Y going to ask j. Gordon Edwards VIII
e directed it, just how heavy haul {