New-York tribune., 1919-09-21
Young Actor Does Some
Convincing Work i'll His
First Stellar Role and
Is s'The Perfect Lover"
By Virginia Tracy

A I DE Luxe Annie" when the young
crook had turned sorrowfully from,
his lost love, we heard woman re
mark-such wiselooking, stout, gray
woman: Yes, but when they have
him for star he'll take just the same
parts everybody takes and III know
beforehand that he'll marry her and
everything III turn out all right and
shan't care what becomes of him!" 1t
was an actor, on the other hand, who
once quite casually observed: "What
/ want is to get in all the good parts
l can before they star me, because, of
course, after that I'll never do much of
anything"
Oh, those heroes. patterns Of virtue
or blameless victims of fate, who must
never know an impulse which might
lose sympathy for that expensive prop
osition, the star. AS if sympathy
were gained by being always in the
right, by Sir Charles Grandson and
not by Vatican and Othello! We long
dallied with the nudge we meant to
give the mysterious and guilty they"
indicating criticism from two such diff
ferent sources. We dallied and we
have lost our chance. We are obliged
to advise the old lady that "The Per-
feet Lover" in which has been fulfilled
the threat of stardom she saw hang
do exactly the reverse of lessening her
interest in his fate, nor can we offer
it to our ambitious friend as any
reason whatever for declining offers Of
advancement. AS q matter of fact, in
no previous picture has Mr. O'Brien
even begun to have the opportunity
which his first starring vehicle affords
him, nor in any picture, to our mind,
has he handled his opportunity with
anything like so finished and yet so
individual a result.
Title Does Not Describe Picture
Brian Lazar, the hero of "The Per-
feet Lover" is not a part such as every
body takes. Nor, even though it is
he himself who, By a we'll established
convention of romance, sits down be-
us the events leading up to it, do we
ever. until the very last moment
know whether everything turns out
ali right. We entirely agree with our
cid lady that this is singular quality,
even in so novel and curious. so
genuinely distinguished picture.
In order to get at this picture the
first place TO get is away from the
title. The title is beautiful III one
sense and the picture is beautiful in
another, but this is their only claim
to union, and, strange as it may seem,
they continue to pull different ways.
ii we could invent a single word
equivalent to The Adventures of
Genius on It's Way Through the
World"--a word of which one syllable
should convey, "And the Devil Take the
Women.-All but One. that accom-
modating word would be "The Perfect
Lovers" perfect title. Not that we
should go quite so far as that subtitle
which makes Lazar remark to the
labyrinthine vampire Lucille Lee Stew
art plays so admirably and sgnif-
cantly, "You and / know tha. there is
nothing wrong between US" as II he
were inviting the censor to come in
and sit down. There is .ove enough in
the picture, heaven knows; love false,
fair, foul, true; the world and the
devil maids and wives, Offering love
for all their lives. But tho love which
is its brain and backbcrc and life and
soul, d mans eve for doing the wori,
that he was born t. do, is TIE last
thing suggested by the title. and we
offer our sympathy tc the state Of
mind which settles itself before The
Perfect Lover" with its mouth full Of
chocolates or even with It's head 1a,l
of Swinburne, and is confronted by the
haggard, ghastly. rain soaked ghost