New-York tribune., 1919-06-08
Nu5in10Ua Misses Emotion
IN ss7he Red Lantern

vorite daughter, that she falls in love
with the handsome youth and he with
her, that, as he is about to propose
marriage. he is struck by the half
whlteness of the hand locked within
the all-whiteness of his ow~-a circum-
stance which up to that moment he ap-
parently has not happened to notice;
you know the murky whisper that
thrills through the audience, "It's yell
low.' The mission shares the hero's
shock at onehalf of the heroines ma
tlonallty and things begin to happen;
things that might have made one of
the great pictures of our day
For Mahee, in her passion for re-
venge, fees to the Boxers, who set her
lmpersonating the Goddess of the Red
Lantern, the Chinese War Maid, re-
turned to earth that she may rouse her
people to drive out the foreigners.
Finally, when her own father has re-
fused her offer of peace if only he will
acknowledge her, the goddess vouch-
safes to appeal to the Empress of
side of the Boxers by predicting that
great victory shall sweep the for
eigners from the land The prophecy
failing and the goddess being deserted
by her own people, she takes poison:
the victorious foreigners, among them
the all-white lover, enter the palace
only to find her dead body seated on
the forsaken throne
Now is not this an ideal story for
picture? An ideal part for star of
Nine. Nazlmovas somewhat sinister
variety and force? We cannot resist
calling attention to the fact that.
whereas we are sick to death of always
complaining of picture stories and al
ways paying homage to picture acting,
here is story worthy of the best act
ing there is; story upon which the
acting, the direction and the scenario
all turn their backs for the sake of
nothing more nor less than some street
scenes.
Well, take the street scenes. They
are effective, but their effectiveness is
that of ballet-of Hippodrome, and
not Russian ballet, if you please.
There are lot of beautiful settings.
Of beautiful rushings and tumults in
picturesque lightings crowd splendor,
as Nachel Lindsay calls it-which sur
vive as best they may amid the hustle
and the hula baloo, amid the masses of
people strenuously obeying somebody's
idea that the brass must crash and the
trumpets bray, and We'll cut dash as
one of the most lavish and opulent
productions ever made. You have the
sense OF multitudinous swarms of
supers working like coolies, of ID irectors
and assistant directors shouting all day
through megaphones, of care and toll
and conscientious consultations with
costumers and decorators and of mu-
nifcent expenditure. But as for any
sense of q people set afre, not one
flash. There is no terrible mob rage.
no patriotic or national sentiment, no
atmo mosphere of religion frenzied to
fanaticism; there are only crowds run
ming up and down. Like most pictures
starting out to be big" pictures, this
enc contains congregations of scenes,
congregations more or less disorderly,
instead Of waves lifting themselves
toward satisfying crest. Those who
saw the uprising of the people around
the cathedral in j. Gordon Edwards's
direction Of "The Hunchback Of Notre
Dame" will remember the gathering to-
gether of restive individuals, the
growth Of mysterious. convulsive
agitation, the fusion of all personal
feeling into the tossing of%s furious,
pent-up sea, until the solid wall Of
high piled ocean sweeps at last into
the outraged but still omnous and en-
quilting shadows of the great cathedral;
they know what can be done in crowd
splendor that is drama and not ballet
The loss is heartbreaking, but of all
losses we wonder what Nine. Nazimova
thinks of the loss of her part.
For exactly the same thing has hap
pened to it emotionally that has hap