New-York tribune., 1919-07-14
On the Screen
You Don't Get Even That Much
W hen You Go to See "A
Sporting Chance

We hope none of our superior
friends who say that motion pictures
are made up Of bundles of piffle and
miles OF bunk or, if you prefer it, that
1ney are articles designed to amuse
only the very young, will go to see
Ethel Clayton in "a Sporting Chance"
a1 the RIvoll this week. For what can
We say IN defence OF such a picture?
Nothing, forsooth. We can only hang
our head and avoid meeting their eye,
Tor "hen one of those superior per
sons picks out such picture to point
Vhe moral then are we speechless.
A Sporting Chance" evidently was
designed to please the very young or
the very simple. There is not in it
single move, situation or title that
GOES not spell artihciality, and that
alone. No girl on earth ever did or
SAID any OF the things with which
carey Brent is credited. But we shall
'eIl the story and let it speak for it.
To get rid OF Miss Brent's chauffeur
IN the nrst reel, she sends him out
Joy riding with six caddies. He re-
signs. Then she takes her own car
o-0' runs over some glass, stops to
tx the tire and is accosted by a man
IN convict's suit She takes him
to be the escaped convict Harry the
Duke and so Immediately hires him
tor her chauffeur. He fixes the tire
for her, and she obligingly takes off
her overalls which she has slipped on
her overalls and give them to him to
cover up his stripes.
The fact that the overa!ls fit Miss
Brent is no reason why they should net
also fit Jack Holt, who is nothing if
not husky, and he looks so natty when
he draws up his six feet of physique.
clad in her perfectly fitting overalls,
that she Immediately falls in love with
him.
Papa is away. so Carey asks the new
chauffeur to take her to prayer meet
ing, and then lures him down by tho
tells her that he once kissed another
woman she becomes peevish. and re-
minds him all the time that he is only
convict -chauffer
But later he saves her honor and her
young stepmother's foolish love let
ters at one swoop, and holds both in
tact until daddy's return. And then
what do you think? He isn't convict
at ALL He just wanted to play
he cast is we'll chosen. Besides
Miss Clayton and Jack Holt, there are
Anna I. Neillson, Herbert Standing and
Howard Davies
played as an overture is gorgeous
enough to make up for all defects in
the feature picture. 1t is the most
pretentious thing they have yet done in
the way OF an overture, with four won
derfu sets designed by John Wenger
They are THE Dance of the Sugar
Plum Fairy" "Arabian Dance" Chi
nese Dance and Waltz of the
Flowers.'
Mrs. Sidney Drew is seen in her
first starring vehicle, "Bunkered" 1t
Is extremely amusing and Mrs. Drew
is delightful in it. On the picture
hauser' cartoons and the Rivol pic
torial.
Helen De Witt Jacobs sings Indian
Lament" and Julia Henry sings Sun
shine of Your Smile" The light opera
number is "Katinka.'
Jack Pickford does some splendid
work in Bill Apperson's Boy" the
feature picture at the Strand. There
are people who say of Jack as they
once said of Mary-"Oh, they are
really uOJ dFIlSCS-CneV are just flCK-
fords.' But no one has said that of
Mary since she did Stella Maris,' and
no one Will say it of Jack after they
have seen this picture-even if his
earlier pictures did not convince them.
Personally We do not particularly
care for Blue Ridge people who say,
DO you reckon | kin kiss you-all ?"
q reckon you-all kin" The Southern
ers whom we have met, and we once
did one night stands from here to
New Orleans, use "you-all" as mean
ing 'all of you" 1t is really singular?
At any rate, all of the Appersons use
it, and all of the Yartons, too.
Buddy Apperson is in love with Mar
tha Yarton, played by Gloria Hope, but
because he thrashes her brother for
saying that mis- dad, who is a widower,
is going courting there are strained
relations between the TWO families
which finally bring them into the
courts.
Bill Apperson's Boy" is simple but
entertaining, and Martha must have
found him so, for she promised to
spend the rest of her life with him.
The names of the brothers of Martha
were not on the programme, but the
one who got the whipping from Buddy