New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-09-28
''For Excellent Intentions
That Never Came to Good

self has evidently perceived to the core.
Strange Scruples of tho Censor
We wish we could lay the RESPONSE
bility wholly at the door Of that single
sop to the censor. Here it is: In the
book the nurse marries neither her
scientist nor her gorilla; in the picture
she marries them both. 1t does seem a
little difficult to get an atmosphere of
looseneed bonds where the censor in
sists upon so many Of them being tied!
But to think about the censorship at
ala censorship so irresponsible and
capriclous that it will let you eat rape
all day long and take for dessert cos
tunes whose only reason for exist
ence is ito get out Of nudity more
than there Is in it," but which may
yet at any moment balk at an engage
ment between second cousins-to think
OF the censorship is to beat your head
against cliff without SO much as the
hope that what brains you have will
soak into the granite. Even to think
about Leonce Perret's production Of
The Thirteenth Chair" is more cheer
! full than that.
Thirteenth Chair" Follows New
Fashion
Poor Mr. Perret has mufYed his ball
largely through a too strenuous devo-
ton. to something which reared its
head year or so ago under the dunn
founding title of direct continuity"
At least, its air of being q novelty was
dumfounding. Filled with the thrill
ing idea of beginning at the beginning
and going straight through to the end
avoiding all setbacks. parallel action
fade ms, etc" it cheerfully renowned
all the novelty that moving pictures
have contributed to dramatic express
sion in order to proclaim as revela-
ton the unimproved ground which had
existed before these novelties began to
cultivate it. We will, however, admit
that to tell exactly what happened
straight through from the beginning is
novel enough method for a mystery
story. We should not have supposed
without seeing it that every single point
of "The Thirteenth Chair" could be
lost. But with the aid Of direct con-
tnuity this perfect smoothness has
been, indeed, achieved
The play Of "The Thirteenth Chair"
begins with the mystery Of murder,
passes through minor mysteries of an
earlier and merely discussed murder,
of family secrets of police evidence, Of
spirituallstic trickery. and ends with
the unsolved mystery of spiritualistic
reve lation making scared and hopeful
children Of us again. The picture of
The Thirteenth Chair" begins with
gamble in stocks, and passes through
q married woman's affair with a false
lover, so extraordinarily we'll acted by
Christine Mayo and Marc McDermott
that we abandon our fullest interest to
| it, only to find with despair that after
about reel and half Miss Mayo dis
appears and that we are now passing
through an assault upon another young
woman, the struggle being SO terrific
and protracted, even for a movie strug-
| gle, and the whole affair presented
with so much spirit and picturesque
detail that we think we have surely
come to the real story this time But
1t is not so; we are merely approach
ing the second murder. We do not ar
rive at the first murder, with which
the play begins, till about the end of
the fourth reel and as by that time
everything that leads up to it has been
| enacted before our eyes, it appears
only as one incident in chain of Incl
dents, and everybody wonders where
the sensation comes in. Everything
POSSIBLE having been done to keep cut
the mystery Of the play, it is suddenly
felt that something is lacking and a
quite different mystery is brought for
ward.
Mystery Evaporated Out Of Picture
About twenty five years ago. in one
of the periodic rcvivals Of "Dipiomacy"
that arch conspirator, Countess Ziska
created sensation by appearing in
then novel garment, called, if we re-
member rightly. the empire princess
The empire was represented by float
ing and diaphanous slip, above; the
princess, below, by a sheath Of some
material strong enough to be skntight
and yet stand the strain. AS grand
gown for an adventures it had the
double value of appearing strangely
tight and strangely loose, and the eff
feet of strong light from behind may
be imagined; the princess being the
ruling spirit of the hyphenated cos
tune, the mystery was. how even an
adventures could get about in it ut
all. 1t was the resurrection of this
powerful garment, worn by lady Civ
to having her hair clutchcd by
spirit hands and causing skulls and
crossbones to appear and disappear
before hcr-which the picture offers
before her-which the picture offers, to
touch us with the awful breath of the
borderland, in place of the humble and
simple and canny and incredibly mys-
tic little old lrishwoman of Margaret
ycherley's performance and OF Bay
ard Neiller's play. There was one thing
IN the production, however, more mys-
, FERROUS even than how the heroine
was able to move in her sheath, and
that was how the pattern of the parlor
carpet managed to eclipse everything
that was going on in the same set.
We know of no motion picture substi-
tute for that Shrek in the dark, which
!, is the plays main sensation but that
parlor carpe. is as near as could be
expected Of any substitute. Altogether
an excellent symbol for the picture
. distinct. plain, powerful, nothing mys-
FERROUS about it.