New-York tribune., 1919-01-12
The Curse of Saueetness
Laid Upon h1genues
By Virginia Tracy

aloud, "but whatever Olve Schrelner
said. it is not the Perfect Lose.'
Having thus attracted the attention
nf our sensitive friend, the Movie Fan,
to whom we intended giving as bad a
onarter of an hour as we knew how,
we added. "At least it may be when
we develop it inwardly, for somebody
else. But when we go out cunning
for it. for ourselves, it's the beginning
of crocodile tears. of emptiness and
floating and stagnation-if you know
what | mean"
..You mean that when Bessie Love
plaved Bret Harte's Sue in The Dawn
Of Understanding they cut out her
love scene with the circus performer
for fear of her losing the sympathy?" ?"
"Fxactlv-losing the sympathy! In
vha+ wishwash of a ptomaine- poi
soned swamp or moassesiest depth of
= pink suear hell was that phrase
coinea9 For fear she should lose the
oh, Sympathy, Sympathy, how many
climes"---
"a star" interrupted the Movie Fan,
who has no reverence for quotations.
"a star simply cannot afford to lose
the sympathy of her public"
"Of course she can't. But would she
lose it? Is there no sympathy for any
character under heaven but Little Eva?
How about Little Emily? Did Trilby
languish obscurely in an unsympathetic
world? Did Raffies? Or the Fortune
Hunter? How about Turn to the
Right? Wasn't Cinderella--a person
who enjoyed a fair share of popularity
in her day-wasn't she a deceitful and
ungrateful, disobedient mink who so
far forgot propriety as to lose her shoe
in public place? And how much
sympathy did she lose with 2"
"But now seriously"-
"If | were any more serious than I
am I'd take tour through the state
prisons to cheer me up. Seriously, then.
what happened to Sue when she was
stage play?
"She was in love with a circus per-
fcrmer-thats all anybody remembers
nowadays"
Right you are. Though my own
memory can reach back to country
girl. densely ignorant but sensitively
natured and as ingenious as a child.
who has somehow got herself married
to middle-aged ironciad, inhibited by
awkward diftidence mingled with life
long habit of tyranny from letting his
jealous devotion break through it's
stern she'll. So that the oirl, who is
more like the servant than the mis-
tress OF his lonely farm, is, emotionally,
starving to death. Enter, in full cos
tune. q lady-killing cad of trapeze
performer, fleeing from justice for
crime of which he protests himself
Innocent and, with instant appreciation
Il his natural prey, laying siege to
that famished little heart The girl
hides him and feeds him; when he
escapes she escapes with him. I've for
gotten what incident Of their journey
arouses her to the cowardice and base
ness Of the creature who is using her
only for the furthering of his safety,
so that she wakes to the tragic shame
OF ever having stood him for an instant
IN loves place She leaves him in
humiliation too deep to show its face
at home till she sees she has to tes-
TT? in favor Of the husband whom
circumstances have now charged with
tae circus mans crime The whole or
deal is an awakening not only for her
TO the ironclad, but for the ironclad
70 the fact that you have not done
yoar whole duty to your wife by pro-
slding her with something to cook
And whatever I've forgotten about the
pay, one thing Pm not likely to for
get, and that's the scene where the cir
Gus performer makes love over the
ainner Sue has brought him behind the
naystack; where, all spangles and
moonlight, hallowed with persecution
ana With danger, he weaves his spell
and catches in it that kiss which she
gives not SO much to him as to youth
and beauty and the summer night, most
Of all, perhaps, as sacred incense to
goa In exile. This was the crucial
Scene Of the play-and what an ideal
scene for a picture! Never was there
better chance for that intimate
pSyenology which, being so much the
seui Of motion pictures. nobody is
s'armed at, there in it's home, not
guessing by what name it stalks
abroad. How was it, then, in this pict-
ases 1t wasn't there.
For what happened to Sue in the
noViss2 Nothing whatever. She did,
'"aeed, hide circus performer, but
apparently for no reason but con-
seaens'ous. desire to defeat the law;
shsn she brought him his dinner and
~ squeezed her hand she withdrew
= With frown, not merely shocked.
Das genuinely cross. How came she.
.aen, to fee with him? She didn't.
= men ne left the farm, after shoot
~ sae sheriff who had come TO arrest
ts'sat ne abducted her bv main force