New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
*s7he Siluer King'' Wan
Without Its Staginess
BY Virginia Tracy

When we first saw movie announce
nent of seThe Silver King" we felt our
selves give a start, then instantly
denied It. With amused condescension
we continued to deny it up to the mo-
nient when we found ourselves headed
for the picture. We then became aware
Of Q certain tautness of the nerves, an
extreme annoyance when our trolley
persisted in stopping at corners to let
in other people after having performed
Its true function by stopping at our
corner to let in US, OF finicky desire
to be on time, to be settled back, Tapped
deep and quiet in the expectant dark
ness before the picture should begin.
And when it did begin and across the
pregnant screen "The Silver King"
shone out in silver letters curious
prickle ran along our skin, as there
confronted us our childhood's JOY.
For certainly we were small child
let US even insist upon it, very small
child-when "The Silver King" was at
the height of its fame. when in all
English speaking countries the names
of Wilfred and Nellie Denver were
household words and the Spider (frst,
we wonder, of the proud villains in
evening dress?) was looked upon as an
acute and original departure in
psychology; when Oh the then famous
prayer, ooh, God, turn back Thy uni
verse and give ME yesterday." SER
mons were preached by liberal minded
ministers and the union of the church
and stage was felt to be at hand. O
temporal o mores o changing
world! Little did we then suppose
THE Silver King" would ever stink
upon the screen, hiding as it were its
own face and unable to conceal it's own
bewilderment as to what all the fuss
had ever been about,
----Iet how could it be otherwise To
any modern intelligence looking upon
the bone-dry manuscript for the first
time what are the possibilities of "The
Silver King? The dissipated Denver,
pushed over the brink of ruin bv a
wrong tip on the Derby, supposes him
self to have murdered, while deranged
by drink, the enemy tipster; escapes to
america, discovers silver mine, and,
by a display of business capacity of
which his previous career had given no
indication, returns in five or six years
to England a millionaire of interna-
tional renown, god in fur coat, with
i vuhfta f-l
benediction from beneath his slouched
hat. Naturally he has timed his ar
rival for the moment when his starv-
ing family, unable to pay rent, is being
thrust from its lowly cot by the min
>aoRs of the real murderer. whom the
Silver King traces to his lair and gives
into the hands of the very police whom
The murderer has brought to arrest
him.
n Naturally, the unfortunate modern
confronted with the picturizinr of thi:
empty yet, in its five acts of detail, in
5tricately involved web is, as a self-re
sspectlng workman, anxious and troubled
about many things; untangling, prun
|lng and propping, laboriously explaining
away improbabilities, smoothing owe
crudities, suppressing maudlinness
no conscientious nurse with an unpre
Zsentable child could be more anxiou
to make it behave seemly. For in
stance, the unseemliness Of Denver be
ing a drunkard is cut out and h
appears as q person of impeecable rrc
priety- debts, yes, but kept at least j
the middle distance; just in time 70
him to be fuddled about the murde
he is made drunk By the villain, TO
this occasion only, with no more CON
plicity on his part than if he had bee
given knockout drops. On the othe
hand, there arc solid facts, facts abou
the murder and how it was planted O
Denver, which make things. to OF
modern workman, not perhaps credbl
but coherent, and it is on these fact
that he has focused all his effort.