New-York tribune., 1919-08-03
Griffith g Hand
Too HeaUy on
True Heart Susie
By Virginia Tracy

where we couldn't hear the wicked
people who persist in contradictine
us we doubt if we should attempt to
hang any sermon round the neck OF
True Heart SUSIE" justly celebrated
long before reaching our neighborhood
The picture is very finely made ol
very fine materials, but there is some.
thing wrong with it. To preach about
this something wrong would be ire
slstlble if we were at all certain that
we knew what it was. In the absence
of this certainty we were hestating
even to put forward our few hints.
But to hear that it suffers from
padding is too much! Particularly
after our frequent inward exclamations
as we watched it that there wasn't even
a super6uous bit of business, a stray
flash. We have seen Griffith far more
inspired, but never more controlled
more scrupulous, more exactly select
i've. If you don't believe us. look at
the story.
A Tale of Devotion
Two schoolchildren begin to "gc
together" At least William allow:
Susie to tag after him, to become hi:
adorer and helper and confidante. A:
he grows up his penniless ambition i:
to study for the ministry. Susie has E
little money; she defies her guardian
aunt and sends it to William, making
it appear to come from a benevolen'
old gentleman. BY the sale of her PEI
cow, by the marketing Of eggs and BY
all sorts of extra farm turned pennie.
she makes enough to keep William
going. Though he does not know where
the money comes from he knows wei
where to turn for counsel and fo,
sympathy; the two young people be
come identified in the mind of tn,
whole village, and by their unitet
strength the boy makes good; he come.
home in all the SNUG and yet funerea
young pomp of his own idea of him
self as a minister; he overawes tn,
village, and when Susie walks through
it with him, the observed of all OBJ
servers, and is treated to ice. cream
soda by him on his first day in tow,
she has her little hour of perfect tri
umphs. Her very little hour! For a
that soda fountain William sets eve.
on Betty, the flyaway little MILNE
who has failed financially in the large
neighboring town and is looking fo
husband. Susie is plain, dowd,
little prude, but she tries to fight fo,
William; then when Betty has captured
William she tries to bolster up tn,
miserable failure of their married life
But after a few years, when one O.
Betty's indiscretions results in a colo
that kills her, it is a very disillusionet
William who comes again to dump hi
bewilderment and exhaustion and hi
shattered self-sufficiency into the arm
that have always been ready to re
ceive them
What the Average Plot Contains
This is the plot of True Hear
Susie: the Story of a Plain Girl.
When it has been got into five reel
can there be much room for padding
Think about how much an ordinar,
five-reel picture contains The hero
inc and her family are shown to be i,
reduced circumstances. After an in
suit or so while looking for work sh,
gets position as companion to ,
spoiled heiress with a pearl necklace
The pearl necklace disappears. TIL,
heroine is suspected. The hero-h,
may be the brother Of the spoiled heir
ess or her restive fiance, or. whicl
takes longer, humble Westerner i'm
ported to guard the jewels, even ,
millionaire's son who has cured him
self of drunkenness by hiring himsel
out as a chauffeur-the hero prove
the heroine's innocence They are be
trothed and fade out in one long kiss.
If this is the quantity, to say nothin,
of the quality, generally presentable il
five reels, can "True Heart Susie" b.
anything less than miracle Of econ
omy, of proportion? Is It any less
miracle because it preserves Griffith
essential air Of wandering, easily a
large, through life.
A Too-Studied Simplicity
Yet we have our own susicsentl,
vague complaint against True Hear
Susie" For ali it satisfied in us wa
out intelligence, our ar:;ssic conscience
Somehow that more vital motion pict
ure target, our heart-rathcr an I'M
pressionable, rot 70 say sent;menta
heart, at thats--was never reall,
struck. We kept waiting to hear tn
DELL ring, but We never felt It's pulsa
llon. And sometimes we felt that pey
haps this was because the director wa
aiming at 1t so deliberately, so candid
ly. that he gave us too much warnine