New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-04-27
By Virginia Tracy

Unless you are Il good deal
younger and more casual than we are
nothing is more annoying than
to have "A theory completely upset
Except, Of course, 10 have it upset
twice in opposing directions, which is
what has happened to us.
1t was long our mournful hobby
that moving pictures were not NOV
ing so entirely along the lines Of
progress as their producers claim we
even insisted that they had passed
their golden age, that there was more
life in one Of Griffiths fvc-cent two
reelers than in any super dc luxe ten
reel production for fifty cents at mat
inees and two dollars at night; that
whatever had been gained in technical
detail had been lost in simplicity and
inspiration, and that in the crudcst OF
those early efforts there vas a fresh
magic, lost wonder, an ingenious
on, you know' If you're picturite
you've heard it before. And when
Paramount announced it's series of re-
issues we promised ourselves some
rare treats.
We went to two The first was "The
Girl OF the Golden West" And what
drcary West it was! Even though.
through the soupy fog in which the
photography served it to US, we caught
occasional glimpses OF House Peters.
now one of the most imaginative and
accomplished OF screen actors. Other
wise, what a sooty ghost Of a picture,
80 poverty stricken in romantic feel
ing, for the most part so insenstivcly
cast, with the story spreading and
sprawling and CLOTHING along more like
spilled gravy than a steady tide, with
out knowing how to emphasize any
thing, how to space anything, with no
sort of grip or projection. ooh, Cali
fornia, Oh, My Mountains!" What
deep heart Of your beauty would not
the same producers reveal in you to-
day! Think of the photography alone
in this winters "Thc Squawman," and
then pass, if you please, to our second
reissues, "Thc Eagles Mate"
"The Eagles Mate" once celebrate d
for its beautiful scenery and the
"primitive passions" of it's mountain
GERS, proved an extremely up-and-c COM
ing film as far as primitive passions
were concerned, and though just as
nonsenscal as its predecessor was
much less dreary, being SO much more
comic. If more startling also it was
more coherent and in it's strange rusty
blue photography that bit all corners
to the bone like acid we at least were
always aware of what was happening
even if we had no idea OF why it hap
pened and cared less. If you will set
"The Eagles Mate" against ga Ro-
nance of the Redwoods" taken, We
think, between three and four years
later, you will if you care about pict-
ures lift up your heart; you will say.
There is no horizon which we shall
not some day cross!" That is if, as
we sometimes doubt, "a Romance of
the Redwoods" leaves any horizons to
conquer.
So we said to ourselves, "Well, nv
dear, where's the inspiration ?" In
genuous simplicity, plenty Of it, in the
same sense that there's plenty in a
blind kitten! But the fresh magic,
the lost wonder-they we're all in your
own ENORMOUSLY simple eye, my friend,
agapc at pictures in those days not be-
cause they were done we'll but because
they were done at ALL" So we set
tied down to being content with mil
lion dollar productions.
Then last week as we were passing
an out-of-date little tunnel of movie
theatre we saw among it's announce
ments an the Tennessee Noun
tains, with Enid Marley and Charles
Ray" and at the name of Ray we fell
into the theatre as unhestatinglv as
we might have fallen down coal hole
and, finding we were in for the last
half of some heavy, cluttering feature
we settled down for the nice nap we
have long since trained ourselves to
take under such circumstances, and
woke with renewed spirit for "In the
tennessee Hills; woke to the sim
plicity and inspiration, the fresh magic.
the lost wonder-isn't it an upsettine
world?
In what did 1t lie this inspired fresh
ness? Mostly, we think, in its having
no axe to grind Of any sort-no star,
no moral, no standardized CONSTITUTE
tion---in having no prcoccupation ut all
but that of putting over by intense nc
ton the bold lined, rapid pictures
which struck out single impression
OF strangely sober sayagcry.
The punch Of this old Ince two
rceler is indeed an incident Of torture
which we do not recommend simply be-
cause wo think it hopelessly improb
able, but punch one way or the other
disturbs us very little when, az here. il
does not even crack the single sombre
mood OF the play. For the rest, the
story is simply that Of young noun
tanner disposscssed for debt who
comes home to find his sick mother dv-
ing in the road outside their cabin.
OF his tracking and shooting of the
man who dragged her there; of his
pursuit and capture by the law and his
Wesley Barry, Bobby Connolly and Ri,