New-York tribune., 1920-11-22
On the Screen
Wesley Barry, Boy Star, Does
Some Remarkable Acting in
''Dinty," at the Strand
By Harriette Underhill

Screen and stage children are nice
if you don't have too much Of them,
but when we see that one lis starred
we 60 to the theater frm in. the convic-
tion that we are going to be bored and
perhaps made downright mad. There is
something about star. anyway, that
is apt to be annoying. Everything al
ways turns out all right for him, and
the star can do no wrong. The trouble
with children is that they are old
enough to realize this but not old
enough to conceal the fact, and little
Of them goes long way.
We loathe consciously cute tots or
kiddies, therefore we were delightfully."-
surprised when we sat through "Dinty,'
the feature picture at the Strand this
week. OF course, Marshall Neilan can
usually be counted on to bring out the
best there is in story, but he did dis
too heavy for him. At any rate, his fine
imagination is apparent everywhere in
this First National picture, which stars
the youthful actor, Wesley Barry.
An interesting story runs parallel
with the one woven around an Irish
newsboy, Dinty, and one is glad to be
taken away from the righteousness Of
the black and tan juveniles once in a
while, even if the detour does take one
into the underground passages and the
torture chambers of San Francisco g
Chinatown. This part is straight melo-
drama, and Noah Beery is seen as Wong
Tai, halfbreed. who is at the head
of all Chinatown's wickedness.
Wesley Barry is especially delightful
because he is so' ugly. No amount of
grease paint or persuasion could ever
make an angel child of him. He is
seen as little newsboy who supports
his mother in a basement room. The
atmosphere is excellent and it almost
made us cough just to look at the cob
webs over the windows and the dirt
floor. No wonder she died of tubercu-
losis! The picture is filled with whimsi-
cal touches which make it very human.
One which we liked was the tough re-
cruit who shouted "Lovers die in death
pact" to prove his ability to sell papers.
Another was the gift of cigars to the
policemen by Dinty.
Go and see "Dinty." You won't mind
it even if the heroine, Marjorie Daw,
is fastened in the torture chamber It
all becomes farce when Dinty opens the
door of the chamber by hooking an iron
chain on it and fastening the other end
to the trolley cars
The picture has as many moods as an
April day, but it is entertaining stuff
and some of the acting is excellent.
Besides the young star, who plays some
splendid scenes at the deathbed of his
mother, good work is done by Colleen
Moore as the mother, Noah Beery as
the half-bre and the black and tan
juveniles whose names do not appear
on the program.
Tie musical program is especially ef-
fective this week. Richard Bold, that
slender tenor with wide range, sings
"sAAh, Moon of My Delight" from "a
Persian Garden" in costume. Mary
Mitchell sings "Sweethearts" from Vic
tor Herbert's opera. The overture is
al Guarany."
Neither do we like fat comedy heroes
in pictures. But our luck held when
we went across the street to the Rivoli
to see Fatty" Arbuckle in "The Life
Of the Party" He is billed now as
Roscoe, which was probably what his
mother intended that he should be
called. The story was written by Irwin
S. Cobb and appeared in The Saturday
Evening Post, but somehow We missed
it, so we have no idea whether W alter
Woods scenario is at all like Mr.
Cobb's story. We put this in to pro-
tect ourself, for as sure as we write
thot we like a picture pVprv one rises