New-York tribune., 1921-05-29
Meighan in a New
Crook Role at the
Criterion 'Theater


pictures by variou forces--mother
love, the love of a young woman, re
ligion, the sacrifice of pal or reali-
zation behind steel bars that sit
doesn't pay" but John D. Swain, who
wrote "White and Unmarried" is prob
ably the first to appreciate the re-
formative influence of big bank ac-
count.
Crooks have written their biogra-
phies in their declining days to point
out to an honest world how futile is.
the lifting of other peoples fortunes.
Swain puts the finishing touch to all
these pathetic confessions by having
his hero, a crook, quit the shot-flled
night life for the safer and more re-
spectacle vocation of signing checks
against an honestly inherited bank ac-
count.
Given such a premise and a screen
hero like Thomas Meighan to play the
crook role, further Developments prom
Use to be interesting. How interesting
decided after "White and Unmarried"
has it's first showing at the Criterion
Theater to-day. Meighan has played
crook parts before-in fact, he won
popularity first in the part of Tom
Burke in "The Miracle Man" Recently
he was seen in similar play with great
success, "The City of Silent Men, in
which he was unjustly accused of mur-
der and spent years to defeat the
Bertillon system.
Half a Million Too PaItry
TO Effect Reformation
Meighan is delightful IN crook roles
there is a touch of geniality and
honesty about his Characterization
which even the most debased interpre-
tation cannot entirely eliminate and
which makes the spectator sense that
somewhere and somehow he will rise.
Swain doesn't devote his story to re-
forming a crook, but to showing what
handy thing it was that the young
man had learned few tricks of the
trade before he had inherited his
uncle's fortune. Of course, there was
always the danger of the crook psy-
chology getting the upper hand again
possibly he was too deeply stepped
in crime to be entirely reformed by
paltry $5,000,0 900, which might serve as a
cure in the United States, but wouldn't
suffice in Paris-but the greater in
terest lies in his Partisan adventure.
There is a touch of satire in one of
the scenes in Paris when he goes slun
ming in the underworld and has for
his companion the daughter of the rich
woman he robbed on his last job, the
final nights work before his uncle,
racetrack bookmaker, put an end to
two questionable careers by dying.
A Beautiful Young Heiress,
An Apache Den and-Thrills
The ex-crook has his watch pinched,
another bit of quaint humor, and gets
il back by the simple process of pick
ing the pickpocket's pocket more deft-
~ tHaH 1ie plcApockeC had PICKED
Meighan's.
Adventure does not, however, con-
sist only in the lighter comedy situa-
tions in Meighan picture. The young
actor has too robust physique to be
content with o'clock tea roles, and, if
he thought the part of Billy Kane,
white and unmarried" according to
not too scrutinizing passport, was to be
8 little bit of play, he thought other
wise when the picture was completed.
Obviously, sturdy youth and a pretty
young heiress were not to walk into
an Apache's dive and walk out again
without thrill. And they got it-so
did the spectators who have seen the
new production in the Criterion pro-
lection room.