New-York tribune., 1921-02-14
On the Screen
Thomas Meighan IL Starred in
1.-The Easy Road" at the
Rivoli 1heater
BY Harriette Underhili

and better pictures" and Of this We
heartily approve. They might easily
be better and, to judge from those WE
sat through yesterday, they might be
fewer without worrying us in the least
You wouldn't believe that a picture
| with Thomas Meighan in It could be
as bad as THE Easy Road,e at the
Rlvoli, for. even with that most engag.
ing actor, the picture manages to
achieve an unbelievable amount OF
banality. Mr., Meighan is starred in
the picture and Lila Lee and Gladys
that Miss Lee would play the lead op-
posite MIR. Meighan, and we have never
| cared especially for Miss Lee in pretty
| roles. SO what was our delight to find
that she doesn't do the usual sort OF
thing at all.
Miss Lee is cast as girl of the slums
who loses her eyesight and in seeking
watery grave she meets her hero. In
this part Miss Lee does the best acting
we have seen her do. She resists all
temptations to look beautiful and gives
8 splendid Characterization.
1t seemed to us that the cast was
composed of about the worst actors
we ever had seen and we had blamed
the director. However, he may have
been quite innocent; it may simply
have been that they followed their
natural bent. We handed the palm to
Gladys George as being the most an
noying young female juvenile we had
ever met, and then an hour later we
took it back and gave it to another.
But more of that later. And the heavy
taken-well, when the hero said to
him: "Get out of here or III kill you'll"
we hoped fervently that he wouldn't
get out.
The story is about a genius who
loved an heiress and after he married
her he wouldn't write any more but
travelled "The Easy Road" He really
did act perfectly scandalously and
drank lot, but this may not have
been due to the fact that he married
an heiress but only to the fact that
way, his descent was rapid Inside of
two reels you see him fallen so low
that he seeks to drown his sorrows in
water. But when the blind girl, from
the slums, plunges in ahead of him he
forgets everything and rushes in to
save her. From then on you see him
rise again, and his wife resists the
advances of the heavy, which Hearn
knows should not have been difficult,
ana comes DaCk TO nlm.
The titles ore 30 bad! One of then
'onged to that great majority of which
some clever man has said You can't
fool all the people all the time"
Of course, Meighan is himself
through it all, but a monologue in the
silent drama is a thankless undertake
ing. However, that isn't quite fair
for there was Lila Lee.
The thing which pleased US most on
the picture program was the Mutt and
jeff cartoon. Can't remember the
name, but jeff uses Mutt for lion bait
and then goes to sleep and forgets to
shoot. Of course, it has happy end
ing for stork steals the gun, drops
it in Nuts hands, and he kills all
the lions himself And now we have
revealed the plot!
comedy "The Unhappy Finish" and the
Rivoli Pictorial. The overture is "Ia
Bamboula"; Emanuel List sings "The
Big Bass Viol" and the "Bal Masque''
is danced by Ruth Page, Caird Leslie
and Sonia Gluckoff
Over at the Capitol the feature pic
ture is called "The Saphead." 1t is
the silliest picture we ever saw, and
if Winchell Smith had any idea that
his hero wes going to turn out like
that he should have called it "The
Idiot" Sapheed is much too mild an
epithet. William II. Crane is co-starred
with Buster Keaton, but both will un-
doubtedly be able to live it down. Mr..
Crane is Nicholas Van Alstyne, white
haired broker, known as the Old
Nick, and Mr.. Keaton is Bertie, his
son. 1t is impossible to give any idea
of Il IL
he makes of this son. All of his
scenes are slapstick, of course; but
are we or are we not supposed to
take it seriously when he buys seat
on the Stock Exchange and walks on
the floor to have all the members stop
buying and selling and "rag" BERTHE I?
They pin tags on him and smash his
hat over his eyes and trip him up. This
scene lasts almost until closing time,
when Bertie hears some one calling
"Henretta!" 1t is the villain selling
the stock to ruin his father, but Bertie
thinks they are teasing him about a
girl with whom he is supposed to have
had an affair, so BERTHE starts in to
clean up the place.
He finally buys all the Henrietta and
father is saved. The villain takes poison
This is Irving Cummings. Carol Halo
way, the girl who used to hang over
Vltagraph preclplces, is Rose, his wife
and Beulah Booker is Agnes, Bertie's
flancee. 1t was she to whom we
finally awarded the palm which we had
given tentatively to Gladys George
Hardly can we refrain from saying
that If we were casting director we
shouldn't book her again, Mr.. Cranes
work is excellent.
The surrounding program Is extreme
ly interesting. The overture is Liszt's
symphonic poem, "Tasso" Rmsky
KAorsakotf's Song of India" from
"Sadko' IS presented with most move
stage set, in which Alexander Oumansky
Mile. Gambarelli, Doris Niles and Tails
Zanon appear to be dancing in the
ocean. The Capitol quartet is heard ir
The Long Day Closes" and Loves Old
Sweet Song" and there is a silhouette
prologue to the picture.
At the Rialto "The Inside of the
Cup" is the feature picture. Charlie
Chaplin is at the Strand in "The Kid
Marion Davies is at the Criterion ir
Buried Treasure" This will be re.
viewed tomorrow.
Soloists Win Applause