New-York tribune., 1921-02-28
On the Screen
Will Rogers Makes Most of
Opportunities i'm Coldwyn
Picture at Capitol

thls week Is of the order Of the pic
sorlaily drab production that is re-
deemed by its character parts. 1t can
not be said that "The Guile of Women"
IS specially suitable for Will Rogers,
pee ne makes the most of his oppor-i
tunities and does some fine scharacter-
lzaSion. lie takes the part of a simple
Swedish sailor who is duped bv women
until he loses faith in all of them. A
gentle streak of satire runs through
| the scenario, which is by Peter Clark
Macfarlane 1t is a picture which has
pathos and yet arouses laughter. His
adventures in love give VIII Rogers a
chance to display his attractive ugli-
Pess. He does the bashful suitor to
perfection
As Swedish sailor, he leaves Hulda
at home in Scandinavia and sails to
America. He is to- send for the little
fair-haired Swedish girl as soon as he
gets some money together. Time goes
on and he sends $1,000 to her, asking
her to join him. She does not come
He never hears from her and the years
slip on. Again he falls in love. This
time he is trapped by a designing
woman who molds him as if he were
putty. She wants to open, a delicates-
sen shop. Yal (Will Rogers), suspect
ing nothing, invests all his savings in
it. The woman plays him false and he
is left penniless for the second time.
All the while he has dreamed of the
| little Swedish girl with the long fair
braids. The height of his ambition is
90 own q ship with her name on the
PROV. At the end of five years &Yal
meets Hulda. She has come to America.
She tells him that she never received
the $1,000 or any of his letters. Hulda
has become beautiful and smart. Yal
is as homely and dull as ever. He feels
the difference. His bashfulness is so
pronounced that in the end Hulda has
to take things into her own hands and
ask him to marry her. They have
| ship, tGo, with "Hulda" on the prov.
There is villain, to be sure, but his
share in the picture is far-fetched. and
melodramatic. He tries to shanghai
Yal on the eve of his wedding. The
picture would be just as good if this
| particular villain were left out. Clever
work is done by Bert Sprotte as Skole,
the confirmed cynic, who thinks that
women are at the root of everything
and that the best of them is crooked.
He and Yal are pair in their philoso-
ply. Mary Warren makes a pretty
but uninteresting Hulda. 1t is q Gold
wyn picture.
There is a travel story in Prizma col
ors of the Island of Bali, in the South
| Seas. 1t is done by Harold H. Hor-
ton. The Capitol Mixed Quartet sing
"Favorites of To-day" and a special
ballet prelude to the feature picture is
put on by Mile. Gambareli! and Leon
Leonidow.
Two pictures about two boys in small
towns, accompanied with much music
dear to a passing generation, would
Justify the management in calling this
"Old Home Week" at the Strand. Both
pictures are inspired by the literary
work of Hoosiers One of them, "The
Old Swimmin' Hole is adapted from
James Whitcomb Riley's poem; the
other is Booth Tarkington's Edgar,
the Explorer"
Charles Ray makes a plausible
schoolboy by the name of Ezra, who
courts Laura La Plante, as Myrtle, by
turning cartwheels and displaying an
apple and a fash he has just caught,
and next day forgets her for Esther
the schoolroom "vamp," playedby Mar
Jorle Precost, to whom he conveys notes
clutched between his bare toes ex-
tended across the aisle.
Ezra plays no new pranks, in school
or out, and the virtue of the picture is
not novelty, but familiarity. His Pa
and his Ma, played by James Gordon
and Blanche Ross, exact obedience with
q switch and threats of castor oil and
Lon Potf, the schoolmaster has the
terrule ever ready.
There is Skinny, so named because
he is fat, who is bribed to surrender
note from the schoolmaster, en- route
TO Ezzra's mother. Lincoln Stedman
plays Skinny
The two boys have the regular bluff
OF a night, trade possessions and are
Ht1f lrst., II.
no continuity. In fact the picture is
quite plotless. The boys swipe apples,
get sick smoking in their pirates cave
anG get chased away from the swim
MIN hole by farmer, who puts up O
No Swimmin' Without Clothes" sign,
before they have had time to take more
than one "belly-b buster or tie knots in
the otherfellow's clothing
shaggy dog figures prominently in
the picture, forever tagging at Ezzra's
heels and sneaking into the school
element when white mouse escapes
from Ezra's blouse, while he is saying
a piece. There is baby as we'll, which
Ezra must tend. It's face really is a
| comic masterpiece, plastered with -four,
mud and water during a ee-for-ali
fight around the swimmn' hole.
Edgar the Explorer" shows worthy
group OF youngsters making q pretense
of adventure in the backyard, using
washboards as shields and mops as
spears in Staying hose, supposed to
be boa-cohstrictor. Edgar's prize
exploit is the rescue of the princess as
she is about to be burned at the stake,
and his refusal to marry her, on the
prudish ground that he has a wife and
family in America.
The topical review at the Strand