The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-03-29
A Too, Too Solid
 Ghost In Earthbound

"Barthbound," deals with a prob lem that is as old as the intellect of man. It doesn't touch the inrpor- way. Indeed the proposition is raised afte ram exceedingly conven- tional fashion. Two men in their callow student days agree that there is no God, no sin and no fu- ture life, as callow youths have done for doubtless nyriads of years. A third of more reverent type of mind dissents from this moniStic view. The three come to mature years and two men become corners band concludes that there is sin against him and kills his friend.
 Here properly is the beginning fthe tale. It is the ghost of the dead man which is the central fig ure, if not precisely the hero of the story, and this ghosts materializa- ton, astral body, or what not is tied to the scenes of his earthly life until by a spiritual change it is led to desire the well-being of others, and the others becoming repentant, the ghost is discharged into the be- yond, making a very pretty disap- pearance through a forest upland into the distance
 For this purpose the moving pie ture is much superior to the spoken stage, but the ghost remains the weakest Eart Of the show. Shake speare employs a ghost in his Ham let and this ghost always has both cred the playwright, aven when its protection has been a mere illusion accomplished by the agency of mir TOTS.
 At least ghost should be shadowy, impalpable and not very suggestive of the too, too solid flesh which it formerly inhabited. The h1 eto rrI0 1Sy h9t they are never ghostly enough, and this is precisely the trouble with the ghost in Earthbound You can walk throuef this ghost, you can see things through it, it is a better ghost than any flesh and blood &C., tor could possibly arrange if he were appearing in his own person, but it is nevertheless solid, much too solid, much too human, too ealistic. too like the real man in real life.
 Because of this usual failure in the ghost, it must not, however, be supposed that ''Earthbound' is not an exceptionally strong picture play. The photography is surpass- ingly excellent. The acting is re- strained, and of very high order. In particular, the idea of occultism, the operation of supernatural in fluences, is sometimes better con- veyed than it is in the ghost scenes. III observe that part of the picture in which the two women struggle for the possession of the one man. Here the intangible is splendidly indicated by means that do not in the least excite deTision, by meth ods that are simple and most i'm pressive-
 The mind is in fact everything. In. this three-cornered struggle by the man and the two women it is @S,~.A ,r, H., potential factor. If the ghost were presented in something the same way, the picture would be stronger, the illusion would be better pre- served.
 In modern seances, they do materialize the ghost of the de- parted, so they say. In such ma terialization the ghost is seen by everybody who is present. It is not the intention of MT. | by everybody. The presence of ii is to be felt, not seen. The child says: Papa is there." When the ghost1y figure enters room The | beautiful collie dog shows those | signs of interest which it is said | dogs always feel in the presence | of dematerialized persons. The o1o minister doesn't see the ghost, he l feels it. | The only people who do see i | l. audience. They seie strongly ant
 vivtdly in actual human outline, | figure as real as life as in spite O | it's diaphonous character, whlci
 the characters of the play do no | see.
 We do not say that the ghos | should not be materialiZed at all
 We merely assert that in the in
 terest of sound art he should be de
 materialized to some further ex
 tent. There should be a nor'
 shadowy figure, a figure with les | shape, something reduced to
 mere fog, or a ghostly i11uminatior | and not appearing so often. Tn | presence ought to be indicated
 more entirely by the conduct of tn
 characters. Doubtless the pro
 ducers have in mind a certain lacl
 of imagination in an audience, bu they are wrong, because if audi
 ences lacked imagination, th
 other parts of the play would g
 entirely over their heads. Tn
 ghostly visitations can be as sue l cessfully left to the imagination a
 the rest of the occultism of tn
 story.
 Do not be discouraged by dis cuSSionS about the character O ghosts. The picture is a worth one Seldom is any produced tha more tightly fixes the attention. is a picture which those who folloI the silver screen will not miS Earthbound is at Polls today, an tomorrow. You may see for your
 selves whether these few sugges tions are soundly placed. COPPER MINES STOP WORK.