The New York herald., 1921-06-13
Tricky Surprises
in Rapid Moving
Film kiss in Time
Diverting Automobile Chases
and Lively Scenes in Road
house Are Features.

Telephones are suddenly being popped
out OF all serts OF unexpected places fE
"A Kiss in Time" and that's typical of
week-tit's full of tricky surprises. but it
gets -FOUR number. For It never ceases
to rr,sh along, most of the time on the
up such a breeze of laughter one doesn't
need to fan oneself.
Douglas Doty has made an ENJOYABLE
TT absorption Of Royal Browns story
concerning the young woman artist who
would not illustrate a magazine story
be,ause the hero in it wooed and won
tive girl in four hours from the time Of
encounter. which incites the youthful
author to bend his efforts toward con-
I-irrcing her this Is not as impossible as
some Of the things that happen in the
magaztnes-and the movies. In its
course Thomas Heffron, the director, hal
allowed the fable to lapse into the
farcical and the frankly impossible, but
In the summer one will admit anything,
even that young man can pose as a
butcher boy with pearl buttoncd patent
leather shoes and get away with il, II
only the story doesn't pass away from
suspended animation.
Some Lively Scenes.
There are some diverting automo bile
chases and lively scenes in roadhouse
that would make these resorts appear
even brisker in California than here
perhaps it's the sunshine that does It.
Miss Wanda Hawley is charming and
smiles agreeably, registering more real
feeling than most of the magazine poster
stars However. she cheats in a chin
ming contest, using a grip that is half
overland, half underhand, which isn't
fair to the male sex, represented by T.
Roy Barnes, who are apparently re-
stricted to the weaker underhand grip.
The only vital flaw to the picture is that
the winsome star has her pretty hair
bobbed or shirred or something
Mr.. Barnes Is his usual deft and
unresitating self as the young author.
who has to climb about assiduously in
way that Douglas Fairbanks would envy
and snatch a child from a gasolene ex-
plosion before he can win the kiss from
the girl that is the prize for up to date
efficiency in courtship. Much amuse-
ment is afforded by Walter HERS. the
fat comedian who plays an amateur
seuth and Bertram Johns as the girl's
official fiance, for the former is con-
tinually suffering and swapping his
fingers to break the fatal charm, while
the latter has cold in the head that
cannot be cured even in the subtitles.
The latter are above the average in their
comedy content. the scenery is crafty
ing to the eye. and altogether "A Kiss in
Time keeps up a running fire Of enter
tanment.
The "Mignon' overture, a scenic deal
ing with clouds rapturously, and solos
by Miss Gladys Rice and Cesare Nesi
are other numbers, while a Christie
comedy. "Scrappily Married" has So
luton Of the mother-in-law problem
that. however. is liable to carry a Jail
sentence for those who adopt It.
Miss May McAvoy as Star.
Just as the quite original feature
picture at the Rialto is blond and cheer
ful. the Rivoli photoplay Is dark and
weepy. There is little justification for
such a Aim as "A Private Scandal ex-
cept that it gives lovely Miss May Nc
Avoy a chance to act with her starry
eyes for the first time occupying the
position OF starring optics. That almost
gives sanction to her first Realart
vehicle. for Miss McAvoy can act with
emotions that have the quiet force Of
electric currents, which she never forces
to the point of making them slzze.
She covers a lot of ground in en-
0edNOrlnR 10 put over tnlS picture WITH
ten for her by Hector Turnbull, but on
film. as on the field, one player doesn't
make q whole team. The story Is the
well grooved one OF grown up adopted
miss assuming the guilt of her foster
mother for an irregular love affair, the
only novel touch being that the adopted
child Is a French orphan, which Is a
way of retaliating on the French for
thrusting the triangular situation on the
American theatre.
Everything turns on a ridiculous lack
of an explanation that might Just as
we'll have been made, even If the heroine
had been stricken dumb on the spot
The sub-titles are to match, for nothing
could be more fitting for a Mack Sennett
burlesque than to have the heroine rush
forward TO her lover when he has Just
thrown man off a high portco in a
blind rage. practically running him. and
exclaim: "Oh. Jerry, you have made a
terrible mistake !" It's a mixture Of
Peg o. My Heart and Through the
Back Door," and Turnbull. as a dra-
matte critic, must have seen just such
plays and wondered could such things
be-
A Chester comedy. Just In Time:
solo by Carlo Enciso and an attractive
dance. "Tbe Bee" staged by Adolp
3olm and danced By Miss Ruth Page.
are other offerings, while the Sym
phonie Pathetique" is played by the
orchestra in compliance with the un-
written law that no week must pass in
the movie palaces without Tschaikow-
sky being given an airing