New-York tribune., 1922-08-15
On the Screen
Monte Cristo' at 44th ST. Thea
ter Handsomely Done, Yet
Lacking Dramatic Appeal
By fiarriette JInderhill

last night with an, extremely guilty
feeling because we did not more active
~ enjoy William Fox's version of
aMontes Cristo," which opened at the
Forty-fourth Street Theater last night
with John Gilbert in the title role.
Knowing that,aof course, the fault must
flie with us, still we failed to be
thrilled by the, love, hate and ven
geance of Edmund Dantes, or to feel
any particular interest In the vicissi-
tudes Of Mercedes, Caderousse, De
Villefort and the others. Some Of the
scenes were interesting, but the picture
as a whole failed to hold us. For in
stance, the scenes saken in the prison,
where the Able Faria and Dantes dug
and dug, getting ever nearer to each
other, were we'll planned-and then
the meeting after six years of
labor. The part where Dantes became
substitute for the corpse and es-
capped by being weighted and flung into
the ocean was also fascinating, but the
picture had not the slightest romantic
appeal, that was the. trouble. One
thing impressed us, and in this s.; .east
we are not wrong. Why did Mercedes
wear makeup which made her look
about seventy when she surely could
not have been much more than forty
This is common fault with screen
actors. They do not seem to realize
that people Of forty do not have lined
and sunken faces. But there was one
thing in the picture we did like very
decidedly, and that was the titles. They
are unusually we'll done.
John Gilbert, who played the Count
ON Monte Cristo, is good actor, but
ne is not as handsome as the famous
count ought to be. Estelle TAYLOR
plays the faithless sweetheart, Mer-
cedes, in way that made us almost
forgive her for her vampire indiscre
tions in "a Fool There Was" Vir-
ginia B. Faire as Haidee, is beautiful
enough to warrant trip to the For
ty-fourth Street Theater if there was
nothing else there at all. Robert Nc
Kim is impressive as De Villefort and
Ralph Cloninger is excellent as Fer
nand. Maude George, clever actress,
has not enough to do as Baroness
joliest and yet the most formidable
pirate on the screen.
The story is by Alexander Dumas,
the direction is by Emmett Flynn and
the scenario by Bernard McConville.
Emo Rapee arranged the musical set
ting.
In "Fanny's First Play" Mr.. Shaw
has his critics say "But how are we
going to know whether or not it is a
good play unless we know who wrote
it?" And that, dear readers, is about
the way q critic feels when he or she
is confronted with picture like "The
Prince and the Pauper" at the Capitol
If only the program would tell some
thing about the director, the cast and
the continuity writer. We suspect that
it is German picture, although 1t
does seem rather a strange choice OF
stories for a German director-the
work Of our own Mark Twain. If 1t is
German picture it is not so aston
ishingly good as it would seem if it is
the work Of another foreign director
Americans are used to seeing perfect
pictures come out of the land of the
Teuton. We, who have become quite
an adept at lip reading, tried to catch
one Of the. characters in the act o1
saying "IchR liebe dich" or "Nein" OF
"Yah" or I" Der tag" that being the
| only German we know, but the people
in the picture were singularly mute
and there are no close-ups in the for.
eign films.
The picture has another double-ex-
| posed hero, which makes three on
Broadway now. Tibi Lubin, who looks
just like very pretty little girl, but
isn't because he has Master In front
Of his name, is seen as Edward Tudor
Prince of Wales, and also as Tom
Canty, "The Pauper." He is a sweet
child and kept reminding US Of Jackie
Coogan-not so much as Jackie is on
the screen as the way he is in real
| life. There is deal of excellent act.
ing in the various roles and some OF
those big mob scenes for which the
foreign directors are famed The con.
tinuity is entirely missing and the
picture drags one from pillar to post
at intervals of sixty seconds. We are
sure that no scene is on the screen fol
extremely well done, even though some
of them are designed to link the scenes
together. Probably the picture was
originally in fourteen or fifteen reels
Foreign directors have a way Of doing
that.
Alexander Kardo directed this pic
ture and Samuel Rothafel has ar
ranged splendid musical score, will
William Axt, Mortimer Wilson, Davit
Mendoza and Pietro Florida. "Shoule
Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" Ii
played as prelude to the feature. Or
the picture program also are two
Prizma pictures, called "A Little Low.
Nest" and "The Message Of the Flow
ers." Winifred Byrd, the young Amer
lean pianist, is heard with the orches
ira in Grieg's Concerto in A Minor
! Doris Niles dances to "Whisperinf
Flowers" assisted by the ballet corps
In the stage version of "Nice Peo
ple," Rachel Crothers's play, the frs
act was ripping, the second had a him
Of reform. and the third act was dull
That is what usually happens when yo,
| try to reform a lot of young peopl,
who talk and act as though they hat
done nothing but read Scott Fitzgerald
| for the last two years of their lives.
In the screen version which William
de. Mile is presenting at the Rialt,
this week, this reform starts eve,
earlier in the story and, as matter O
fact, the young people did not need re
is used to point the moral and ador,
the tale. She does both. and in ou
opinion 1t is the%best piece Of act
ing she ever has done. We cannot sa,
as much for Wallace Reid. who por
trays Billy Wade. Wallie does not b,
any stretch of the imagination, Loo
like "a very good young man" Neither
we are sure, does he wish to look ik