New-York tribune., 1922-02-06
On the Screen
"My Wandering Boy" Proves a
Puzzle Picture; Is 1t Com.
cdy or Serious?
BY Harriettc Underhill


men we ever knew was Bonnie Zed-
man. He had sense Of humor, had
bennie; SO when we learned that he
had become producer and was put
ting out picture called "Where Is
My Wandering Boy To-nightg ?" it was
not unnatural that one should infer
that that picture was going to be a
comedy.
Where Is My Wandering Boy To-
mighty" started at the Criterion The
alter yesterday. and after seeing the
picture we are still undecided as to
whether it Is a comedy or otherwise.
Is it like "Red Hot Romance" poking
fun at the old sob stuff, or was it un-
dertaken in serious vein? 1t might
be regarded as a satire on cover the
Hill," "The Old Nest" and Turn to
the Right" but then, again, one can
not be sure.
The hero is named Garry Bcccher. He
Is crowned splitting champion of the
town because he won the long distance
splitting contest in which all Of the in
habltants participated 1t seems that
this is rubbing In the rural stuff a
little bit too strongly, but again prob
ably we are mistaken On par with
this bit of realism is the scene where
the country heroine pccls a banana
and throws the skin or the floor where
her city rival is doing dance.
After Garry sees this Broadway
siren he loses his taste for Lorng Of
so to New York and seek his fortune
His mother is asleep when he takes the
early morning train out of Massachu-
setts, but she is awakened just in time
to hear the train whistle. She rushes to
the station and chascs the train until
she falls from exhaustion on the
tracks. And better, far better, would
it have been for this fraiI creature
with her bleeding mother heart if u
north bound train had tossed her into
the great nothingness ere she should
drink of the dregs of bitterness which
the future held for her,
After this each night she burned
the midnight oil and kept the lamp in
the window just the way every mother
does in the movies. One night Garry
decided to go home, but he got only
as far s the village bank, which he
robbed. With the money he went back
to New York and hired apartments and
vaiets and restaurants and stars and
| nmouslnes. and yet no one ever con-
nected him with the robbery. But
Garry was ever q vacillating youth and
so he finally decided to turn to the
right, and to do this he went as o
stoker. Then when he was living an
upright life he was arrested on false
charge and sent to prison for ten years.
But the warden or the governor or
some one took great fancy to him,
and finally he was pardoned. 1t was
after the others broke out Of the Jail
and made getaway, carrying the war
den with them. prisoner. that Garry
! proved his true metal. He followed
them up, did some daredevil stunts
and saved the warden's life. Then he
was pardoned, and the first thing he
sweetheart Lorna--thc little woman
back home who had been waiting for
him.
Occasionally director will appear
on the horizon who can do one of
those sob things and do it so we'll that
he will make you forget that he is
| only trying to make a box Office pic
ture. But it takes a Griffith. Rex
Ingram. a Rupert Hughes or a Won
Stroheim. The last named gentleman
has not yet done so, but of course he
I could do it if he wished But from
the ordinary wronged- -mother-wavward
son picture good Lord deliver us! And
before any one else says it first. we
hasten to admit that we never have
been mother-only an aunt twice
Cullen Lands is the boy who wan
dered; Virginia True Boardman is the
mother who waited. and Ruth Patsy
/ Miller is the girl who trusted. Kath-
leen Key is the wicked city girl, and
! Carl Stockdale is the agreeable old
| deacon who was going to forcclosc
the mortgage. They all did as we'll as
could be expected
There is prologue in which Charles
Nash, tenor, is disclosed at the cross
roads with siren, in the person of
Miriam Lox, Turing him away from the
path of rectitude, and Susan Clough at
the window of their little home holding
a lamp-the badge of the bereavcd
mother-and singing the song for