The New York herald., 1922-02-06
lionel Barrymore
Agile Gunnan in
|; Boomerang BilP
lmpersonates on Screen Crook
Who Tries to Go Straight
for Love Of O Girl.

RIALTO--Lfonel Barrymore in SBoon-
erang Bin,~ o Cosmopolitan Produc-
tion from n story by Jack Boyle. di.
rected by Tom Tarxta. Scenario by
ooty Hobart.
Lional Barrymore portrays variety
of gunman Enoch Arden. 1t is perhaps
the first time that the motif of the lover
who returns to find another In possession
OF the heart of his loved one has been
applied TO such an unromantic figure
as a sticlxup artist.
Barrymore in the part OF crook who
tries to go straight for the sake OF the
girl he loves Is a burly roughneck with
out stint. II he ever walked abroad in
actuality under that character he would
be arrested on sight But there is
nothing ferociously sinister about his i'm
personation--he is not a Neri wearing a
fedora. He is just a good knock 'em
down thug.
Though he has his soft side, the con-
trast between this personality and the
rather bllthering artist Barrymore de-
picted in The Great Adventure" reveals
how adroit he is in visualizlng both the
soft and hard boiled aspects of humanity.
As a convict who momentarily loses his
reason over a farewell letter from his
sweetheart, telling of her marriage to
another man. Barrymore may not have
liked jumping against the bars of his
cell. but he does it with all the fire OF
piunging football back. And he smokes
cigar earlier with n challenge.
Across the screen the author, Jack
Boyle. seems to be saying: 'See here
they may be some romance and pathos
behind this crime wave we've heard
about" His exposition of that idea can
be followed with considerable interest
especially In the first half, which Is as
good and human crook play as one
can find, { ough toward the end thea
trical effectiveness sometimes rules the
hand of fate. Admiration is in order
for an author who chose to end his story
rtnhappily-but then he was writing for
barrymore. to whom the public comedies
such endings.
The hard character gains his name OF
BobBterung BIZ in a lively fight at a
datce when he rescues a girl from ar
Italian gangster who tries to win a
dance from her by strong arm methods.
Biz keeps bouncing back for more punish
rneht until he succeeds in dropping his
adversary impulsively out of an upper
box. The Italian swears vengeance, but
foT all the effect this has on the later
course of the story the gangster might
have been dropped right off the screen.
Falling in love with the girl Ban plans
~ send her necessary ailing mother to
the country to recover, but after the
fashion of his kind never thinks of earn
ing money to do this. Instead he holds
up.a bank, giving the author an oppor
tuuity to show that its always his zone
last crime that is thiefs undoing
But then. where is crook to stop? At
any rate, Bin hides in a Chinaman's
laundry and is betrayed unwittingly by
he baby Chinese girl, who had helped
develop his softer side. Bill would have
been caught anyhow. but this scene
gives the captured fugitive an oppcrtu-
atty 10 forgive his little playmate n,obly.
esne could wish that after Bin leaves
prison and finds the girl who had prom
tsed to he true to him in the arms of an
other that he had been left alone I'm his
misery in the woods, instead of adding
scenes with a highly moral tag-unless
this was done to show a good example
% the censore. The subtitles are a
curious medley. comprising rubbish.
along with such finely imaginative cap
tious as this on Biips return to Chicago
"Aicup OF coffee and a sandwich and
then the westward traini" 1t Is all very
wen to explain that there are going to
be three great moments I'm BtIPs life. but
II seems hardly necessary to point each
ono out baldy, as IL with sign reading ::
This Is n crisis. Kindly weep"
Barrymore demonstrates by leaping on
saxicabs and over walls that in order to
succeed in the underworld one must have
tho agility of Douglas Fairbanks. Mar
guerite Marsh plays the girl well, Mir
lam Battista is the Chinese girl--for a
fash-and Margaret Seddon is inevitably