The New York herald., 1922-01-16
MISS POLL NTGRI IS
FASCINATING fVAMP'
Partisan Star in Colorful Film
at RiaIto.

RIALTO--Miss Poln Negri In "The Last
Payment q Paramount picture, writ,
ten by John Brepnert and George ia.
coby. and directed by Jacoby.
Miss Pola Negri has Joined the drama
that cannot got along without cigarettes
In her initial modern vehicle Miss N-gri
has gone over fundamentally TO the
'vamp" style. and while there were s,:g-
gestions OF Miss Theda Bara IN PAS
sion" and Gypsy Blood" here for the
first time she demonstrates how well she
can smoke cigarette while ruinine EN-.
But she does not dispose OF her victims
with q mere shrug of the shoulders. like
an American siren. She rumples her
hair, and you can see she is really quite
upset about Il.
The first picture of this enchanting
foreign star made under Paramount
auspices reveals her Turing men to their
doom, both in South America and in
Paris. for evidently climate makes no
difference to her technic. A Parisian
broker divorced her when he embezz ed
for her sake, a South American planter
killed by poems and q wealthy young
lover who shoots himself when rejected
ali these mark her path over a couple
OF years. for she Is O fast worker The
one man whom she feels she truly loves
seems cold to her. and then he is torn
from her by his sons committing sui
eide just when he seems ready TO Yield
to her charms In the midst of a lavish
ball where every one seems to have
come chiefly to toast the divine Lola.
The picture falls short of being a
triumph, because one is never quite
certain that the adventures who starts
as an artists model Is really such n
designing mink after all. Perhaps that
Is because one Is ever loathe to ascribe
the worst motives TO the fascinating
Miss Negri. and certainly in this pic
ture she upholds the divine right of
movie queens to do no wrong. She
seems TO grow in vivacity with each
picture. and for once Faris lives up 10
Its reputation on the screen. And she
can be intensely dramatic clear to her
eyebrows.
Aside from the elaborate mounting at
othor points, the scenes at the ball Of
the Maison Rouge are extremely color
ful and picturesque, and one gathers
that to be popular in Paris is to be
pelted with confetti One could wish
that the story had ended with Lola re-
verting to mad gaycty Just after die
covering the tragedy of her young lover
that would have been finely sardonic
toucn worthy OF Leonard Merrick. Pos
sibly her finish under the wheels of a
railroad train was meant as explana-
tion of the title, though otherwise "The
Last Payment" seems TO have little
moro relevancy than Mack Sennett
name. Albert Patry. Leopold Won Lede-
bour and Henry Liedtlke carry the story
well through a flash back story within
story that In other hands might make
the middle Of the story seem undramatic,
but II is hard to believe that such a
breath taking person az Miss Negri
would fall In love with the quite plain
featured father pictured here
Two interesting sidelights show that
the dances which created such a craze
here before the war are evidently Just
now sweeping Germany off It's feet, and
again. in the mercifuily brief trial OF
the embezzler, that French court pro-
cedure is as swift as Jersey Justice.