Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-12
| FAST
i'm STORM ON SCREEN
Film Version of Meiodrama
Better Than Mechanical
Stage Affair

| Karlton - Blizzards howl and rapids
| rush and forest fires blaze in such rapid
succession in "The Storm" that the
natural supposition would be that no
time or opportunity would be left for
human beings to play rational and
plausible parts.
! Nevertheless. the filmed version of
this Tangdon Mccormick thriller is so far
superior to the cumbersome and futile
| stage melo, with it's trick falling trees
and poorly simulated flames, that there
Is no real comparison. On the screen the
story is STILL Of necessity, melodra =
matte, but the thrills are legitimate; a
| real snowstorm sweeps The pine valley
| of fame real canoe shoots swirling
rapids between frowning cliffs.
In fact. that canoe thrill comes pretty
near to eclipsing the fire. 1t is magniti-
| Gently done. with just two persons tpre-
| sumably the heroine and her father)
| apparently facing instant death in a
! mad whirlpool. II Miss Virginia Vall'
was In that canoe at any time during
this sequence of scene land we were
sure we saw her face in one dangerous
stretch) we take off our hats to the
young lady.
She performs almost as creditably in
the scenes which called for real acting
so did Matt Moore as ''the city feller" ;
and House ePters, as the backwoods =
man, was at his best, which meant a
striking and dignifed and sincere por-
trayal. Josef Swickard contributes q
fine minor characterization.
The story-concerning the trapping
of three people. two chums and a girl
in snowbound mountain cabin, and
the love triangle which developed and
wrecked the perfectly good friendship of
the men - has been worked out intelli :.
gently and clearly. thanks to some fine
direction by Reginald Barker. The big
gest thing in favor Of this melodrama
is that we learn to like and understand
the characters.
Aldine - Max Linder has at last
achieved the making Of picture in this
country which ranks pretty close to our
average plotoplay products. 1t Is a
burlesque-perhaps travesty, but
never satire--on Alexandra Dumas
Three Musketcers, and is called
'"The Three. Must. Get There's
Linder in appearance suggests the
Gascon lineage of our noble D'Artag-
nan. but his stature is not such as
heroes are wont 10 be made of and that
helps make his characterization funny.
Even funnler is the ponderous "Bull'
Montana, as the shrewd and crafty Car
dinal Richelicu. The three musketeer
friends of D'Artagnan. with their
brawling and fighting. and their often
avowed slogan Of "All for One, One for
ALL are also moderately amusing.
The staging is elaborate enough to be
suited to serious filming of some his
torical romance, though. of course, it
fades beside Douglas Fairba nks' ver-
sion. It's perhaps lucky. however, that
the scenes nre we'll photographed and
so pretentious. as they often serve to
take our minds off the silly parts of the
parody. Real laughs (of the hearty
gunaw type) are few and far between,
either in sub titles or action, but there
are a number of quiet chuckles and
plenty of tolerant smiles for those who
know their Dumas we'll enough to catch
the drift of the burlesque. Others will
probably be frankly bored and mystified.