Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-11-18
{4s4 CC@ Daily gMovie Magazine
THE MOVIE FANS
LETTERBOX
By HENRY NJ. NEELY

H.. r. r. writes: 1T has been q
long time since = was in. Remember,
I came along with two gentlemen named
Shaw and Wilde. You must have been
very busy at the time for you did not
invite me again. Oversight, no doubt.
"My reasons for coming back are
that the weather is wet and ]. r. p.
II. asked a question. was one OF
those who agreed with you in the mat.
ter Of Grifith's small town point Of
view, and/since you refuse to get into
the argument, preferring to set back
and laugh. propose to add little to
your merrimcnt.
1.-THE old Griffith is in the dim and
distant past. We have vague memories
of him rs the producer Of those old
two and four reel canoes that revo.
lutionizcd the, moving picture. It Is
the press .ngcnted Wall Street backed
Griffith that we are concerned with
now, for it is in the later productions
that his failing is most evident.
Lets take Opus The Birth of a
Nation I was quite a kid when I saw
it and plead guilty to having kicked on
the balcony rail and whistled when the
klansmcn swung into action. I ndmit
there was lump in my throat when the
little girl jumped off the rock. ana
when Wallic Reid cleaned out the gin
mill yelled with unconstrained joy.
hut. alas them. days is gone forever.
Good movie business. YOU say. Sure.
It's drammer alright, but we're talking
s,t La
he really did. Well he just took a
cheap, tawdry propaganda novel and
lavished on 1t technical skill and n
sound sense Of dramatic values that it
did not deserve, the result being n
highly seasoned mess Of hokum. ella.
boratcy garnished with an appeal to
ignorant. prejudiced minds.
"On turning to Opus II we find our
Negro batter serving up a lengthy dis.
course on intolerance and digging into
the tnusty archives Of three dead ages
for his corroborative evidence. But here
is to be discerned dull CLINT of tar.
nsh"d genius. We see man with
! imagination enough to conjure n lovely.
with sufficient understanding and sym.
pathy to create the modern tale, yet
! lacking courage and taste to spread
his c~lors on canvas rs It picture. as 4
< s.orious. vivid spectacle. preferring to
, "hnc"ct .h" two into n sickrningly hy-
porritical sermon on prejudice and in
tolerance. \ surprising about face for
the inspirationul father Of the modern
Ku Klux Klan.
After short return to the cameo
(cnlargcd somcwhat. resulting in
Hrokcn Blossoms his best. we find our
hero casting about for new material
and he is able to discover nothing bet.
ter than that old tear squeczer. Way
Down East He opens with IL short
Ndmonitory sermon on male concu-
pscencc and announces that The Great
or intended man for one woman only.
, IL" has either misunderstood the Creator
or tn" daily newspapers are all liars.
but that lets the right thinkers in. any.
way. Then follows the usual battle
between Innocent Virtue and the min
ions of Satan, with poor old Innocent
/ Virtue getting the worst of it for about
nine or ten reels. There is some COM
cdv relief and great deal OF shrivclus
and then the. tide turns. The pure
hearted. manly young farm boy saves
the wrongcd heroine from the ice and
punches the villains handsome pro-
l"SciS: the stern father rel,ints .and
ais we'll in the world. Amen. All
beautifully photographed and turned
ont with startling dramatic punch.
but all essentially cheap and shallow.
Following some nconscquont tri.
fling. that resulted in nothing more than
tn" waste Of considerable perfectly
good c"lluloid. Opus " is under way.
We hear vague uncertain whispers tha;
the next is to have foreign flavor.
probably something French, and we
wait with batcd breath. What will it
hc-'I.rs Misrrabl"s - 'Sn lamundrr' or
maybe. something Of Anatolc FrnnrcI
, standby The Two Orphans with
French Revolution sauce. Two recent
foreign productions have proved that
III" Reign of Terror is subject of
, lively interest and Danton is figure
Of tremendous dramatic force, but Mr..
Griffith apparently introduced the r"v0-
lu'iun and DantOn, only 80 that there
might be n person Of some importance
around to fall in love with tn" drl"rt-
, ahI" Miss 'iish. and say" her life at
the last minute. thereby following Il
firmly established rule of movi" pro.
r"durc. Gaudy stuff. bur in spite OF
n certain prctcntiousness. lik" the oth-
"rs il Slips back in the last reel to
the h.rk mclodrama. Always the
smashing climax, Sheridan'S ride in
s'raug" costume, that reminds me Of
the ending of an old keystone comedy.
+ "To sum up. Mr.. Gritlith's small
town viewpoint amounts to an inability
TO Src that there is any connection be-
tween creative work and morals or
current social ethics. The beautiful is
good and the ugly bad. The fact II
that beautiful and good are two unre-
/ lated terms. The beautiful is neither
good nor bad: it is above either. His