The Washington times., 1923-04-03
BY HAROLD PHILLIPS.


Bill Price. ........ Dan Moyles
By HAROLD PHILLIPS.
Here is a romantic melorcomedy
dealing with border bootleggers,
a baby and ,love-and. "Lasca." 1t
/ is "a most diverting little comedy,
serious and dramatic at times
elevated beyond intrinsic merits
by fine acting in every depart
ment.
Out from the opaque silence Sof
Weeweeten, New Jersey, energies,
Mamie, in a flivver, bound for
the open mesa in Arizona to find
the Daddy of the motherless.
lander, a blue-eyed, yellow
haired tike who finds Arizona
veritable paradise Of live toys,
such as scorpions and snakes but
who is predestfned as rone Of
Gods own revenue agents to turn
into paths of righteousness what
the headline writer's call "a S.n-
lister Rum Ring" captured by
MuTchisOn, curly-headed but
sen1f-honest miscreant whose sbe-
yootifuf blue eyes attest. he
drinks not of the stuff he deals
in though prescious resemblance to
this virtue is reflected in
Texas, a roll.cking, melodic
philosopher of the plains, whose
chantey in act two as the sheriff
bears down on them, runs thusly:
Mothers making whiskey,
Fathers bottling gin,
CORA YdY1an 20 kno0dfn0 raYA tho
hops,
MY Cod
How the money rolls in"
Zander's cherubic influence finds
less reception in Texas, Cosmos
than in: so much Portland cement
and when Mamie rejects his love
he ambles out of the picture for a
long deferred siesta with John
Barleycorn. Last but not least
of this .trafficking trio is,
Good News, a sort of blue
shirted Tartuffe, at his worst
harmless hypocrite who resents
Mamie's incursion because her
daily raids on dirt and squalor
with the serubbing brush are
gradually graduating "the home
klse atmosphere
Here they are, then, this odd
gTo9fp Of chafacterss supplement.
ed by several lesser ones, grouped
under one roof. temperaments
and aims conflicting. Comedy
predominates but melodrama
grabs the spotlight-and pathos
too-when Murchfson masquerad-
ing as the youngsters father
orders lander sent to Mexico to
get away from the bad influence
which Mamie objects to. Mamie's;
parting with the kid she loves as
her own, Is touching: a prelude
to the climax which finds Murchi-
SON nursing a gun-shot wound
and Mamie controlling the situa7
ton with lander in one hand and
~ six-shooter in the other.
lander goes, however, but he
comes back--he was hidden in a
cottage only stones throw from
the house. With him he brings
his pet scorpion and something,
infinitely more important, that
benign halo of innocence which
often semaphores the proper d.
rection for adults on. the wrong,
track. "a Little Child Leads
Them" in these directions. Mamie
to love and happiness; Murchi-
son likewise; Good News back to
the kitchen ON which cleanliness
has put it's awful blight and
Texas to the nearest saloon.
NAMES boyish lover from Wee
weeken, not. so good as he's paint
ed, lis led right back home to
assuage his. unrequited love by
contemplating the benefits VOL.
steadisrn has conferred on him.
Salisbury Field has written in
r1ocently and without ostentation.
His is a vehicle that is but
thin thread for the remarkably
good delineations of it's interpre-
ters. Charles. Frohman's offices
must be credited with that per-
ception OF fcharactergdemand which
has filled every role with types
that invite. little Improvement.
Miss Brady, naturalness her
greatest charm, has as suitable a
part as she ever graced; neither
too emotional nor unduly light.
She gives 1t every emphasis and
restraint, a critical sense expects.
Jerorna Patrick. a. Dustin Far
mum type of matinee idol. who
was last seen here in 1.-THE Circle"
is too restrained, we thought.
He wears an unbroken. serious
mien. throughout, unsmiling and
terribly aloof. "Out in the big
broad West, where the smiles
a little longer; and the hand
shakes a little stronger" as the
poets will have it, Patrick is too
much the emotionless Robot.
Otherwise he deports himself
rather commercially.
Joseph Allen as Good News"
develops a character that stands
out in good shape. George Alb
bolt, remembered as the brother
with a drawl in "Dulcy," makes
Texas everything he should be.
; Mention also the work of Ray
mopd Van Sickle, William Wads-
worth and Jerome Barrett. And
lander (short for AIexander) is