THE SCREEN; Broken Divorces.
Date: 15 January 1924
Our thoughts wandered while viewing J. Stuart Blackton's incredibly long picture, "Let Not Man Put Asunder," which is at the Rialto this week. We thought of the organist alone in the orchestra pit, and speculated on what sort of a medal we would give him. It is true that he only glanced occasionally at the screen for his cue. His face was enthusiastic, but we remembered that he has been a victim of poor productions more than once. What would he feel like next Saturday afternoon? Would his courage keep up? Would he smile as he did yesterday as he wrung melody and thunderous booms while touching the organ keys for the fleeting shadows of Pauline Frederick and Lou Tellegen, featured in this film?Then Lou Tellegen reminded us for a mere flash of Georges Carpentier, and our thoughts strayed to the last bout in which we had seen the Frenchman. We conjured up what Georges looked like the morning after his battle with Siki. Then the film caused us to sympathize with Petrina Faneuil, when the day before her marriage her fianceé's mother read her a lecture on Harry, saying that he was punctilious about his evening meal, which he always took at half past six—and how he liked his shirts washed, and the woman who knew the right amount of starch to use. We expressed mental admiration for Petriana (Pauline Frederick) when she emphasized the idea of dining at eight.It appeared to us as if dear old Sir Humphrey de Bohun anticipated a marriage proposal from Petrina, and that he was shocked when Petrina appealed to him to return to his wife. We also felt sorry for him when his daughter wept again.Summed up, this is a story of first sworn loves. Three different men—as nearly as we could count—return to wives they had divorced, and in the end all are happy as larks with the very persons they could not endure years ago. Lou Tellegen plays the part of Dick Lechmere, who, in a few flashbacks, tells the story of his adventurous love affair. One never imagines that his wife will return. But one stormy night (as usual in such films) on comes the repentant Felecia, blown about by wicked winds hurled at her by airplane propeller, and soaked through by fire-hose rain, until she drops exhausted on the gravel path—letting it be seen that in spite of everything she still wears silk stockings.Mr. Blackton has attempted to depict the mental changes in a wife on the first night her husband leaves her. First she wishes he would return, and would give anything to see him. Finally she decides that she won't open the door for him if he does appear. Miss Frederick does her best, with her newly bobbed hair, to make a dramatic appeal with this scene, but direction has a great deal to do with all screen players, and in this picture it is not of the best. As for Tellegen, he is given too much to starting on receiving the obvious bad news, and in other parts of the film he could hardly be held up as a model for screen beginners.The lighting in this picture gives an artificial aspect to many of the scenes. The property moon leaves a good deal to be desired—even in new moons. The titles are mediocre, in fact, quite trying at times, especially when one woman says that she will applaud until her hands bleed.This is not a film we would like to see more than once, and we would willingly have sacrificed the chance of viewing it at all.THEATRICAL NOTES.The next production at the Lenox Hill Theatre will be St. John Ervine's dramatization of H. G. Wells's story, "The Wonderful Visit," played in London about a year ago. "Madre" was withdrawn from the Lenox Hill on Saturday night.The Cecilia Loftus-Beatrice Herford matinee scheduled for today at Henry Miller's Theatre has been canceled to permit a dress rehearsal of "Fanshastics." The Loftus-Hertford engagement has been extended to include performances Tuesday and Friday afternoons of next week, and a final performance a week from Sunday night.Laurette Taylor has returned to New York after filming "Happiness" in Hollywood.Three Shubert attractions were moved to new theatres last night. Delysia and "Topics of 1923" was transferred from the Broadhurst to the Winter Garden: "For All of Us" moved from the Forty-ninth Street to the Ambassador, and "The Dancers" moved from the Ambassador back to the Broadhurst, where it was originally produced.Mary H. Kirkpatrick has acquired the dramatic rights to Rebecca West's novel, "The Return of the Soldier."Mrs. William Copper Dickey will give a dramatic recital at the Punch and Judy Theatre on Sunday night, Jan. 27.Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., accompanied by Billie Burke and their daughter, left yesterday for Palm Beach."The Show-Off," by George Kelly, was produced in Atlantic City last night. The cast included Regina Wallace, Juliette Crosby and Helen Lowell.