Moving Picture World (Dec 1917) - Learn About Movie Posters

December 22, 1917 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 181 '
Attractions for Broadway Theater
Managing Director Laemmle Announces a Number of Important
Productions to Be Shown There.
MANAGING Director Carl Laemmle, of the Broadway theater,
makes announcement of a number of very important
productions, which will go into the Broadway during tinmonths
of December and January, during which time a double
bill and continuous performance, at popular prices, will be
Mr. Laemmle's rule.
The first of these special Broadway house features to have
their initial showing on Sunday afternoon, December 9, are
"My Unmarried Wife" and "Beloved Jim."
"My Unmarried Wife" is adapted from the Frank R. Adams
novel. "Molly and I," skillfully done by Doris Schroeder and
inimitably produced by George A. Siegmann. Beautful Carmel
Myers, last seen at the Broadway house, in the Jewel feature,
"Sirens of the Sea," has the leading feminine role, and Kenneth
Harlan, seen also recently at this playhouse in the Lois Weber-
Jewel masterpiece, "The Price of a Good Time," plays the male
lead. The well-balanced cast includes Beatrice Van. Pat Calhoun,
Marc Fenton and Jack Hutchinson. The story is that of
Phillip Smith, who reluctantly leaves the .'shelter of his father's
luxurious home because of his penchant for a literary career,
and who subsequently meets with an accident while saving the
life of a child in an explosion blast. He is taken to the home
of a doctor by his beautiful young ward and there becomes the
husband of the girl, under unusual circumstances. His eyesight
is restored in Switzerland but a harmless vampire and a
wooden-shod immigrant re-enter the scene when Smith, restored
to health, returns "to New York minus his newlyacquired
bride. Both the vampire and the immigrant bring
about a happy finale with a decided twist in the fifth reel,
making a production tremendously interesting from point of
plot construction, acting and situations.
"Beloved Jim" is also in five reels. The story is a Christmas
one, beautifully done by Joseph Girard and produced by
Stuart Paton, who has a long line of decided cinema successes,
including Universal's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea," to his credit". Attractive Priscilla Dean, who made a hit
at the Broadway theater in two Lois Weber features, notably
"Even as You and I" and "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle,"
plays the leading feminine role and that of the wife of "Beloved"
Jim Brockton, excellently portrayed by Harry Carter
of "Gray Ghost" fame. The remainder of the cast includes
J. Morris Foster, Charles Hills Mailes, Frank Deshon, Sydney
Deane, Ed. Brown, Jos. Girard and Mrs. A. E. Witting.
Mr. Laemmle announces that special musical programs will
accompany all of these features at the Broadway.
"UNKNOWN 274" (Fox).
An unusually large cast containing the names of numerous
favorites of motion picture patrons is announced by William
Fox for the Fox Special Feature to be released December 16.
The title of the production is "Unknown 274," the star is June
Caprice, and the supporting company, comprising ten actors
and actresses, includes Kittens Reichert. Florence Ashbrook,
Tom Burrough, Inez Marcel, Dan Mason, Richard Neill, Jean
Armour, William Burns, and Alexander Shannon. Another important
member of the company is Lady, the dog.
The story is that of a girl who was placed in an orphanage
by her mother when the latter's husband was arrested by
trickery in this country for failure to perform army service
in his native land. The girl is discovered in the orphanage by
a scheming couple, who adopt her in the hope of being able
to marry her to some rich man. The girl meets a rich young
man just as was planned, but he does not happen to be the
sort of man the schemers had hoped to find. Result: He
rescues the girl from her bad environment. About the same
time the girl finds her father as a result of playing an old
"violin which had been left with her when she was placed in
the orphanage. The theme of the story is stated to be "from
poverty to millionaire's wife."
The picture was made under the direction of Harry Millarde.
and George Scarborough wrote the scenario.
HEARST-PATHE NEWS SHOWS NEW POLISH ARMY.
From New York to New Zealand is a far cry, but in the
Hearst-Pathe News No. 98 are some remarkable scenes showing
the eruption of the volcano Waimangu at Rotorua in thai
British Island. The camera was perched upon the brink of
the crater and caught a number of scenes showing the clouds
of smoke and steam arising from the depths of the earth far
below. In connection with these scenes are one or two others
showing the "stern and rock-bound coast" in that vicinity.
These scenes are of great beauty.
Among the other interesting features of this number are
scenes of the new Polish army, which has been organized in
France, and is now fighting on the side of the Allies. This
army appeals to the imagination, since the Poles are literally
a nation without a country and are fighting to have restored
to them the land for which their forefathers fought, and died
and which had a brilliant history.
From Seattle, Washington, come views of an 8,800-ton ship
which was built in 79 days after the keel was laid, it being
one of the first to be launched under Uncle Sam's new shipbuilding
plans. Scenes of life in the training camps, charming
girls in the costumes of 2,000 years ago. the placing of New
York's waterfront under martial law, etc., etc., round out an
excellent number of the famous weekly and one which is bound
to get applause wherever it is shown.
Picture Increases Vogue of Stage Star
Jane Cowl Sees New Englanders, After Witnessing "The
BY
Spreading Dawn," Storm Box Office of "Lilac Time."
a CHAIN of fortuitous circumstance .lane Cowl, Bi
Goldwyn's photoplay production "t Basil King's story, "The
Spreading Dawn," has punched holes in the theati
superstition that the stage popularity of an actor or acl
can i'e killed by his or her appearance "ii the motion plcl
screen. Miss Cowl's experience has proved that this popularity
is enhanced by the very means presumed in some sections of
the country to injure it.
The Goldwvn star was on tour in "Lilac Time" when
Spreading Dawn" was released throughoul the United S(
.Miss Cowl's managers were not a little astonished to find that
in cities in which it followed "The Spreading Dawn" the business
was even better than usual.
In one New England city the stage show opened the night
after the picture had closed a run at a local theater. Patrons
who had been delighted with the Goldwvn photoplay were
so anxious to see its star in the flesh that they besieged the
box office a I "Lilac Time" and almost fought for the privilege
of buying seats.
Under these circumstances Miss Cowl found herself ali<
in the position of motion picture actresses who elect to make
a "personal appearance" at motion picture theaters in which
their films are being shown. The natural curiosity of theatergoers
to see in person, the player they had admired on the
screen worked to her profit.
ARBUCKLE THINKS HE IS A HORSEMAN.
It is virtually decided that Boscoe "Fatty" Arbuekle's comedy
for release by Paramount, following "A Country Hero."
will be a western story in which Mr. Arbuckle will appear as
a cowpuncher, mounted on a dashing steed, pursuing the
festive maverick over the prairies of the cow-country. Which
is all very well, or would be, if Mr. Arbuckle were a trifle less
given to avoirdupois; but as it is, he is saying with Richard 111,
"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."
Mr. Arbuckle has visions of himself, no doubt, "careering"
through the sagebrush and chaparral with all the reckless
abandon of a modern Mazeppa. Then he glances ruefully at
the scales and in his mind's-eye attempts to conceive a horse
capable of carrying his weight.
"SADIE GOES TO HEAVEN" (Essanay).
Little Mary McAlister plays the role of a tenement waif in
her newest picture, "Sadie Goes to Heaven." The six-year-old
actress shows lor remarkable fund of dramatic ability in this
characterization, as she is required to carry most of the weight
of the production.
It is filled with quaint sentiment, and revealing the hypocrisies
of a certain type of the wealthy,
That the ecstacy of heaven is found where the heart is
happiest is the moral demonstration of the picture. For Sadie.
born and bred in the poorer part of a big city, returns to her
tenement hovel, preferring its hardships and deprivations to
Scene from "Sadie Goes to Heaven" (Essanay).
a life of luxuries where sentiment and appreciation for the
simpler qualities of life are so bluntly IgnO
There are many unique presentations in this picture. Sadie's
entrance into the home of the rich via a clothes hamper is
Whimsically handled.
Mary McAlister wears some lovely gowns in this production.
as well as some ludicrous ri Washington Square,''
her ragged dog, is portrayed by Patsy Argyle, a newcomer to
the screen, "rented" from a Michigan farmer.
Supporting players are Rod LaRocque, Bobby Bolder, Frankie
Raymond, and others. The screen time is 65 minutes.