Change Your Image
deickemeyer
Reviews
The Human Soul (1914)
They interest, partly due to flashes of good acting
A three-part Balboa offering with a most unusual theme and with one scene that is truly startling. There are two distinct stories, neither of which is convincing. In the first, where the man photographs the raising soul of his dying wife, there is no heart appeal except momentary emotion, due to good acting. The second is wholly commonplace except that the finding of the photograph years afterward by the man's daughter, which keeps her from running away with a worthless scoundrel, is merely a new incident. Both the stories are trashy, yet they interest, partly due to flashes of good acting, but most to the clever camera work. As a whole, the picture has enough life to please and will be liked. It is a safe offering, not a great one. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Le Legs (1914)
A very fair feature offering
A three-reel detective story, made in France. It is fairly interesting as a story, although if it had been cut down to about two reels of film we would have had a more clear-cut and snappy picture without losing a thing of the story. The little heroine is stolen by her evil brother whom the grandfather has cut off from his inheritance and this is done to force the mother to give him a part of the money. It has some unusual scenes in the last reel showing a mine where the youth and his gang take the little sister to hide her and to which the great detective follows. The photography is clear and the story makes a very fair feature offering, but without special strength. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Toll of the War-Path (1914)
It has no special strength
A three part Albuquerque picture of early Western days which has a loss of memory incident and a heroine who finds herself innocently with two husbands. In the first reel the story engages our attention easily and holds steadily throughout. Its heroine (Dot Farley) is pretty and vivacious and makes a very acceptable cow-girl with her easy and graceful riding. There is plenty of Indian fighting and battle smoke, and sufficient action to get past with the audiences as a good offering. Yet it has no special strength. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Die Augen des Ole Brandis (1913)
The gallery will hardly understand the meaning of it all
A four-reel Bioscope picture taken along some beautiful mountain lake, like Como, with tremendous backgrounds and lovely bits of landscape: ilex trees, garden walks, marble steps and the rough twists and bends of a hillside city's ways. Hans Ewer's novel furnished the scriptwright with his story which is half mystical and deals with an artist, Ole Brandeis, who gets the faculty of seeing people as they truly are. The spectator, after seeing one or two transformations, begins to speculate on how this or that other character in it is going to turn out. The gallery will hardly understand the meaning of it all, but it will be an entertaining exercise to instructed patrons. There is a ragged heroine who alone is good and true, and what she appears to be, and the rich artist finds this out. A good offering for the right place, but one that we fear that the general spectator will not be enthusiastic over. It is well acted and the backgrounds are artistically photographed. Its double exposures are poorly matched. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Hunchback of Cedar Lodge (1914)
It will entertain and please
A three-reel Balboa ghost story, set in old Virginia and with a romance woven into it. It will entertain and please without exciting any special admiration, excepting the stage-craft of the haunted library scenes with the hidden treasure chamber behind the walls and secret panel. We have seen much cleverer camera work than that in the picture of a storm in this offering. The hunchback villain kills his father and gets his brother suspected (both love the same girl) but years later this brother finds his skeleton stretched across the hidden trunk of gold and gems in the secret closet, and this is a very effective close to a series of good scenes. Some of Balboa stories are of the best, but, as in this case, original stagecraft and camera work give a popular and entertaining quality to even its commonplace and commercial stories. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Rat (1914)
One of the best offerings of this type
A two-reel story of the underworld, chiefly remarkable for its close attention to settings and character details. It has the further recommendation of dealing with low life in a manner which at no time proves depressing, as it calls out the better traits of the gang members. Henry King plays the part of the "Rat," who comes to the aid of Marian, the millionaire's daughter, when she has been abducted. This is one of the best offerings of this type we have seen and is played by a well-balanced cast. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Rescued by Wireless (1914)
A combination of story and scenic novelties
This two-reel number, produced by Henry McRae in Honolulu, is a combination of story and scenic novelties. The story halts while we look at tapestry being made from bark, pineapples growing, rice fields, water buffalo and the like. This being disposed of, the story moves ahead and stirs up quite a lot of excitement in the second reel. William Clifford, Sherman Bainbridge and Marie Walcamp play the leading parts. This holds the interest in spite of its faulty construction from the story standpoint. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Firelight (1914)
Some very pretty scenes
A two-part picture of sentiment in which a man, who is making his millions every year and grinding down everyone he comes in contact with, has a fierce strike on his hands. His wife, who seems very fearful, knows that one of his striking workers is waiting to shoot him. She detains him with stories of their youth, courting and married life. These include some very pretty scenes and result not only in saving the man from being shot, but in giving him a change of heart. It is well photographed and will make a good offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
A Man and His Brother (1914)
An unmoral ending
This two-reel subject, in which Warren Kerrigan plays the lead, holds all the way with the exception of the last one or two scenes, which are weakened by an unmoral ending. It shows Mr. Kerrigan in a typical Western role, formerly so familiar to his followers. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Mad Man's Ward (1914)
Good situations
This two-reel subject features Florence Lawrence. Others in the cast are Charles Craig, John C. Brownell and William O'Neill. The chief interest in this picture centers in the star, who is seen in one of her favorite roles of a young and carefree girl brought up by the madman, and also in the fine ocean shore backgrounds. There are good situations in the second reel. -The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Messenger of Death (1914)
Hardly enough to fill out one reel
A two-reel picture of the Indian frontiers in which hill people attack a compound left in the care of a sergeant (Irving Cummings) with a handful of men and the sister of the captain to the guard. There is very little dramatic action in it, hardly enough to fill out one reel, and the ending is tragic without the deep significance that makes tragedy worth while. A weak offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Mystery of the Hindu Image (1914)
There's a shiver-making snake scene
A good, exciting detective story in two parts. A man is found dead in his library, killed by the knife of his ward, who the day before had been abusive to him. His fingers still hold the head of the Hindoo image. The ward is convicted, but while the detective is working on the case he escapes. The detective has a stirring adventure in the apartment of a Hindoo swamii whom he proves to be the culprit. But before this is accomplished, the ward is recognized and again brought to a cell. There's a shiver-making snake scene in it and the plot is constructed to hold interest well. Acting and camera work are good. An excellent offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Shorty and the Aridville Terror (1914)
Sure to be counted good entertainment
A two-reel farce that is pretty sure to be counted good entertainment. It has an amusing plot, but there is much rough action included and this gives it a broad appeal and makes it a safe offering. The wife of the frontier village's dentist has a way of coaxing into the office cowpunchers with perfectly good teeth and getting a fee out of them. The "Terror" comes to town and is put on to the "good thing." He, himself, has some misgivings, but perseveres until the dentist and his wife get him under gas. But when he comes out of it he wrecks the office, and there follows a typical chase with tumbles, shooting and many other diverting actions. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
All at Sea (1914)
Spirited acting
A comical sea-side romance, taken at Coronado Beach and then on shipboard, and full of beautifully photographed scenes. There was a good deal of laughter while it was on, chiefly because of the spirited acting, and it makes a very fair offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Midnight Visitor (1914)
A sure laugh
A cleverly thought up offering that will give good entertainment. The rather gay and festive husband would go to the club. There, after drinking a bit too much, he sleeps and dreams of a burglar who scares his wife to death, he falls off the chair and, on reaching home, finds that there has been visitor, but that it was the stork and not a yeggman. This has been pictured in such a way as to bring out a sure laugh when the true inwardness of the situation revealed to us. We can count it a very good offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Man of Her Choice (1914)
Hurriedly thrown together
A rather weak picture. The story might have been suggested by "Admirable Crichton," but it has been, it seems, hurriedly thrown together and the relationships of the characters does not convince. There is too much unimportant business that shows nothing new to us and this makes it dry. In the best scenes the photography is fair. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Symphony of Souls (1914)
Does not powerfully convince
Not very dramatic or effective, because the story is neither sensational or inevitable and the love between the blind girl and the music-master, who has taken her and cared for her when orphaned, does not powerfully convince. We feel too sure that he is going to give her up to her grandfather in the end. It is a fair offering, not a big or noteworthy one. The photography is clean. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Third Party (1914)
Clever acting
Husband is jealous of his wife's brother whom he has never seen, so he makes the butler dress in one of his wife's gowns and then she is jealous. To tell the truth, there is very little left to this particular situation, but the players in this case have done all that they could by clever acting and have succeeded in putting some comic atmosphere in it. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Maggie's Honest Lover (1914)
A rough-and-tumble farce
A rough-and-tumble farce with the partly constructed buildings of the San Diego Exposition as background. The burlesque characters are workmen on the construction job and the heroine is the daughter of the sand-pile man. The foreman is the villain and a subtitle lets us into the secret of his being a "dirty scoundrel." Maggie's honest lover, the carpenter, can look innocent after throwing a brick. It ends with a chase and will please. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Some Cop (1914)
Not very funny
Charles De Forrest and Vivian Prescott play the leads in this rough farcical offering. It is not very funny on account of lack of spontaneity more than anything else and it is a bit vulgar. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Storm Bird (1914)
About an average offering
A sea story, with Edna Maison and Ray Gallegher as the lovers. The principal action centers about the young mate's row with the captain on board the vessel. The small boy and the girl come to his rescue. This is about an average offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
In the Days of Old (1914)
It is a very pretty offering
A picture played almost exclusively by children and with a story that is given as a dream. Its villain is a medieval potentate who falls in love with the wife of one of his lords. The jealous queen kills the lady by poison roses, but it is only a pretended death and enables the husband to rescue her from the wicked court. It is a very pretty offering, charmingly costumed and set, but is commendable most for its novelty. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
Behind the Veil (1914)
Appealing to kindly human sentiments
A story by Lois Weber effectively appealing to kindly human sentiments and staged by the Smalleys with their usual skill. The man and his wife (Phillips Smalley as the man and Lois Weber as the woman) have been separated and the child, an important character in the plot, is with the father. There appears in the village a woman who always wears a veil and the neighbors wonder. It is the mother who comes to be near her child and the denouement which is convincingly worked up, too, brings about the satisfactory reconciliation between the separated pair. It is a good picture, clearly acted and human. The photography is excellent. We commend it. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
The Mind's Awakening (1914)
Not handled very strongly
This Western offering has quite an entertaining plot. The new waitress finds both her husband and her father at the hotel and the reunion follows a night encounter with some would-be thieves. Dolly Larkin and Arthur Allardt play the lovers. Not handled very strongly but contains good plot material. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914
How Bill Squared It with His Boss (1914)
Thoroughly delightful
A comedy that will make friends for the exhibitor. Bill (Tammany Young), the boss (Tod Browning), and the stenographer (Fay Tincher) are all so funny that they only need to have a chance to make a good laugh. Then there is in the situation a spontaneous fun that is wholly contagious and it makes one of those thoroughly delightful offerings that are certain money-getters for all who exploit them. A dandy offering. - The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914