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riLM SHOWS1 AMERICA AT WAR, ■■■■I. —“The Fall of a Nation,” Thomas Dixon’s New “Battle Drama,” Urgent Plea for National Defense; Herbert’s Music Pleasess)BY ASHTON STEVENS.THE first-nighters of the screen appear not to care a tinker's imprecation whether a film battledramabe for war or for peace so long as there is plenty of fighting in it. And believe me when I tell you there was fighting a-plenty in The Fall of a Nation” at the Illinois Theater last night. Even the loyal ladies got into action and shot and rode for our country, ’tis of thee.The prologue was dull, as most movie prologues have a way of being, and the first half of the picture proper was inclined to depress in the inescapable fact that the United States of America was being licked all over the map by the traitor at home and the imperial invader from abroad. But directly the second half disclosed a nation striking back at its conqueror with a good chance of landing a knockout, the house began to smile and applaud and Victor Herbert's victory-presaging muffc foundeverywhere a sympathetic foot-tap. •At the game of war, as at other games, the crowd is completely happy only when it can root for the hometeam.* * *i IBUDIXON WRITES PLAY.THOMAS DIXON has written and * (with the aid of Bartley Cushing) directed a big, spectacular, war play that, while not as suspenseful as The Birth of a Nation,” nor as exciting as the midsection of Civilization,” stands alcne among films of its kind by virtue of displaying here and there a human and helpful senseof humor.To my way of thinking a littlehumor is a lovely thing in a picture As humor is the seasoning salt of spoken melodrama, so is it the cinnamon of the cinema. Virtually everybody save Mr. Bryan will laugh at the rough caricature of the Chautauqua pacifist who is made up to resemble him and exacts his lecture fee in advance. Mr. Dixon has gone the cartoonists one*bctter in poking sport at the Commoner, but his humor is not always violently topical.The most refreshing souvenir of ‘•The Fall of a Nation” is the character of an Italian organ grinder, who puts by his bandana and earrings to enlist with the Americans, dresses his boy as George Wash,” the coming president, runs away in terror from his first engagement in the trenches, but comes back with new grit, and makes a glorious target of himself with the colors. That is a. comic touch that thrills no less than thrills the episode of his slain family mourned by the affectionate monkey.There are many of these human nature strokes in the picture, and ihey are all very welcome—the story needs them.♦ * *PRAISE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.THE photography impresses my lay eye as being unusually forthright, untricky. The cavalry dashes are shown closer up” than would seem to be the rule, which enables you to make the acquaintance of some brilliant horsemanship. And the acting of the principals throughout is of good workmanlike quality.Some of this acting recalls the day of Faul Potter's sensational The Conquerors.” The heroines are hotly pursued by the villains, one even chasing a girl to a high roof, where he is neatly picked off by a small boy with a revolver. No precious stone of screen melodrama is left unturned.Indeed, once the piece is under way, 3*ou wonder how Mr. Dixon could have wasted so much footage on a prologue that is as flat as an illustrated chronological history. But— second thought!—perhaps the prologue is for Victor Herbert, for it is in this pictorial waste that he Juggles most effectively with the national airs.His score is large anft sonorous rather than catchy, although thereare some delightful melodies in the lighter scenes. And ere T reach the limit of my wartime space I want to propose three rousing cheers for the man that wrote the subtitles. They are not only grammatical and unpretentious, but sane. And what is so rare as a sane subtitle on the eve of1 Via TTnnrt h !
Newspaper Details
Chicago Examiner
Chicago, Illinois, US
Tue, Jul 04, 1916
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 15 Oct 2020
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