THE SCREEN
Date: 10 May 1920
The new feature at the Capitol Theatre this week is Rex Beach's "famous story," "The Silver Horde." The name of Mr. Beach, who set out to make pictures along ideas of his own, has been connected with several more noteworthy films than this one. There was a time when Mr. Beach's ideas on pictures were refreshing and highly commendable, but this new film is evidence that he is finding the field too big for him. It is beginning to swallow him—whole.For "The Silver Horde" is nothing if not conventional film stuff, conventionally done. The hero is a business failure who loves the daughter of a man of millions, and who goes into the great open spaces—there are generally some open spaces somewhere in every picture—to make good. Of course, he elects to fight the father in his own line of work—salmon fishing, with Alaska the scene of the combat. His unscrupulous rivals make it hard for him; but he wins out. With him in the fight is Mr. Beach's "Cherry Malotte," girl of the woods, and in the end, of course, it is Cherry whom he loves, and not the heiress.It is the kind of story that the films showed in the nickel days, and not much better done. The most interesting parts are the views of the salmon and the method of handling them, and these looked suspiciously as though they had been clipped from a convenient news reel. Every once in a while, also, in this strictly businesslike story, one runs into a caption something like this: "Laughter is the key that unlocks the chamber of despair. It frees the imprisoned soul," &c., &c. Curtis Cooksey, Myrtle Stedman, and Robert McKim play the leading rôles.The week's operatic feature at the Capitol is a condensation of "Hansel and Gretel."Marjorie Rambeau, after a considerable absence from the screen, returns to the fold at the Broadway this week in "The Fortune Teller," in which she was seen at the Republic Theatre about a year ago. It is a rôle which gives good opportunities to the actress. The Rivoli is offering the second and final instalment of Shackleton's highly interesting adventures in search of the south pole, and, as the feature film, Dorothy Dalton in "The Dark Mirror." At the Rialto Theatre that good old farce, "Mrs. Temple's Telegram," finally reaches the screen, with Bryant Washburn as its hero. The Strand offers Harold McGrath's Saturday Evening Post story. "The Yellow Typhoon," with Anita Stewart as its star. The Criterion begins its third week as a home of runs with "Why Change Your Wife?" still as the attraction.