FILM NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 October 1919, Page 4

FILM NEWS.

London, Aug S British producers are realising that British scenery is one of their greatest assets and the difficulty at present is tp decide which of many beautiful spots is the most suitable background. In “ God’s Good Man ” only a small corner of England is used, but with so much effect that every scene in the open is a joy to the eye. The producer has gloried in all the beauties of a quaint old English village, and the country lanes surrounding it and the scenes of hounds in full cry and of a May Day festivity were applauded at the private view by a business audience not given to enthusiasm. It is also good to .see picture . “ sub-titles ” in a British production.

> ***** “ God’s Good Man ” is founded ou Miss Marie Corelli’s novel of that name, and tells a very simple and sentimental story. An heiress grows tired of London and its artificial “ gaiety,” and retreats to her country house, * where she regains her soul with the aid of the clergyman of the parish, who is an honest, clean individual, the antithesis of her London friends, aucl whom she eventually marries. A villain, who nearly kills her by a carefully planned accident, slightly complicates the plot and, unlike most of his kidney on the screen, does not get his deserts. Miss Peggy Carlisle was pleasing if lacking in vitality as the heroine, and Mr Basil Gill was a genuinely earnest clergyman. *****

One of the brightest films which have arrived from -the Lnited States for many a day is “ Cheating Cheaters.” It is full of excellent surprises and it is impossible to take the eyes from it for a moment. Two gangs of rogues have spread, reports about their personal riches in the hope of deceiving mor.e innocent citizens, .and each thinks the other a collection of honest folk. They are eventually outwitted by a detective agency when trying to burgle one another’s houses. Miss Clara Kimball Young, as the head detective, plays with a liveliness and a sense of enjoyment rarely seen on this side, and the manner in which she conceals her identity is the greatest surprise of all. Miss Young is revealing herself as a remarkably versatile aettess and has no stereotyped part. It is difficult to think this is the same girl who played in“ The .Savage Woman ” and “ The Claw.” There is only one criticism of Cheating Cheaters,” and that is the very free use of American slang. For a man who thinks he is effectively hidden from the police to say “No bull would look for me in a joint like

this ” is simply gibberish to a British 1 audience. • ***** | Miss Theda Bara has a character- ' istic part in “A Woman There Was ” j as Princess Zara, the daughter of the king of a lonely island in the Pacific whose inhabitants worship the “ God of Pearls.” She falls in love with missionary in her usual passionate way and dies defending him against the natives. The unhappy ending is somewhat unusual in the filrarworld, but no imagination could compass the married life of such a couple. The scenic effects are beautifully carried out and the raging of a typhoon across the island very realistic. In “Wisp of the Woods,” Miss Constance Worth’s new film, there is a delightful scene showing her wading through a stream with fish swimming about her feet. The opening effect is also originally planned, showing a wood in which the leaves gradually form the -title of the film. Miss Worth plays the part of a girl who has been allowed to run wild in the woods from early childhood, Charlie Chaplin’s new film “ Sunnyside,” which has been long announced, will be before the public next week.