FILM NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1919, Page 4

FILM NEWS.

MRS CHAPLIN IN BRIGHT COMEDY.

“For Husbands Only” is a good screen satire told in true comedy vein. A man whose interest in life is mainly the affections of other men’s wives steals a kiss from a debutante under false pretences—and so the trouble begins.

The girl, played by Miss Mildred Harris (Mrs Charlie Chaplin), marries a very matter-of-fact young man (Mr Fred Goodwins) and settles down to punish the other man by fascinating and then playing with him. He sees through it and starts a delightful battle of wits. The woman scores every tiriie until the unpleasant gentleman writes a play called “For Husbands Only,” which gives his version of the “flirtation” with the wife, and is calculated to poison the matter-of-fact, man’s mind. The husband goes to the .performance and the wife waits in agony for his return. She has “worked 'herself up” for a stormy scene when the husband confesses with shame that lie had had a hard day at the office and had “slept through the whole sbo*w.”

It is a pity that exhibitors Should try to gain larger audiences by advertising the film under the name of Mrs Chaplin. Many peoplo who saw it itt a London theatre yesterday were quite bewildered when no referenco appeared in the film to Mrs Chaplin—only the name of Mildred Harris. One boy in an audience was overheard to say when half the film had been shown, “I haven’t seen Charlie Chaplin yet.”

“The Social Pirate,” shown privately this week, is an average film with ah original idea which helps it to success. A girl (Miss June Elvidge) who has found a bracelet in the street is accused of theft and sent to a reformatory, because a letter she has written and not posted asking where she can retiirn the bracelet cannot be traced. After many adventures her fiance, who is searching for illicit drug-dealers, finds her letter on a chemist’s file. The heroine’s doctor had written a prescription on the back of it, and it had lain at the chemist’s ever since. * * * * * The construction of the. film is good, because the audience knows the secret all the time and is able to appreciate the irony of many near approaches to discovery of the letter. But there is still an amazing reliance on coincidence in the films which come from the United States.