The New Pictures

Wandering Daughters. Any film that can number Marjorie Daw among its cast has an inalienable claim to recognition. Unfortunately, she has been given, in Wandering Daughters, a minor part. Accordigly, what faint light of merit there is in this picture is hidden under a bushel of blundering truck. The play discusses with all the blatant bad taste of cinema cheapness the younger generation. The nadir of youthful degradation is represented by the inevitable midnight bathing party. The hero wears a tight-waisted, double-breasted suit and his derby forced well down over his brow and a trifle to one side. At one point the comedy serving woman goes to the Iceman's Ball. And that is where (barring Miss Daw) they all should have gone, instead of into the movies.

Where Is My Wandering Boy This Evening? Ben Turpin, cross-eyed man, is out again. There are unquestionably large groups among the solid citizenry who regard Mr. Turpin with a refined distrust. To these much that is worth while in life has been denied. Those who cannot laugh when this strange zany is struck in the seat of his beflowered nightgown by a bolt of lightning; when he bounds through the apple orchard in pursuit of the ghost of his lost love--still in the nightgown; or when he plants a laden spoonful of mashed potatoes against the back of the lady he has taken in to dinner; those who cannot laugh at these things must labor heavily under the burden of life. Mr. Turpin accomplished all this and more during his wanderings through the evening. Possibly the film is not so good as some of his earlier works. Be that as it may, when Ben Turpin raises a glass to his lady love and remarks " Here's Looking at You! " the incongruity of the attempt renders your commentator helpless.

Merry Go Round. Here is an entertainment fit for giants. There is gaiety by the ton; tears by the hogshead. Where the author has given an inch of gold braid the director has taken a mile. And yet there is a certain consistent quality of entertainment which runs through the various court intrigues and the strange scenes of circus life that sustains the story despite the overload of detail. Also, Mary Philbin stands out as one of the lovliest of the later cinema discoveries.