Monday, Jan. 21, 1924
The New Pictures
The Humming Bird. Gloria Swanson is emerging from the seven artistically lean years when she was wandering among the wastes of custard comedy and overdressed society. In Zaza, the evidences of her ability to act as well as to wear well were remarked by the critics. In The Humming Bird she has forsaken completely her troupe of trained sequins and adopted boy's clothes. Her part is that of an Apache leader in the Paris slums who leads her dedecorus dragoons to the battle front at the first call of war in 1914. There is, of course, the handsome American newspaperman. Newspapermen are always handsome on the stage, just as actresses are chronically impious in the headlines. The rumble of drums and the whispers of intrigue dwindle in time for American-Apache nuptials. The picture is distinctly in the upper strata of current cinema production.
Let Not Man Put Asunder. Filmi-nations of the film factories against divorce were chronicled in this column last week in an estimation of Reno. The present production pushes vigorously the happy home campaign. It represents a most egregious waste of effort. The film is probably the dullest, most absurdly wearisome production that has been reviewed herein for weeks.