The New Pictures

Declasse It was Ethel Barrymore who first laughed bitterly and died as Lady Helen Haden. That was several years ago, and Declasse was a play from the pen of Zoee Akins. It has now completed the cycle and entered its final phase as a cinema. It proves itself flimsy film material. The story tells of a titled Englishwoman stranded in Manhattan with the alternative of going hungry or to the Devil. Corinne Griffith does as much as possible (a very great deal) to pick the story up and put it on its listless feet.

The Bridge of Sighs. Another bad loss was reported by observers of the opening performances of this picture. The plot reveals an idle youth who steals some money. His girl's father is accused and sent to jail. They go to a lot of pretty tedious trouble to get him out again.

Sackcloth and Scarlet. The story of the product of the open spaces lured East and left with the acute fish-out-of-water feeling in the midst of what is called Society is not new. To strengthen it, the product and the girl who lured him are visited by the stork. The girl has a suspicious cough and a virtuous sister. The Westerner becomes a sturdy Congressman. You can figure out what happens for yourself. If you can't, don't bother to attend. The mystery isn't worth it.

Confessions of a Queen. For those who thought The Prisoner of Zenda a great picture, there is a bad disappointment in store. This picture is made on the same lines and has Alice Terry and Lewis Stone for stars. They are King and Queen of a mythical principality on the Adriatic. He drinks and she is virtuous. He drinks so determinedly that revolution rids the country of his services. Then there is counterrevolution and, all of a sudden, he decides to make sense. But they have become used to the simple life in exile and abdicate. Miss Terry is still pretty, but not so pretty as she was. Mr. Stone is able to make a drunken King and a perfect gentleman seem one and the same.

Percy. The single good news item of the week is this melodramatic comedy in which Charles Ray returns after a considerable absence. It isn't such remarkably good news at that, yet worth an idle hour or two. Mr. Ray disports himself as the watery youth whose mother makes him take tonics. He is snatched from her protecting clutches by circumstance and thrust into the midst of a dance hall and ranch-grabbing plot over the Mexican border. Fifty or 60 fights and a dynamited dam suffice to make, a man of him.