The New Pictures

Tides of Passion. When a young man is so constructed that women simply cannot resist his "Do you love me?" and when such a youth is a traveling man, there are bound to be complications. This young man, traveling the world over, left a trail of bleached and broken hearts behind him. Finally, he is washed up on a rocky island and the real struggle begins. One of the two women has a child by him and the other one hasn't. Finally he dies and the women drown their loneliness in mutual lamentations. One of the more unfortunate productions.

Recompense. Robert Keable's novel has thus been canned in strips. It makes inferior fare. Monte Blue, the actor whose face is so soft you expect it to melt any moment, is the chaplain who tore off his white collar and went to war. Later--to Africa in the wool business--injured-back to London. On convenient pretext, the girl is introduced at every episode. One can afford to be distant both to her and to her story.

Free and Equal. Ten years ago, they produced in California a Negro story. It argued that Negroes were inferior to whites and should not join in Anglo-Saxon competition. It married a white girl to a Negro to prove its point. The producers found their feet suddenly frozen and the picture was put by. It is out again and might just as well go back. It is unpleasant, insincere, ten years old and looks it.

My Son. Nazimova has turned from her task of playing fluffy-headed harlots to the impersonation of an old Portuguese. But she isn't such a very old woman. Two handsome men fall fearfully in love with her. But she is chiefly occupied with her wandering boy who involves himself with a flapper and steals a diamond necklace.

Madame Sans Gene. Gloria Swanson, husband and all, is back from Paris with this latest, most expensive picture. It is a classic of the French stage and is played before backgrounds of Fontainebleau and Compiegne loaned specially by the Republic. These backgrounds and the costumes are extraordinary. The story cannot match them nor can the performance of the actress. The usually dependable Miss Swanson overplays the little laundress who rose to be a Duchess. She could not remember not to say "ain't" and got herself in trouble with the Princesses, Napoleon's sisters. A great many francs and a lot of actors from the Comedie Franc,aise went into the manufacture of all this. On its appearance it was, liberally judged, unworthy of the trouble.