The New Pictures

Sally of the Sawdust. D. W.

Griffith, greatest of directors, has temporarily abandoned the production of vast pageants for the more commercial program picture. This one is adapted from a musical comedy (Poppy) which gave him no master narrative. But he did have the master stage comedian W. C. Fields, and between them they have worked out just about the most amusing comedy that you will recall this year. It is a circus story of the little heroine brought up by the three-card-monte man. There is the rich Peyton Lennox for her later on. She is Carol Dempster and he is Alfred Lunt, but W. C. Fields is W. C. Fields. If you do not think he is funny you had better have a thorough going over with a steam roller.

Kiss Me Again. Ernst Lubitsch is our other great director, imported but no less great. Griffith is the master of mass and melodrama, loud laughter and tumbling tears. Lubitsch is the genius of the nimbler gaieties--the subtle graces of light comedy. He has taken a thin old story of the businessman, the bored wife and the Plutonic musician and made it grow and ripple with amusement. He has even made Monte Blue seemingly a good actor.

Wild, Wild Susan. Bebe Daniels has fallen into the clutches of another ponderous plot. It is a burlesque melodrama which calls for her appearance in overalls. There is also Rod La Rocque.

The Trouble with Wives. Ford Sterling, if memory serves, was once a comedian in custard. He has graduated to the more aristocratic atmosphere of light comedy and thrives on the change. His part is that of the well-meaning friend who gets dragged into one of those mother-in-law-and-suspicious-wife disturbances. There is also Florence Vidor and Tom Moore. All very amusing.

The Goose Woman, from Rex Beach's story of that name, was an opera star before her baby's birth withered her voice. By the time he has grown up, she is keeping geese and drinking gin in a smelly old shack. She hates him for her obscurity, impedes his business success and tries to muddle his marriage. Then he is charged with murder and at the last moment mother love conquers all. Louise Dresser gives an exceptionally good performance in another one you will probably like.

The Unholy Three. It was President Wilson who used to read detective stories to ease his mind. He would have liked The Unholy Three. It is a crook tale about a ventriloquist, a midget, a strong man, a sap and a girl. The very complicated plot, the murder, the trial and the solution are too intricately contrived for reworking here. They contain hate and happiness, diversion and distress. Lon Chaney plays a ventriloquist who turns into a grandmother.