The New Pictures

Fifth Avenue Models. Mary Philbin is one of the minority of actresses who do not play as often as their ability entitles them to. Possibly she has a husband and family who cut into her career; possibly directors do not think she is good. The former are selfish and the latter are dense. In this picture, there is not much narrative. Poor old papa went to jail and for a while it seemed that daughter would wake up some morning and find that working girls do get into trouble. Papa was, of course, innocent; employer was honorable; daughter reaped the reward of virtue. And all of this is quite acceptable under the deft and decorative touch of Mary Philbin.

The Night Club. Raymond Griffith is just about to burst out as one of our chief comedians. He is not cross-eyed, his feet are mates, he does not hide behind a beard, his clothes fit. He is an actor who can eat up a funny situation without spilling it on his vest. 'The Night Club is an aimless burlesque . through which he wears a high silk hat. Though the plot is not vital, what there is of it deals with a will whereby the happy bachelor must marry a cer tain girl.

Soul Fire is one of the monstrosities that some day will, no doubt, be displayed in a cinema museum as a terrible example of what all scenarists and directors should avoid. It sets out to tell the story of a man's soul pounding to pieces on the reefs of poverty. The first reef is Paris; the second, Port Said; finally the South Seas. It all came from a play called Great Music in which the boy finally gets leprosy and is given a year or more of life in which to finish his orchestral symphony. The cinema people, for no reason at all, have given the leprosy to his inoffensive little native girl. Five months later they have cured her to make way for the happy ending. Richard Barthelmess played the boy rather badly.

Zander the Great. A lovely nurse girl trying to find among Arizona badmen the father of her tiny ward is the kernel of this tale. It is fed forth with all the usual garnishings of hard riding, sheriffs and a sand storm. Early pictures of the nurse girl struggling to escape from an orphanage had little bearing on the general scheme but were nevertheless the most interesting. Marion Davies is starred and gives an extraordinarily good performance at first, that thins down to the close-up of a lovely maiden type of playing.