THE SCREEN; The Romance of Oil.
Date: 22 April 1924
Of emphatic interest is "The World Struggle for Oil," a production filmed through the cooperation of the United States Bureau of Mines and the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation, which is being presented at the Cameo this week. Accompanying it on the same program is something in a lighter vein, "Second Youth," a farce adapted from the novel of Allan Updegraff.In view of the subject with which it deals and because of the stirring way in which the story is unfolded, this is a production which will appeal. Nobody can help but be proud of the initiative and genius of Americans in drilling for oil and constructing thousands of miles of pipe lines. Aside from the first sequences in which the narrative of oil begins, there are scenes of the primitive machinery through which the oil was first obtained. Figures are given showing that the United States uses more than twice as much oil as the rest of the world together. There are five motor vehicles in America to one in other sections of the globe.The gradual development of the machineryis shown and a telling sequence portrays the way in which the pipe lines are cleaned.Maps giving the proportion of oil wells in different countries and the growth of the industry in the last eighty or ninety years, are also interesting. The picture is the best of its kind yet put forth.So far as the other feature, "Second Youth," is concerned—it is a farce, and as such it makes an amusing and pleasing entertainment, with capable acting and splendid photography. It is fairly well produced, nothing being overdone in the matter of scenery. As a farce, the situations are for the most part what suit that style of entertainment. You have Alfred Lunt in the part of Mr. Francis, who lives in a boarding house and works as a salesman in a department store. One day Ann Winton (Mimi Palmeri) enters the department store and approaches Mr. Francis, who appears to be almost dumb with amazement at her beauty. Of course she asks him to dine with her. He does, and receives his first glass of wine, emulating a connoisseur by inhaling the bouquet, and then he quaffs it like ale. Ann had asked him to shave off his whiskers before he came to dinner. He did so, and when she asks him how he feels without them, the reply is that he "feels rather naked."This story drags along for some time without much uproarious humor, but it keeps on good natured, smiling at its impossible situations. With a stronger story and a more whimsical theme, Mr. Lunt would do very well as a comedian. He is much better in this film than in either of the photodramas in which he appeared. There are several well-known players in this cast, all of whom give efficient impersonations.THEATRICAL NOTES."Cobra" will open tonight at the Hudson Theatre, and "Time Is a Dream" will be given the first of six performances at the Neighborhood Playhouse.A. H. Woods will place two plays in rehearsal "as soon as the difficulties between the P. M. A. and the Equity are adjusted." The plays will be "The Dreamers," by Barry Conners, with Helen MacKellar as its star, and "Values," by G. Marion Burton and Geoffrey C. Stein.Homer Barton has been engaged for "In and Out," now in rehearsal.A melodrama by Henry Leverage, co-author of "Whispering Wires," will be tried out this Summer."Top Hole," a musical piece with Lynne Overman in the leading role, opened last night in Providence.Owen Davis's newest play, "Find the Woman," was produced in Hartford last night.The New Brighton Theatre, at Brighton Beach, will open for the season on May 12.