The College Widow
The College Widow | |
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Kritiken : Lubin's "The College Widow" Reviewed by Mabel Condon
WHEN the Lubin Film Manufacturing Company picked the George Ade play, "The College Widow," to convert into a film play, it made a choice that would have daunted a less courageous group of players than that which had Barry O'Neill as their director and to whom was entrusted the fate of "The College Widow." For the action of the story runs so fast and so far that it taxes even the elastic limitations of the play is contained in the lines that an overabundance of sub-title is required, and while the capable Lubin cast, headed by Ethel Clayton, George Soule Spencer, Clarence Jay Elmer and Joseph Kaufman inject the proper spirit into the six-reel play, one feels instinctively that the task set is a big one.
The locale as regards exteriors is exactly as it should be, for the reason that a Pennsylvania college furnished the back-ground for the picture's out-of-door scenes. The big foot-ball game in which Billy Bolton (George Soule Spencer) brings the year's biggest success to Atwater, is the filmization of an actual game on the college gridiron. The grand-stand with its human flag swaying as one person, is easily one of the most touching sights of the picture. The biggest scene and the one that contains the "punch" of the picture is the burning of the hotel where the victory banquet is in progress, and from which all escape with the exception of Jane, the "college widow" (Ethel Clayton), who is finally brought to safety through the heroism of Jack Larrabee (Ferdinand Tidmarsh). Peter Lane has the suitable role of Hiram Bolton, father of the popular half-back, Billy Bolton, who is coerced into serving on the Atwater team after his father has departed for Europe, having first placed a bet of $1,000 on the supremacy of the Bingham college team, for the position of half-back on which his son had been named.
An unusually large cast was necessary for the making of the play and the number of extras used runs into the hundreds.
"The College Widow" is a Lubin release of the V. L. S. E. output, and so well known is the Ade play from which the screen story is made, that the bookings for it will undoubtedly be large. The work of the principals is good, Ethel Clayton being an ideal choice for the title role. The story concerns the rival colleges of Atwater and Bingham. The former has a president opposed to rough football, but despite that fact the team shows itself to be in possession of a sufficient amount of this quality. The Atwater team is weak; it needs bolstering. The acquisition of an outsider, big and husky, seems of little avail. Then Billy Bolton, famous half-back of Bingham, visits the college with his father. The Atwater team decides he must be kept, and "the college widow," daughter
of the president, is appealed to to fascinate Bolton into staying. She succeeds and the big Thanksgiving victory is Atwater's. Then follows the banquet, at the
outset of which the fire starts in the kitchen, spreads unchecked throughout the hotel and the banqueters
seek safety. Jane's former accepted suitor, Jack Larrabee, returns into the smoke-filled building and
rescues Jane, placing her hand in that of Bolton. (Motography, May 22, 1915, pp 829-830)
of the camera and the screen. So much of the humor
Literatur Hinweise - Motography, May 22, 1915, pp 829-830.
- Motography, 22 May 1915, pp. 829-30, 857
- Moving Picture World, 21 November 1914, pg 1098.
- Moving Picture World, 23 January 1915, pg 588, 590
- Moving Picture World, 29 May 1915, pg 1442.
- The Motion Picture News, 17 April 1915, pg 67.
- The New York Dramatic Mirror, 9 December 1914, pg 25.
- The New York Dramatic Mirror, 12 May 1915, pg 37.