SCREEN FIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1923, Page 20

SCREEN FIGHTS

DESPERATE STRUGGLES THAT ARE NOT DESPERATE

RESULTS DO NOT CONVINCE.

Earely is a fight in motion pictures convincing, and yet there are comparatively few picture directors that do not indulge themselves to the extent of a battle or two to put the hero in a good light with the audience, declares the "New York Times." Sword fights have occasionally been extremely well done, it is true. In "Enemies of Women, l! there is an excellent sword duel and also a rough and tumble fight, both of which are worthy of high praise. Eichard Barthelmess and William Powell have another duel in "The Bright Shawl," which is also stirring. Tho fight Barthelmess engages in in "Tol'able David " with Ernest Torrance, is another splendid piece of acting. However, discounting the duel scenes, the fights that are thrilling are the exception and not tho rule. Invariably the hero who goes through the equivalent of a four-round boxing bout without any minutes of intermission emerges from the fray fresh and only mildly scarred.

Recently there was one good fight, which was done impressively. That was in "The Isle of Lost Ships." In. this, Maurice Tourneur, tho director, even saw to it that Milton Sills, the hero, wore a soiled shirt, and in the course of the conflict he was breathing heavily, -which, was natural and lent realism to the scenes. In "The Bagged Edge," Alfred Lunt and Christian Frank have a set-to. It is quit© absurd, for although they may cuff each other, Lunt falls just at the propitous moment, and after the struggle which should cause Lunt to pant, lie comes forth as fresh as if he had merely been to a tea party. The fight scenes may, it is perfetcly true, have been taken hours apart, perhaps days, but that does not alter the fact that'a man who has a desperate struggle with a villain must look as if he were really fighting and in the end manifest certain results" that are convincing. Another stupid piece of fight acting was in "C4arrison's Finish." Little Jack Pickford naturally wants to appeal to his spectators as a wonderful hero. It is he who is tricked with dope, it is ho who tries to thrash ono big man, and it is ho who whips another. It is also the redoubtable Jack who wins the horse race after a long ride in a motor lorry. There are two big men in a bar. Jack hears himself spoken of as the jockey who cheated in a big race. He springs from his chair and goes, for the big man, who obviously could easily have taken Pickford by a leg and an arm and pitched him into the street. But no, the men must be scared of this intrepid tiny jockey, and therefore to save themselves the trouble and pain from the mighty blows he might deliver, one of the huge men creeps up behind Jack and fells him by a blow from a bottle. He could have done it just as well with his fist. When Pickford' has his fight with the treacherous trainer toward the end of this production, it is apparent that the trainer could eat Jack up if he wanted to. Nevertheless, for hokum's sake, Pickford battles with the man, drags him under a table and gives him what the other man could easily have given to Pickford.

In "The Ragged Edge" there is a struggle between tho beachcomber and Mimi Palmeri. The beachcomber could have grabbed one of the girl's wrists and ended the matter in a couple of seconds. The motion picture director thinks differently, and he has a desperate struggle between the muscular man and the slight girl. It reminds one of a tiger rubbing noses with a lamb and letting the lamb almost get the better of him every few minutes. Quito frequently when picture directors have two women fighting they have one of the combatants whirled around, and go to a spot near the mantelpiece, where she rsts for a scond or so. Then at the word of command from the director they re-engage in the tussle, ono girl being banged up against a door. Finally the first actress is flung to a spot on the opposite side of the mantelpiece, and at the culmination of a conflict in which the average woman would be on the verge of fainting, these motion picture fighters are always ready to speak up and are never out of breath.

"When the woman fights the villain she bends forward, and he goes back; then, almost as if they were performing some mild Apache dance, the heroine swings backward, and somehow the man, with great hands and brutal expression, battles on as if the weak girl were almost a match for him.

> A production may be quite capable until one of these ridiculous fights takes place, and then one can't help wishing that the director had taken the pains to make the encounter appear more real-