The New Pictures

Sinners In Heaven. The capacity of the population for absorbing desert island stories is truly tremendous. There are probably a dozen a year; and each one set on the same founda tion. It is always a question whether or not the girl and the man should live together on the island. Sometimes they wait till they get home again. This time they did not. Back in England, the villagers were not so nice about it when the girl returned. Therefore, in the interests of general contentment, back came the hero, too, and married her. Those chiefly concerned are Bebe Daniels, Richard Dix, two airplanes, many cannibals.

Open All Night reiterated the old truth that subtlety and character study are impossible on the screen. The play of character between a cultured lightweight (female) and a six-day bicycle-rider, and between the lightweight's husband and the rider's street girl is unsatisfying because their faces, not their wits, are in the focus. The scenes are at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris during the closing hours of a six-day bicycle race. Adolphe Menjou, Jetta Goudal and Raymond Griffith offer three of the best performances ever concentrated in one film.

Sinners In Silk. Modern youth again fairly aimiably concerned with nothing in particular. Profitable only for a great deal of expensive scenery and Adolphe Menjou.

Merton of the Movies. Lacking the smouldering satire of the book, deprived of the caustic cleverness of the play, slightly distorted as to plot, the camera version of Merton Gill still reveals him as one of the strong men in the cinema sideshow. Probably the heart of the story is too vigorous to skip a beat just because certain outward features are differently applied. Merton has now been played in all the available roles, differently each time and each time with enviable effect.

Beulah Baxter, the "wonder woman of the silver screen," is omitted; Har old Parmalee, the languid leading man, bulges into an important part as villain. The remainder of the tale has been simplified and movie-ized. It remains a brilliant picture.

Glenn Hunter paints an unforgettable portrait as the hero, even as he did on the stage. Viola Dana did not quite do credit to the Montague girl. There was one custard pie.