New Pictures

The Son of the Sheik (Rudolph Valentino). Dear old Rudolph Valentino, the fire eater with editorial writers, is home again. He is heart deep in Sahara sands in a picture obviously and not expertly echoing his famed success in The Sheik. He plays a young desert gentleman enamored of a dancing girl traveling with a cut-throat band. He is attacked, imprisoned, released, chased, and close-uped. The girl turns out brave and pure. There is the usual sand storm. It is a terrible picture, concentrating on a handsome actor of some ability. It will be atrociously popular.

You Never Know Women (Florence Vidor and Lowell Sherman). Ernest Vajda, suave Hungarian creator of stage comedy, has been retained to write a motion picture. He has again indicated that the one talent does not necessarily embrace the other. You Never Know Women is pale and thin. It tells of a Russian vaudeville troupe in the U. S.; how the man-about-town interfered with the lovely acrobat's love for the magician. Miss Vidor, Mr. Sherman and an originally resourceful director called William Wellman have saved much from the wreck.

The Waltz Dream. Another German film of rare and easy excellence has been made from Oscar Straus' operetta. Simplicity and graceful common sense have replaced the million dollar dowdiness that would have suffused the film if made in almost any U. S. studio. The story is slight, telling of a frosty Princess and her not particularly interested Prince consort. The latter prefers a blonde from a beer garden. None of the actors are notable here. All of them in their strange Teutonic way are excellent.