New Pictures

One Minute to Play (Harold ["Red"] Grange). There is the usual collegiate hokum, with a big football game as the finishing liqueur. Alma Mater Parmalee needs seven points to win. Star halfback "Red" Wade sits on the sidelines because his father does not believe in rough sports and the coach thinks he ("Red") has been drinking. One minute to play --vindication--substitution--"Red" Wade has the pigskin under his arm. The Galloping Ghost is off--long strides, mighty stiff-arm, eely hips, a broken field--a touchdown, a kicked goal, and victory. "Red", of course, is vindicated before the college, his father, his sweet-lipped Sally Rogers.

Harold Grange may well become a popular cinema hero. His acting, while not profound, is natural, easy, almost casual. His gridiron performance at the end of the picture is so realistic that, in an advance showing to a selected audience, "Big Bill" Edwards, famed guard and "playboy of Princeton," leapt to his feet, shouted: "There he goes." The audience re-echoed with cries of "Come on, Red!"

Hold That Lion (Douglas MacLean). Ignorant of the fact that in South Africa "cat" means "lion," Douglas MacLean sets out to get a pussy for his sweetheart. As if this were not embarrassment enough for one motion picture comedy, he loses his trousers at a most aristocratic function the very same evening. It is all for the best, however, and funny.

The Strong Man (Harry Langdon). With a facial muscle he can raise gales of laughter. The fact that pathos has been introduced into Harry Langdon's funny scenes does not lessen his effectiveness as a comedian. In this picture, he is captured during the World War by Herr Zandow, Germany's strong man. Later, in the U. S., he is forced to impersonate his powerful employer. Incidental complications lead him to clean up a wicked town, discover his sweetheart, emerge as the local police force. His gestures, glances, movements, daintily restrained, cause explosions of laughter.