The New Pictures

The Trail of '98. Here is a good old-fashioned thriller on a glorified scale. It is in Alaska's snowy Klondike where men are after gold, gold, GOLD! The villain, of course, is named Jack Locasto (Harry Carey). He has plenty of gold and a whiskey passion for the unspeakably lovely heroine (Dolores Del Rio). But she is properly enamored of a poor but handsome prospector (Ralph Forbes), who hopes some day to give her a house with 100 windows. He suffers life and near death and blizzard, finally finds gold, comes back to save dark Dolores from the clutches of Mr. Locasto. There is a gorgeously gory fight which ends when the hero prospector hits Mr. Locasto with a kerosene lamp, sending him to a flaming death. The hero swoons and Dolores rescues him from the burning, falling, wicked dance hall. They forget the ashes and build anew. Absurd, yes. But packed with enough spectacles to make one gorgeously groggy. A thunderous avalanche of snow. A battle with river rapids in peapod boats. In these two scenes, the screen is moved 15 feet nearer the audience, enlarging and slightly blurring the pictures, giving a visual sensation that is like watching the gods at play. Adroitly filmed, from every angle, is The Trail of '98. Then too it contains, in the role of Swedish gold seeker, the laughably lank Karl Dane (famed as Slim in The Big Parade).

The Garden of Eden. Toni Le Brun was fired from a smoke-blue Paris cabaret because she was naively virtuous. The wardrobe mistress (Louise Dresser), one of those quaint impoverished baronesses, adopted her, took her to Monte Carlo where the pair lived for a month on the savings of a year. In the garden of the Hotel Eden a rich young man (Charles Ray) makes love to Toni (Corinne Griffith). A marriage is arranged. Enraged by last-minute accusations of gold-digging, Toni tears off her wedding gown, runs through corridors in less & less until finally she encounters the Prime Minister in the least possible. All is explained; she dresses; she marries.

Bringing Up Father. A kick in the pants is the humor of this jaunty Irish farce. All of the corned-beef-and-cabbage characters out of George McManus's comic strip are here; Maggie and her famed rolling pin, Annie, Dinty Moore, Ellen. Jiggs (J. Farrell MacDonald) grew suddenly rich, possessed a Long Island estate. Jiggs wouldn't wear his dinner suit. Jiggs was hit on the head. Jiggs wouldn't meet the Count. Jiggs simulated suicide. Then everyone realized that Society is hollow, that homely virtues are best.

Two Lovers. Ronald Colman gave Vilma Banky a buss. That is the major action of this pretty picture which once was Leather Face, novel of the Spanish invasion of Flanders, by the Baroness Orczy. It tells of a bailiff's son, purer than Galahad, bolder than Robin Hood, an unruly crusader against the Spanish governor. For peace the blonde niece of the governor married this leatherface. Set in a gentle glow of sentiment are mild bearded Spaniards spearing Flemish guards, and Flemish guards wetting Flanders fields with dark Spanish blood. And then Ronald Colman gave Vilma Banky a buss.