The New Pictures

Divorce. If you are a gum chewer, female, happily married to a drug clerk, this picture will reveal just what is going to happen when the family fortunes rise and your man suddenly accepts a position as general manager of the chemical factory. You will move up to a small edition of the Ritz in the Social Register section and he will promptly begin staying late at the club. You will catch him having lunch with a vapid vampire and soon he will request a divorce. Then you will go to your father who, fortunately enough, owns the chemical works and tearfully plead for counsel. Your father will advise going to live alone in the bungalow where once you were poor but happy together. Then father will see to it that your husband loses his job and the vampire presents him with the atmosphere. After a few hard weeks he will acknowledge himself beaten and come back for forgiveness to you and little Melville, the innocent kiddie. If you do not hit him over the head with an axe you are all kinds of an idiot.

In the present picture the little woman is an idiot.

Peter the Great. Russia has been seized by the movies. The 18th century (when the Court conducted itself on a scale that only the movies can latterly conceive) is the background of the present opus. Intrigue, war with Sweden, all the old town pomp of St. Petersburg pass bravely in review. Yet the most impressive feature of the entertainment is Emil Janning's Peter. Under the play of his personality the moving picture book of history comes vividly to life.

Penrod and Sam. Time was when child actors were received with hysterical applause if they were any better than downright offensive. Along came Jackie Coogan. Now child actors are a requisite on every movie lot in California. Why? Because they are adapted to a type of entertainment which is faintly damned by the adjective "wholesome."

Such a picture is this latest edition in celluloid from the pen of Booth Tarkington. Ben Alexander and Joe Butterworth carry the title roles. Newcomers, they promptly take their place among the leaders of this children's Crusade in California. For those who favor cinema children the picture will afford consistent entertainment.