The New Pictures

Unseeing Eyes. Even as middle-aged inhabitants speak with awed respect of the blizzard of 1888 so will cinema citizens mention Unseeing Eyes. It is up to its chattering teeth in snow. From the Winter sports at Quebec, the hero and the girl start in an airplane. Forced down on a frozen lake, Lionel (Lionel Barrymore has the lead) lopes away on his snowshoes for aid. The blizzard breaks. The girl (Seena Owen) goes snow-blind and wanders into a spider's nest of villains. Fights of varying ferocity follow, airplane rescues, blazing refugees.

There is a novel beauty to the snow photography which offers an unusual frame to a rather usual picture plot. In Lionel Barrymore the directors selected a particularly capable snowman.

Richard the Lion-Hearted. There is certain utility in historical motion pictures even though their dramatic values are moderate. The most determined dissenter of the schoolroom cannot fail to ingest romantic staples such as Jeanne d'Arc, Peter the Great, Lincoln and a hundred others, including the hero herein discussed. The development of this mental negative into an actual picture on the screen clarifies modern preconceptions of the past. If the representation is authentic the picture returns permanent profit to the spectator.

Such is the major value of Richard the Lion-Hearted. Readers of Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman will recall the story as somewhat diffuse of dramatic transposition. There are central characters in superfluity. The King figures in the spotlight but he is too ancient for throbbing sentiment. Accordingly, Sir Kenneth, Knight of the Leopard, is included to play foil for Lady Edith Plantagenet. An amazing trick dog is present. Many hundreds of film feet are devoted to the Sultan Saladin, Saracen opponent of Richard in the Third Crusade. The scene is Palestine.

There are the usual battles with the usual result. The acting is normally cinemesque.

On the Banks of the Wabash. One of those general store pictures with all the veteran cinema commodities cluttering the counter. Cranberry Corners, moonlight on the river, stage rubes, a fire, a flood, faithful love are most prominent. The flood and the faithful love of the benign Mary Carr are the only bits worth while.