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Harriette Underhill, New York Tribune, New York, October 22, 1918.

Harriette Underhill

(...) Photo, Exhibitors Herald, April 21, 1923, detail

& Strand Theatre, exterior by night, marquee

THE SIGNAL TOWER VALLI W. BEERY & FELLOWS,

New York – Despite a scorching, mid-summer

heat wave, the Universal Jewel did excellent business during

its run at the Mark Strand, New York City.

(...) Photo, Universal Weekly, Aug. 16, 1924

„He camouflages himself as a tree“

Editorial content. „On the Screen

      Charlie Chaplin Surpassed All Former Fun Making

      Marks in Shoulder Arms

      Charlie Chaplin‘s new picture at the Strand is twice as funny

and twice as long as any of his previous productions,

which really makes it four times as amusing.

      We couldn‘t help pondering over the vast amount of time

and study Chaplin must have put into this picture,

for since we have known him we know that each move

is a carefully planned and carefully rehearsed

thing, the value of which is well determined before hand.

Unconscious he appears always, and spontaneous,

because he is a great artist. He could, we are sure, do Hamlet

as well, if he chose. That is why he differs from all

other exponents of the slapstick.

      His new picture is called Shoulder Arms, and it makes

a concession to plausibility in as much as it turns

out to be only a dream. It is quite different from all of his

previous pictures and even the mood is a new one.

      It starts out with Charlie in the awkward squad. His feet

interfere seriously with the manœuvres of all of his

fellow rookies as well as his own. After the drill is over Charlie

shoots into his tent and drops asleep on his cot.

      The next scenes are in the trenches. They show Charlie

doing guard duty in a deluge and Charlie finding his

dugout full of water and going to sleep with the horn off the

graphophone in his mouth to supply air, and Charlie

bombing the German lines with a box of Limburger, which

he opens with a gas mask on.

      The funniest thing in the picture is where Charlie is sent

as a spy behind the German lines and he camouflages

himself as a tree. Never has anything like this been seen on the

screen. He kills dozens of Huns by luring them under

the shade of his branches and then letting the branch fall

on their helmets.

      The sentimental interest is supplied as usual, by Edna

Purviance. She is a French girl whom Charlie saves

from the Germans by impersonating a Prussian officer. He knows

no word of German but when any one speaks to him

he either growls or knocks them down.

      And then it is only a dream, and poor Charlie

has to go back to drill and try to learn

to keep his feet out of the other fellow‘s way.

      The other feature is G. M. Anderson in „Shootin‘ Mad“

in which Anderson portrays the well known

Broncho Bill. It is done in three shots – long, short and medium.

      Jane Holder, the feminine tenor usher, is appearing

again this week. She sings „La Donna E Mobile,“ and for an

encore, „Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young

Charms.“ Alys Michot, the French coloratura, sings the Bell

Song from „Lakme.“

      There is a picture called „From Hell to Paradise.“

It shwos the arrival in Switzerland of the Allied

heroes from the starvation camps in Germany. The overture

is „Czardas.“                                                       „H. U.“

      H. U. is Harriette Underhill.

      „Lakme,“ Delibes‘ opera, is written „Lakine.“

      Strand Theatre, Broadway and 47th Street, New York.

     Shoulder Arms has a pre-release presentation

      at the Strand Theatre, starting Sunday, October 20, 1918,

      Chaplin‘s film is released by First National

      October 27, 1918.

Redaktioneller Inhalt

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