Musical Comedy Adaptation Does Not Score as Screen Entertainment

“THE BEAUTY SHOP” Cosmopolitan Prod. — Paramount

DIRECTOR Edward Dillon

AUTHORS Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf

SCENARIO BY Doty Hobart

CAMERAMAN Harold Wenstrom

AS A WHOLE Comedy that is scarce in amusing situations and doesn’t begin to get over until the last reel

STORY Adapted from the musical comedy; is not suitable material for the screen

DIRECTION Even with a cast of prominent players does not make it a winner; takes much too long to get started

PHOTOGRAPHY All right

LIGHTINGS Satisfactory

PLAYERS Raymond Hitchcock the featured player; he needs lines to be successfully amusing; Louise Fazenda scores in the finale; others Diana Allen, Billy B. Van, James J. Corbett, the Fairbanks twins and Montagu Love

EXTERIORS Some attractive ones specially constructed

INTERIORS Good

DETAIL Fair

CHARACTER OF STORY Manufacturer of beauty preparations inherits a fortune but only finds a feud until his latest discovery proves successful and everything comes his own way

LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 6,536 feet

A musical comedy adapted for the screen is about as successful as a musical comedy would be minus the music, and it holds true in the case of ”The Beauty Shop.” It might have been a highly pleasing and amusing piece on the stage, but it is not a suitable vehicle for film purposes. In the first place there are no really worth while situations upon which a comedy of feature length could be built. It does contain some clever ideas, but they are not strong enough to hold up for six reels without a great deal of padding, and it is this superfluous footage that makes ”The Beauty Shop” a rather uninteresting and slow-moving picture.

The opening reels are very weak and there is no bid for a sustained interest at all until they get Hitchcock to the kingdom of Bolognia, where he is supposed to inherit the fortune he is sorely in need of. Then with the introduction of the Fairbanks twins it becomes even a little more interesting, but the only genuinely amusing twist in the whole picture comes at the very end when they try to marry off Louise Fazenda as ”the dog-faced girl” to Hitchcock.

The titles struggle bravely to take the place of dialogue, but even though a few of them succeed in getting laughs, the majority are poor humor. The settings in the Bolognia episode are very pretty and the photography is good.

With the many prominent players of which the picture boasts, it is unfortunate that they are handicapped by a weak story. Diana Allen is very pretty, but she has nothing to do but smile at Laurance Wheat and coax ”Hitchy.” James J. Corbett is Panatella, the inn keeper, and Louise Fazenda is his daughter, Cremo, who is made beautiful by ”Hitchy’s” beauty preparation. Billy B. Van is the familiar musical comedy undertaker, while Montagu Love and the Fairbanks twins complete the cast.

Story: Dr. Budd, a beauty doctor, faces bankruptcy when suddenly he is told that he is a descendant of the famous Sizerellas, and a fortune awaits him in Bolognia. With his ward, Anna, and her fiance, Briggs, Budd journeys to Bolognia only to be told there is no fortune, but he must settle a family feud by fighting a duel. The only way out of the duel is by marrying the inn keeper’s funny looking daughter. But when Budd’s beauty lotion makes the girl beautiful he is permitted to leave Bolognia and go back to America where the success of his preparation will make him rich.

It Depends Upon Whether They Laugh Easily or Not Box
Office Analysis for the Exhibitor: This is only mildly amusing at best, but if your folks don’t require really strong comedy situations to satisfy them you might be able to please them with ”The Beauty Shop.” It would probably be well to see the picture in order to judge it properly. It is difficult to figure out exactly just what will please folks in the way of comedy. Some will be highly amused at what others will think impossible.

There seemed to be a difference of opinion at the Rialto because what brought laughs from some folks, plainly bored the others. You have the name of Raymond Hitchcock to help get them interested. He is widely known as a comedian on the legitimate, but this is his first prominent role in pictures, although he made two or three in 1915. You might mention that he was starred in the musical comedy of the same name, ”The Beauty Shop.”


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