The Theatre in Boston

To review the movies is to fulfill a distinctly modern function, for our dogmatic critic of today, nursed on the latest of the old diets, will experience a strange sensation in attempting to pass judgment on a series of reels, no matter what their quality. "The Birth of a Nation," however, made us sit up and take notice, and from its appearance on, we have been made to realize that great things were being done in this field of popular pantomime. "A Daughter of the Gods," now playing at the Majestic Theatre, is evidently a production trying to equal the record set by D. W. Griffith, but William Fox, despite the amount of money expended and the miraculous care of detail shown, will have to seek a better plot around which to spend his efforts before we can take the palm from "The Birth of the Nation" and present it to this new thing for Boston.

Miss Annettee Kellermann appears to great advantage throughout the piece, and her diving and other nautical accomplishments are those of a sea-artist--surely such a thing exists. But Miss Kellermann, with all her marine art, cannot save the play from dragging, and it is all because the thread of narrative becomes so unravelled after the first few minutes that it would take Sherlock Holmes himself to comprehend exactly all that is going on. For those events which do seem perfectly consistent to us are scenic rather than dramatic, and if "A Daughter of the Gods" is intended to be merely spectacular, why introduce so many touches of sentimentality? It is true the "leaders" tell us to become children again, but Miss Kellermann's antics in the brine, while charming and all that, do not seem to fit the juvenile mind exactly.

Great credit must be given to the producers for their care and thoroughness in this film. The Oriental scenes, the battle between the forces of Anitia and Prince Omar, the pictures of the mighty deep in anger, and the lovely mermaids are all features which no mean direction could establish. But one has the conviction throughout that nature and the producers' skill are responsible for all our enjoyment--while we were assured that this was to be something of a dramatic triumph. F. E. P. Jr., '18.