The White Mask (1915)
—
Lila Leslie | Raymond Hackett | Joseph W. Smiley (Director)
Rest of cast:
William W. Cohill | Herbert Fortier | Gilbert Ely | Joseph W. Smiley | John Smiley | Jack Delson | George S. Trimble | Arthur Matthews | Florence Hackett | Walter Law | James Cassady | Eleanor Blanchard | Justina Huff | Richard Wangermann | Clay M. Greene (Story) | Siegmund Lubin (Producer)
—
—
“The White Mask”
A Lubin melodrama that is unconventional in which the unexpected happens.
Reviewed by W. Stephen Bush.
I sincerely believe that this feature will be highly acceptable to the great masses of moving picture patrons. It has a strong plot, though somewhat intricate. Instead of a hero we have a heroine of very pleasing appearance, considerable histrionic skill and an engaging and sympathetic personality. Lillie Leslie in the triple role of the Duchess of Granville, The White Mask, and Mrs. Julia Dean holds the center of the screen from the first inch of film to the last, and she forms the connecting link between the various and sometimes divergent parts of the story.
The play abounds in sensations, all of which develop naturally in the course of the story. The action being laid in two continents, there were plenty of opportunities to emphasize the advantages of the screen over the stage. These opportunities were utilized to the fullest. Much of the action centers about the court of the Belgian King Leopold. The scenes in this part of the play are particularly fine, the settings being notable for richness and elegance and painstaking correctness. Gilbert Ely gave a startlingly faithful impersonation of the late King of the Belgians.
The story quickly awakens and amply sustains the interest of the spectator. Its original construction and its screen adaptation are exceptionally good. Another merit of the play is its novelty and its departure from conventional melodramatic lines. Here, the unexpected happens, rather than the expected and interest of the spectator is never permitted to flag. The title, which may be said to be “fetching,” is the name given to a mysterious dancer, famous for her skill, but determined to withhold her identity from the general public, and therefore wearing a white mask every time she appears on the stage. The effort on the part of many admirers of the woman to penetrate the mask and discover the dancer’s identity forms part of the action in the play. Joseph Smiley, who directed the play, also took the part of the villain, and he would be a cruel critic, indeed, who would want a more desperate villain. He deserves great credit both for his acting and for his intelligent and conscientious work as a director.
—
Scene from The White Mask (Lubin)
Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915