Edward J. Brady (1916) 🇺🇸
The work that he has done in Balboa feature films during the past year has earned for Edward J. Brady the reputation of being one of the best “heavy” actors on the screen. In the old melodrama days he would have been able to play up to the contempt of the most exacting “gallery god.”
But there is more finesse in the work of Brady than ever a ten-twent’-thirt’ heavy displayed. Riding boots, gloves and a cigarette were their earmarks, together with a purring voice. The screen villain of today must be more subtle. He can’t string out fine phrases or make the blood run cold with his mocking laugh.
In flicker land Ed Brady accomplishes all this and more with a cunning manner and an insolent leer. He first attracted attention to himself in the now famous Who Pays series, which was produced by Balboa. In this he portrayed a half dozen different villain types, each one of which was distinct.
Then came Neal of the Navy, in which he played the terrible Hernandez. In this, he out-villained all past villains of the pursuing sort. Though he played an ungrateful role, Brady was generally credited with having made the biggest acting success of any player in this notable Balboa-Pathé release. The convincing note of his work was commented on everywhere.
Off stage, Mr. Brady is anything but a villain. When acting he might be described as a sheep in wolf’s clothing, for his personality is mild and winning. There is no more popular member of the Balboa studio force for his social instincts are pronounced. His hobby is a Ford, every little movement of which has a meaning of its own. To hear him descant upon it is verily a rare treat.
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“The Guilt of Stephen Eldridge” (Biograph).
The strong contrast between two unusual female characters furnishes an absorbing human interest in the forthcoming Biograph feature, The Guilt of Stephen Eldridge.
Vera Sisson plays the role of the girl forced into marriage to protect her guilty father. Her prospective husband is in the power of an actress, who threatens to reveal her past relations with him. Gretchen Hartman is superb in the role of Marie D’Allot, the Frenchwoman.
To save himself, the man burglarizes his father’s safe and discovers a signed confession which clears the name of his rival’s father, long imprisoned for theft. The title role is admirably played by that sincere artist, Charles H. Mailes. Ivan Christy, G. Raymond Nye, Jack Mulhall and Jack Drumier complete the cast.
Also on the week’s program is a well-remembered Griffith [D. W. Griffith] production, His Mother’s Son. This will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most popular Biograph Reissues. Mae Marsh, Jenny Lee, Robert Harron, Walter Miller, and the grand old man of the screen, W. Chrystie Miller, form the cast of this appealing little drama, which is enhanced by touches of that gay comedy peculiar to the unfortunate.
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Pathé’s “Lonesome Luke” Comedies Unique.
The Rolin Film Co., of Los Angeles, who make the Lonesome Luke comedies for Pathé, deserve more than passing notice because of the real and uniform excellence of their product.
In Harold Lloyd they have a comedian of the first water and round him they have built a cast that is as able as any in comic-fllmdom. It takes something to make a hardened film committee laugh, but when Luke’s Double was projected in the Pathé exhibition room the other day every one in the place was in laughter from start to finish.
Harold Lloyd must be made of India rubber. The way he suffers himself to be kicked all over the map, hit on the head with a mallet and fall down a dizzy flight of stairs is marvelous. The Lonesome Luke comedies have fought their way to an important place on many exhibitors’ programs, and it is because they are unlike anything on the market — they are unique.
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Ocean Film Works Combination Policy.
The original policy of the Ocean Film Corporation to market its features under franchises to be awarded to independent exchanges covering definite territory upon an advance on account of a percentage, has been in part altered by the directors of the company, the new policy having been determined upon at a meeting held at the company’s offices last Wednesday.
The franchise plan takes in the states of New York, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and the New England States, and the balance of the country is being disposed of on the states rights plan, being an outright lease on the Ocean Film productions.
The February release of the company, The Fortunate Youth by William J. Locke will be succeeded by Driftwood, or the Wrong Way in which Vera Michelena is starred, supported by Harry Spingler and Charles Graham.
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Robert Edeson at Sag Harbor, L. I.
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Collection: Moving Picture World, February 1916
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