Edward Alexander (1915) 🇺🇸

For years an idol in stock companies throughout the East, Edward Alexander is now playing leads for the Santa Barbara Motion Picture Company at Santa Barbara, Cal.

He was indeed a favorite in the New England States on the stage, his success being phenomenal in that part of the country. He has had many years of legitimate experience, supporting such stars as Robert Mantell, Wright Lorimer and others.

He is a great athlete and sportsman and devotes his spare time to exercise and healthy sports.

The films he has appeared in have met with high comment regarding his parts. He is playing leads opposite the beautiful Fritzi Brunette, under the direction of William Robert Daly. These productions are being released exclusively through Kriterion Service. A drama, entitled The Keeper of the Flock, released last week by Kriterion, featured Alexander, and it is said by those who saw it, that it shows him at his best.

—

Elizabeth Drew

The Runaway June Company left for Bermuda on Wednesday, where they will be for three or four weeks, and with them goes Miss Elizabeth Drew, another scintillating star, who, in supporting Miss Norma Phillips, has deserted the footlights to seek fame in filmdom. Miss Drew is very well known in Broadway theatrical circles, having been with 45 Minutes from Broadway for five seasons, and also having played the lead in Get Rich Quick Wallingford.

It is Oscar Eagle, director of the Runaway June serial, who is responsible for Miss Drew’s advent into motion pictures, and it is also a coincidence as Mr. Eagle was Miss Drew’s dramatic director when she was a mere child, and meeting her recently induced her to work under the Mutual banner.

The New York World, and Herald, have both mentioned Miss Drew in their columns as one of the best looking and smartest dressed women in New York, and with assets such as these, she undoubtedly will in a very short space of time rise to the top, for it is none other than Director Eagle who has made the statement “Give me a woman regardless of looks who can wear clothes, and I will make a star out of her in six months.”

—

The Roughneck

Two-Reel Kay-Bee Release by T. H. Ince and C. G. Sullivan, Featuring William S. Hart.

Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison

Cast:

Dave Page — William S. Hart
Avis Hilliard — Enid Markey
Franklin Hilliard — George Fisher
Jerome, the lawyer — Roy Laidlaw
Lord Cecil Oakleigh — Howard Hickman

Well handled and presenting Mr. Hart in a new light, The Roughneck will please as a story, though it comes under the heading, “conventional.” Interest is quickly aroused by Hart’s characterization, one of more psychology than he has hitherto attempted and one placed in strong contrast by the admirable selection of type in Enid Markey. The eternal conflict, that of The Great Divide, is one of locality. It is between a Westerner of primitive and unconquered nature and a girl of a more civilized environment, supposedly in the “East,” though such distinctions do not hold to-day. In this case the man has softened into that finest of gentlemen, he of delicate sensibilities and noble heart. The girl is merely the spoiled doll of wealth and fashion until a sudden revelation leads to an entire conversion of character, and not a little of the charm of contrast is due to Enid Markey’s consistent impersonation.

Three reels would have admitted of a more adequate treatment or the early development could have been compressed in favor of showing the girl’s conversion. It is almost too sudden. Then three reels would have permitted a more powerful contrast to be set forth at the mines. The girl and her brother are supposedly heirs to an enormous fortune, comprising a great mine, but the latter really constitutes the sole possession of their father at his death and he deeds it to the manager, Dave Page, as restitution for a wrong done Page’s father. Thus the supposed heiress and her brother are left penniless. They do not know it, however, and the girl demands five thousand dollars advance on her supposed dividends. The manager pays her that amount, though he is forced to do so from his own bank account.

Now it happens that the heiress is courted by a penniless lordling, and this gentleman suspects Page of secreting valuable property. Armed with a search warrant, the heirs and the lordling go to Page’s office and inspect his papers. This interesting scene results in a discovery wholly unexpected, the discovery that Page is the real master of the mine. A sudden change comes over the spirit of the lordling, and his true character comes to light. Page feels sorry for the children and, in a moment of supreme compassion, he gives the mine to them. He imposes a condition upon the brother that the next time a husband is selected for his sister he shall be a real man. The girl reaches a realization that Page is the real man for her in some well-handled scenes that are all too brief for the effect they deserve. The play is superior to most of its kind and will be well received.

—

Harry Myers Directing Saved by a Dream

Harry Myers is directing Saved By A Dream, in which the versatile players, Rosemary Theby and Brinsley Shaw are also starring.

—

Welsh Renews Universal Contract

William Welsh, the talented character actor, has just signed another contract with the Universal company and will continue to appear in Imp productions as heretofore.

—

—

Edward Alexander

Elizabeth Drew

Scene from The Roughneck (Kay-Bee)

Collection: Moving Picture World, March 1915