Leopold Wharton, Director (1915) 🇺🇸

Leopold Wharton, selected from a large field of experts to direct the Pathé serial The Exploits of Elaine, has had a long and interesting experience. He was born in Manchester, England, in 1870, but was brought to this country only two years later by his parents, who settled in Hempstead, Texas, at that time known as “Six Shooter.” Being of an adventurous disposition he ran away from home when only eleven years old and became a fancy roller skater on the stage, earning a good salary by the time he was twelve.

At this time he met Minnie Maddern, who wanted to adopt him and make a great actor of him. Her kindness to him made him think of home and mother so back he went to his own people. In 1888, however, the call of the stage was too strong for him so he joined Jennie Calif’s company for “$8 per week and cakes.”

Since that time he has been associated with Augustin Daly, Olga Nethersole, Marie Wainwright, Creston Clark, Klaw & Erlanger and Macklyn Arbuckle. To show his versatility, sandwiched in among these engagements was one where he took out his own company of black-face comedians.

In 1909 he became interested in pictures and scored a hit as Abraham Lincoln in the Pathé play Abraham Lincoln’s Clemency. Not long afterwards he was promoted to the position of director and in that capacity produced all of those famous Pathé comedies in which Gwendoline Pates and Charles Arling appeared as well as many sterling dramas. Among his successes as a Pathé director were The Elusive Kiss, Here She Goes, The Exciting Honeymoon, Locked Out of Wedlock, The Itinerant Marriage and The Striped Bathing Suit, all comedies. Among the many dramas were The Frozen Trail, Baseball’s Peerless Leader, “Social Highwaymen,” Memories and Anguished Hours.

Mr. Wharton continued as a Pathé director until about a year ago, when he and his brother Theodore [Theodore Wharton] formed Wharton, Inc., and began the production of pictures at Ithaca, N. Y., all their output being released through Pathé. The splendid dramas The Boundary Rider, The Pawn of Fortune, The Prince of India and The Warning are proof of the Wharton ability.

Given such a long experience as actor with the best companies joined with five years as picture director, a mind fertile in expedients, a sound judgment and a knowledge of what the public wants and the result is Leopold Wharton, a director second to none, “the man who knows how.”

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“Zudora” Nos. 8 and 9

Latest releases of the Thanhouser serial contain action, good photography and thrills.

The eighth and ninth episodes of Zudora, the Thanhouser serial, are notable for the possession of those elements which go to make for success in this division of motion picture production. The eighth episode is called “The Foiled Elopement,” and shows Zudora attempting to get away from the restraint of her Uncle Hassam Ali, and marry John Storm, her fiancé. Chang, the Americanized Chinaman, employs hypnotism in his efforts to aid the guardian of the heiress of the Zudora mine in keeping watch on the girl. Madame Du Val [Mary Elizabeth Forbes] is also brought in as an assistant.

As Zudora is under the spell of the hypnotist she does not recognize Storm when he calls for her in his machine. When Zudora is taken to another house by her uncle Storm follows, but is unable to gain admittance. Storm enlists the aid of the police, who break in and precipitate a lively fight. Hassam Ali, in disguise as Chang, escapes. Zudora, bound, frees herself through burning the material about her wrists by means of the rays of the sun through a magnifying glass. Zudora is rescued, but her elopement is frustrated.

The ninth episode is “Kidnapped.” There is an abundance of incident which gives cause for thought to Zudora, the girl whose mind turns naturally to problems in which detectives delight. She joins the hunt for a missing child heiress, accounts of whose disappearance fill the newspapers. Zudora is in a fair way to restore the child when she, too, falls into the hands of the kidnappers. She is imprisoned in the caboose of a freight train standing on a siding. The conspirators place an infernal machine in a powder car adjoining the caboose. It is Jim Baird, the dual character played by James Cruze, who saves the situation when by a flying leap he gets aboard the moving train. He runs across the top of the intervening cars, climbs down and uncouples the caboose just before the explosion takes place. Zudora and the child are rescued.

James Cruze does good work as Hassam Ali, as do the other principals, Marguerite Snow as Zudora and Harry Benham as John Storm. The staging is elaborate. There are, for instance, the many secret ways of getting about the home of Hassam. One of the features of Zudora is the attention given to the furnishings of Hassam’s home. Certainly there is no material which in richness seems so strongly to appeal to the camera as teakwood.

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Scene from Zudora (Thanhouser)

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Complete Casts of “Young Romance” and “The Goose Girl”

The following are the complete casts for the Jesse Lasky productions of Young Romance and The Goose Girl, to be released respectively on January 21 and 25; Edith Taliaferro is the star of Young Romance, and her supporting company includes Tom Forman, Frederick Wilson (Silent Movie Actor), Ernest Garcia, Marshall Mackay, Harry de Vere, Parke Jones, Charles Wells, Florence Dagmar, Violet Drew, Mrs. Lewis McCord, Miss Kellar, Miss Abril and Miss White. By courtesy of the Famous Players, Miss Marguerite Clark assumes the stellar role of The Goose Girl, and that company includes Monroe Salisbury, Sidney Dean, E. N. Dunbar, James Neill, L. Payton, P. E. Peters, H. B. C. Carpenter, Ernest Joy, J. M. Cassidy, Miss Johnson and Jane Darwell.

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Ben Wilson in Western Drama

C. H. Easton, the Victor director, and Ben Wilson, have begun work on The Rider of Silhouette, a two-reel western drama by Anthony P. Kelly, of the Eastern Universal scenario staff. The company has gone into the Adirondacks to get some snow scenes but will soon return to New York. Wilson plays the role of Tex Davis, a bad man; Joseph Girard the role of the sheriff and Dorothy Phillips the role of the sheriff’s daughter. Little Jane Lee [Transcriber’s Note: IMDB lists a Jane Leigh, an ominous child actress with a single movie credit] is also cast for an important part.

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Della Connor Signs Permanently with George Kleine

Della Connor, the petite blond who has done such splendid work in the last two Kleine attractions, Officer 666 and Stop Thief, has been signed up permanently with the Kleine forces and will be seen in future productions. Miss Connor is well known to the world of picture fans and has had considerable stage experience, including a long term as a protegée of Gus Edwards.

Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915