The Marriage Cheat. This little screen sister of Rain has a steady downpour on its South Sea island. Also, it has a minister who fis sorely tempted, after preaching Hellfire and brimstone at the poor native sinners who wear their sins openly. But in this case the rain washes everyone clean. The minister who plans to leave with the woman he loves—a wife who has fled ashore from the yacht of her wastrel millionaire husband—finally sends her back to the debauchee. It seems a foolish thing to do—perhaps he was touched by the heat. But the picture is made consistently interesting through good direction, through good acting by Percy Marmont, Leatrice Joy, Adolph Menjou and particularly Laska Winter as a half-caste girl, and through a smashing wreck at sea which solves the triangular situation with one slap of the waves.
Maytime. The famous operetta, which is still a favorite after seven years, has been presented on the screen, minus the music and the swinging choruses. The effect is supremely silly. Sentiment is splashed around with a whitewash brush. An attempt has been made to jazz up this fragrantly simple story of the lovers who buried their love beneath a tree as they were forced to marry others, and had their souls reunited at last in their descendants. Harrison Ford, Ethel Shannon, Clara Bow and William Norris pop in and out of the story, doubling on their tracks through three generations, in a way that will probably confuse all but those who have grown up with the original operetta.
Women Who Give. Far from being, as the title indicates, a story of Society women on the rampage through gilded interiors, this is a straightforward story of Cape Cod fisher folk, presented with a wealth of detail. The foot of the daughter of a lighthouse keeper slips on the rocks. The wealthy father of a young man tries to keep his son from marrying the daughter who made the faux pas, and has him shanghaied. But youth will be served, especially with a storm to help (in bringing a reconciliation. It is a slightly haunting echo of Kingsley's "Men must work and women must weep," and the cast is capable — except when they let their emotions run away with their faces.
Miami. A hackneyed story, chiefly notable for its glimpses of the luxury of the famous Florida resort, and for the views of Betty Compson in a one-piece outfit.