HOODOO ANN
Starring Mae Marsh and Robert Harron
MOTION PICTURE NEWS
April 15, 1916
Here is Mae Marsh in her first Triangle play, fully justifying all predictions of her eminent fitness to be starred in pictures. She has been provided with a typical Fine Arts story, a first rate supporting cast, and superior direction.
Even if Miss Marsh were not surrounded with these, we believe
she could not fail to gain a personal success. For, without shadow
of a doubt, she was born to the camera.
But Granville Warwick's story makes possible her creation of a
real character - Hoodoo Ann, drudge of the orphanage; heroine
of a fire; central figure in a mystery, and finally Mrs. Jimmie
Vance. All Miss Marsh's gifts of expression and pantomime are
called into play. She does not act Hoodoo Ann; she is Hoodoo Ann,.
There you have summed up in four words the whole story, so far
as Miss Marsh is concerned.
It may be well to tell you also that this picture will delight not merely your adult patrons, but children as well. It has as universal an appeal as any picture we have ever seen.
Robert Harron, as Jimmie Vance, is Miss Marsh's able first assistant, and is perfectly at home in his role. It is superfluous to talk about Harron's screen ability, or his work in a particular picture. He is always good. Others in the cast - they all do well - are William H. Brown, Wilbur Higby, Loyola O'Connor, Mildred Harris, Pearl Elmore, Anna Hernandez, Charles lee, Elmo Lincoln and Robert Lawler.
Lloyd Ingraham, the director, and Granville Warwick, the author, lavished cleverness on this production. It is filled with those little human touches for which Fine Arts pictures are famous. This applies to the subtitles also. A neat surprise is gained by the introduction of a character who has nothing to do with the story. This is a clever trick which needs to be seen to be appreciated. Suffice it to say, it supplies a very novel ending.
Another fine stroke is the introduction of a moving picture show which Harron and Miss Marsh attend. They see there an old style Western "mellerdrammer." The picture they see is, of course, really a burlesque on the old school of pictures, but it also is necessary to the plot.
Finally, "Hoodoo Ann" has a high degree of suspense,
as well as a high degree of heart interest and humor. The management
of the "murder" mystery at the end is exceedingly ingenious.
There is not murder, but until the mystery is cleared up, the
spectator is anxious for the safety of little Hoodoo Ann. There
are other notable things about this subject, but they all point
the same moral: it is a real photoplay.