MANHATTAN MADNESS
starring Douglas Fairbanks and Jewel Carmen
NEW YORK TIMES
September 11, 1916
At 9:30 o'clock last night Douglas Fairbanks bounded between the red draperies of the tabloid stage of the Rialto Theatre and, with hands in trousers pockets, stood smiling at a large audience that had just witnessed his latest picture, "Manhattan Madness," and was therefore in the best of humor. The audience applauded wildly, and Mr. Fairbanks smiled some more. Then Mr. Fairbanks, still smiling, said he thought the picture was "pretty good," that he nearly lost his eyesight during the taking, but that the picture on which he was now working would be better, because he had already been hurt more times than in the former.
Mr. Fairbanks was right -- "Manhattan Madness" is a good picture. It tells the story of what happened to Steve O'Dare, a gilded Manhattan youth who turned cowboy and came back to market some ponies. His friends at the club grew weary of his talk of Wyoming and its thrills and staged a "frame-up" for his especial benefit.
It is this escapade that makes up the major portion of the film. This is the situation: Fairbanks' O'Dare has been lured to a house to sell his ponies, and there he receives information that leads him to believe the young woman who attracted his attention in a café is held captive there. He tried to rescue her, and before he discovers that it is all a hoax, he has whipped a dozen lifesize men in the best Fairbanksian manner. He scales the walls of the house with the ease of a fly, hurdles in and out of windows and races around the eaves of the housetop as if it were a running track. Then, suddenly, the friends he has sent for to help him, the girl, the villainous Russian and the servants disappear, and after an exhaustive search of the premises, he discovers them in the banquet hall ready to toast his discomfiture. But the laugh is on the other direction for just then his friends, the cowboys, arrive from the stockyards, and while they cover the jokers, he elopes with the girl.
The effectiveness of black and white in pictures is illustrated by another film on the Rialto program called "Puppets." It is a pantomime, with DeWolf Hopper in one of the principal roles. Mr. Hooper's skill as a mime is made good use of in this picture.
"Her Double Life" was the title of the picture shown at the Academy of Music. This is seven lives less than Theda Bara is usually called upon to live in the course of five reels. At the Strand a comely newcomer by the name of Louise Huff was seen in a picture entitled "The Reward of Patience." Miss Huff's role is that of a Quakeress, and the picturesque costume was becoming to her. Mae Murray in "The Big Sister" was the new offering at the Broadway.