It seems highly unfortunate that the culmination of 20 years of experience and work in photography, lighting, acting, and all the other component parts of good moving pictures, should have to be subordinated to poor directing and a worse scenario as they are in "Stark Mad", the current attraction at the Metropolitan, in order that we may hear as well as see.
As pure amusement this film ranks high, as an all-talking, even higher, but in comparison with the best products of the old "silver screen" it falls lamentably short. In the whole picture there are really only two changes of scene, which is even less than one has on the stage. All sense of tempo, a quality which has been highly developed lately, is completely lost due to the necessity for close-ups as the characters speak. And the last and worst sin in this production is an illogical plot which must be obvious to even the least critical person.
In spite of all these criticisms the acting is good, the voices are well handled, and through a long succession of obvious clinches, apes, lunatics, sliding bolts, and levers that drop floors into underground rivers, one gets a decided feeling of mystery which is well built up until the complete let down at the close.
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