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Show f LITTLE YARNS ABOUT FILMS, STARS, PLAYS AND LIFE IN MOVIES j i 1 k By JAMES W DHAJT. H NEW YORK, Dee. 31 The ten best 'photoplay of 1921 their .selection IS H almost entirely one of persona! opin- H 1 i.j n Tint hold trup In the selection I mvthical All-Ameri.-.m fyoth.ill Ht 'team, i he bc-t book of the year, or H any list of the "best" of anything H , a selective list fumlshea .i stand- B hard to measure, the critld who makes BH jit is niu(h as it establishes a mcas-'ure mcas-'ure of the films passed upon. Therefore this critic in submitting HH la list of the films he considers tho fl Ihest produced from Jan. 1, 1921, to H .lan. 1, 1922. realizes that he makes H 'himself a subject of criticism. JH Girding up my typewriter and set- H ling myself for the onslaught I pro- 9 'reed to say that the ten best photo- HH 'plays of the yenr 192 1 are: II i in- Cabinet .f Dr CaJigaii." I "Tiio Four Horsemen of the .po- mtM oalypse5." I Miss l ulu licit. Ki "The Kid " j; 'Disraeli " ii "Donbllng For Romeo." I I'nmlnn " I "Peter Ibbetson 1 J "The JTodmey'a EJnd." EB "The Three Musketeers" undoubt- W .edlj photoplaj t pro-l . i ui in Ann world ' ses unity of action and char- Efl (LCterisatlon It is a play of serious nl Intent shot through with humor. Ac- KX ftion lags for never a moment. Its i. chnlquo is flawless, Its settings 9 land photography approaching pcr- I was of a mind when first con- 9 slderiug the list to place "The Cab- H9 lnet of Dr. Caligarl" in first posi- HjH tion. That film marks the biggest advance in the art of the cinema since the first photoplay was made. Its Form is neither literature, po-CV po-CV tralturo nor drama. It represents fefl a form that employs each of those elements, et is dlsrinct unto itself, BRfl a form that for want of a better Bl name I designate" as cinema composi- However, the Caligari film had to HEH resort to cubislic settings and an VEfl irrational story to achieve its effect VJB , In ten years the cinema composer UjB will bo an established figure in the world of art.- He, or she, wiil be jiB neither author, playwright or JftVfl painter. 8 To give reasons for each of the jH selections would requlro too much i-pace. One thing alone in "The K Kid" would make It worthy of a "BrAVf place In any list. That was the ex-H ex-H presslon In Chaplin's face when lie was informed that the kid was ill. HB That was the greatest bit of facial H acting ever caught by the camera. I placed "The Journey's End" In the list because it told its story arte- i quately wlhout tbo aid of even one i subtitle. In doing that it fulfilled the true mission of a photodrama. Ten other photoplays considered ! nt length for a place on the list I were "The Golem." 'Little Lord Fauntlcroy." "The Old Keel ' The Lotus Eater," "Deception. ' "Wlth- out Benefit of Clergy." "over the Hill,' "Black Beauty." "Grt-Rlch-' Quick Walllngford" and ''Sentimental ''Sentimen-tal Tommy." It WAS my pleasure to meet Mary Pickford sovcral times during the year. 1 w.os no more doubtful about placing "Little Lord Faunt leroy" among the first ten than 1 was about Some which did find a place there. However, I . 1 1 that I might be bl is'i in Miss I'iokfor.l " favor 1m-cause 1m-cause of the personal impression she runic upon m Feu that reason 1 omitted her film from the first ten. Padding Innvd the sincerity of "The Old N'esC" The same, is true of others in the secondary list. "Way Down Bast" was not considered because be-cause of anachronisms in characters, and settings. The list as it stands is not entirely ! representative, it does not include: short comedies and features. The Will bo considered In a supplement I ary list. Tin- plays as listed might be classified as "feature" films. The movement for shorter photo- j plays grows apace. Pathe in 'a few weeks will begin to reissue all its for- mer feature plays In three-reel form, i This Innovation and the growing I popularity of the two-reel dramas I he ii- out the contention that this writ-er writ-er made months ago that one of the chief faults of pictures today is thfel j padding of stories to make them of feature length. shorter photodrama allows more time for news reels and comics and i a more diversified and entertaining I program results. One might enjoy an eight or ten-reel picture if it contained con-tained enough action to warrant that! length. But few of them do. These condensed and re-Issued photodramas will bring back to the 1 I screen some of the old-time favorites! rraim i.eeu:in. j- lorence Kceu, Irene astle, Eric Von Strohelm, Ethel Gray Terry, Antonio Moreno. Creighton Hale. Marguerite Snow and others. The first in the list of these Pathe playlets Is "The Midnight Stage." starring Frank Keenan. In the cast are Joseph Dowling, Mignon Anderson. Ander-son. Maude GejOTgC Thomas Guise, Wads worth Harris and Charles Gunn. Others In the list are "Convict 993." "Via Wireless." "The Hunting of the Hawk." "At Bay," "Sylvia of the Secret Service," "Loaded Dice." "Tho Closing Net,". "Tho Mark of Cainc." "More Trouble," and "Ven-geanco "Ven-geanco Is Mine " It is interesting to note that most of these are more or less melodramatic. melodra-matic. That is also in line with the present trend in motion pictures. William Fox is now making melodramas melo-dramas almost exclusively And they iir packing the theaters. Serial u'lodramas, minus gunplay, are enjoying en-joying greater- patronage than they have at any other time in the history of the cinema. HOW TIMJiS DO CHANGE. George Melford, who directed "The shell;" and Just completed "Moran of the I-ady Letty," was recently speaking of old times. Whjn be produced pro-duced "The Doe- W-ar" in five reels and spent $26,000 on it the producers thought he was crazy. That was in 1511. His last two pictures were of seven reels and cost sovcral times $26,000. "DORN A l)r ! " Mauris Tourneur has started to film "I.ornn Doone." tho famous novel by K. D. Ltlackmore, after more than a yoar's preparation Prank Keenan will play the role of Sir Knsor Doono, leader of tho picturesque pic-turesque robber band, liadfje Hrd-lrrmy Hrd-lrrmy will be the hero. John Kldd 'Thlfl will be another costume play as the I action takes place In the 17th century. cen-tury. Tourneur will personally direct di-rect every scene. That means that "Lorna Doone" will be scenirally the equal of "The Last of the Mohicans." one of tho most artistic outdoor photoplays ever filmed. r RED HOT ROM M 1 " "Red Hot Romance" Is tho first independent in-dependent production made by John Emerson and Anita Loos, the famous fa-mous scenario -writers. It is n satire on the romantic melodrama with scenes laid In Santo .rafto, tho cap-I cap-I ltol of tho Kingdom of Bunkonia. The scenes ure modeled after An-dorrea, An-dorrea, u republic of 25 square miles in tho Pyrenees Mountains. An American hero, a helpless girl ana tlie-marlnes-to-tho-rescue figure in tho plot. t st n S QUO ' I n'I ROHB1 If'S "FOOIilSH W1V1 B Train. Rushing across continent. Special car Stoc film cutters. Projection Pro-jection machlni. Tilting outfit. 17,-000 17,-000 feet of fllrd being reduced to 12,- I 000. That's status u.uo of "Koollsh Wives." Eric Von SUoheim started to film it May, 190. Had 3C5.000 feet Sept. 15. 1921. Stopped shooting and I started cutting. Central Theater. New York, leased fcr special showing starting Dec. 1. j Bv Nov. 1 Strohelm still had 33.000 , feet left. What ho cut out he'd want to put back. Universal took 1 the Job away from him Now editors bollerl It dnTrn tr, 17. fi" feet in month of November. Still ' 5000 feet too long. Expect to have it J ready Jan. 1. Meanwhile, Central Theater rented for other pictures. Censors of many states passed on this film in California. And what was left out would have proved the gmalest box offlco attraction that over showed. But that's because it wasn't fit to be shown. Cecil DeMllle was hurrying to catch the boat that was to take him to Europe Eu-rope for a two months' vacation. I had Just two minutes to interview him. Here's the interview, grabbed on " What's the prime requisite of a movie star"" fDn Mille has placed more stars in tho film firmament thun any other person.) "Ability to act and personality." "Which is the more importunl?" i "Personality. If one has that hf or she can be taught to act On tho other hand, one may know how to act but have no personality. " "What is personality,?" "That which makes you look at a person the second time." , "What screen players of note started their careers under your guidance ?' "Hayakawa, Mae Murray. Wallace Reid, Geraldlne Farrar, Jack Holt, oioria Bwanaon, Wanda Hawley, Hebe Daniels, Agnes Ayres. Elliot Dexter. Tom Melghan. Monte Blue and oh. cs Theodore Roberts. No player except Man' Pickford has done tas much to advance the technique tech-nique of screen acting as Theodore Roberts. Sorry. 1'vo got to hurry or I'M miss the boat. I'll see you when I return from the other side. So long!" "So long!" MOVIES IMPROVED IT. Tom Forman directed the film version ver-sion of "If You Believe It. It's So." He met Perley Poore Sheehan, the author, after the latter had seen the film in the projection room. "As one Irishman to another" said Forman. "how does it look to you'.'" "You've got the book beat by a mile," replied Sheehan. Yot CJelett Rurgess recently sang nt a dinner of the Authors' League. "My story has gone to the movies. Oh, bring back my story to me!" This is to lot you in on a little secret. sec-ret. Jack Holt, a star in his own right, works as an extra in "Don't Till Everything." Ho rides in tho polo scene. Now the reason this Is mentioned Is that Holt really rides well. II worked work-ed us an extra because ho likes to ride. You can spot him in tho film although he never appears in a close- No matter how much commentators commenta-tors on tho movies may r.ivu about the story being tho thing In the photoplay, the star system is the thing at the box office. Gloria Swanson and Elliott Dexter co-star with lieid in "Don't Tell Everything." Those three names will draw more people to a box office than the title of the greatest story ever written, whatever one that may happen to be. In th film Reid Is a society ath- iDic. in- marries oioria. Dill she1 Isn't much of a ploymate In the way of bunting and fishing Dorothy Cummlngs had been Wally's sportive pa) Ho goes to her hunting lodge and, innocont of Wally's marriage, sho tries to vamp him. Gloria irrises. dressed like a drum-major, drum-major, She is a striking contrast in all her finery to the girl l khaki Shirt and bree. I.( Wally falls for the finery, especially when Gloria appears ap-pears on a balcony in stunning negligee, neg-ligee, and unothor home Is saved. Dexter is good In 'the little bit ho hns to do. He acts as an advisor to Wally and Gloria and as an addod ' l i t ion at, the box office. The best acting iraa done by Miss Cummlngs, whose naino was not exploited .11 a star. HOW SHE sTVRVr D Kathleen Norris was told when she first began to earn her living tnat she would starvo If :iho tried to earn it by writing. So for five years she wsrked as clork, stenographer, book-kseper, book-kseper, school tencher, companion, governess, photographers assistant, librarian, Red Cross aide, settlement worker, children's tutor and reporter. Sho almost starved at all of those vocations. Then .she starred to write. Now sho la one of tho country's best known writers and rocontly began to write directly for tho screen for Qold-wyn. Qold-wyn. However, her .success at writing may be dun t. her experiences while mho wan starving In the other positions posi-tions ' |