Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1922-09-10 | Page 8 | Producers Living up to Their Promise of Bigger and Better Films for Public This Season

I ' ' f PRODUCERS LIVING UP TO THEIR PROMISE OF BIGGER AND BETTER I FILMS FOR PUBLIC THIS SEASON -j Dean Reviews Latest Developments in Movie World and Tells of Good Things in Store for Screen Fans I I i By JAMBS W. DEAN. NEW YORK, Sopt. f There Is no doubt thrU photoplay producers have kept their pledge to make "blggr nut better pictures' A casual rc-1 rc-1 .11 mo of the pictures so far released hla year shows that they are generally gener-ally better than they havo been In ny previous year. Cold statistics easily show thnt the picture! still to come are blpger from Hhe standpoint of production than j hose of the past. I Douglas Fairbanks claims that ev- I ry record over established In the "Jirodur tlnn of a ptrturo was broken in ihc filming of "Robin Hood." ' hat's taking in n lot of territory, but i Siere uro some of the figures ho sub-pnlts: sub-pnlts: SO.OOO calla issued through casting 'ri eps rt ment to players. IO0 horSi s used In a single scene. Total semes shot. 1.1 OS. Maximum number of s.vnrs In o rlay. 30. 'o time lost on account, of -rain the company working one noii-iJay noii-iJay and four Sundays. I S00 im n employed on construction -of sets, sonic working at night v Tipeed the work Cecil PcMllle also has some imposing im-posing figures t" offer on his pro- .'ilii' Uon of "Manslaughter." One sequence of scenes Involved I be use f 600 players over a period pi throe weeks That cost more than anything of its kind ever undertaken : ' the Lasky studio. Liurlng the filming of that sequence ; tS. 1 h n.- ot h'T i-nrk wn s und er-taken er-taken In the studio where many companies com-panies are usually at work. 'Z 22 cameras were In action at one llme to catch a certain scene from ma many angles. Producers evidently believe that the 1 vogue for costume piotures is to last ."Tor some time to come. A recent j Statement puts the cost or "When I -Knighthood Was In Flower." st;ir- -"ring Marlon DaviSBj at $ if 6 00,000. The I actual filming of the story cost i $954.29 an hour. Indoor et cot $41,721.26. a These figures do not necessarily . mean that the films referred to are artistically bettor than pictures made I ;rwlth lessor outlay. This writer l -lleves that a most Interesting film I could be made with two or three I characters with a blank wall as a nacKgrouna. suggested for the director di-rector of such a picture are William J)eMllle. King Vldor or John S. Robertson. Rob-ertson. Tlio three players should be chosen from among Charles Chaplin. Theodore Kosloff. Theodore Roberta, ' Krlc Von Strohelm, Richard Harthel- I mess, Mabel Normand Irene Rich, Lillian Glsh and Pola Negri. They j '' Hire all masters ..f pantomime Pantomime Pan-tomime is the most Important ele-nent ele-nent In screen acting. Some friends of Jackie Coogan are worrying about his future, believing that he will outgrow his appeal as Tie grows larger In body. If you look 'at a picture of Buster Keuton as he) was when ho was Jacklr Coogan's age ' you will see the promise Of just such an artist as he Is today. If ou look' at a picture of Jfcj kle Coogan as he Is today, you can probably foretell pUSt what sort of artist he will bo j when he Is Buater Keaton's age. Ac-Jors Ac-Jors are born. m - ... For some reason the Paramount of--Hces have kept secret until now the ! Tactual plans for Pola Negri's work In j this country. Previous information Is contradicted In an announcement lust Issued. Negri's first picture will be Robert Hlchens' 'Bella Donna." Jt will be made at the West Coast studios. Oulda Bergcre Is preparing, the Bcenarlo c.eorpe Fitzmaurlcn ' M Uwlll direct. Thackr ray's Vanity Pair" is to be' '.icreened by Hugo Ballin, with Mal.'A Ballin in the leading- role. Ballin says letters from the public requested this j "story as his next picture. Thackeray described that story as a "novel without a hero." a i Hired purveyors of riraises of larlon Davles have referred to her so frequently .is "the beautiful cosmopolitan cosmo-politan star" that she has generally 1 be 1 1 pted in that light, little con-J .deration being given her ability to Indeed, until the prosent her abll- j I . jty to act has deserved little conslder- ntion. Sre has been more or less a puppet, caparisoned in gilt and fringe, j posing before the camera for clos- -lips as seriously and as Inexpressive-ly Inexpressive-ly as a wax doll, obeying the direc-1 tor in opening or closing her eyes I as faithfully as a doll obeys its Utile Ut-ile mother when she reclines It to j j make It "go to sleep." ' However, in all fairness to Miss' I Davles, it must be recorded that she does act in "The Young Diana." She Invests her screen character with & I realism that is due sllely to her perception per-ception of the emotions expected of the character. Perhaps the beat indication that Miss DaVleS has acting ability Is that upon several occasions In the film she forgot she was beautiful. She pouted pout-ed and twisted her features into expression ex-pression of anger She was really attractive then 1 In one scene of 'The Young Diana" Miss Da vies turns her back upon tho camera That back hadn't a thread upon it. This may have been rtotm with the Idea that Miss Da les' back as well as her face. Is beautiful. It may have been done with the idea that she Is only human, after all. Few girls with perfect features have perfect per-fect backs. Probably because they pay solmuch attention to their features fea-tures they forget their carriage. But good gracious, Annabelle, a girl can't have everything! Since Marie Corolli Is one of the generation's most widely read writers it in hardly necessary to tell tho story of "The Young Diana." The film has been produced on a most elaborate scale. The laboratory scene In which the mlddlo-aged spinster Is restored to youth and beauty through the application appli-cation of condensed light energy is the best executed of Its kind to be shown on the screen. It almost con-vim con-vim es the spectator that the energy for light Is the elixir of youth and that it can be applied to the human body with better results than those obtained by gland operations. The most artle.tlc settings for photoplays pho-toplays now being made are those by Joseph l'rban, who has executed tho scenes for all of the late vehicles of Marlon Pavies. The Ice carnival s ( ene in 'The Young Plana" reaches a superlative beauty In composition and in choreography of the ballet. une of Charlie Chaplin's old Cornell's. Corne-ll's. The Pawnshop," is now being revived. It was made years ugo After Af-ter seeing it one wonders why Chaplin Chap-lin V709 not accepted as an artist in the days when he was considered Just one among many screen players. Chaplin's face was never more expressive ex-pressive than It was In tnot comedy. "The Pawn Shop." Is a better comic than Chaplin's last. "Pay Day" REFLOGRAPIIS. t. Roy Bafh.es will pia.y in the screen erslon of "Adam and Rv " Hull Montana's next two comedies nr.- The Punctured Price" and "Silk Purees and Cauliflower Ears." Tom Gallerv will play the male lead in ' A Daughter of. Luxury," starring Agnes Ayres "Choose Your Weapons." a new Christie comedy, Is a burlesque on "The Prisoner of Zcnda." Pegs are coming back Into the movies, P'-gs are what take the well-known Tirej Business Man into the theatres. P-ps arc what bring dollars into the box office Dollars in the box office are what movie producers, distributors and ex, hibltors are In the business to get. Muck Senn. tt who made enough money producing leg pictures to stop making them when silly tensors began be-gan to proclaim that a leg in motion pictures v. as a more insidious evil than a log In the flesh on tho stage. Is ' ' .sponsible for the re-introduction of the bathing girl to the screen. The recrudeecenee of the movie leg occurs In "The Shriek of Araby." 1 desert comedy in which girls will disport dis-port in a harem pool Ben Turpln is the star His eyes will probably become be-come straight looking at them. Legs is legs, just as pigs 13 pigs ( !omc years ago legs wore limbs. That v. as I" fore short ?klrts became the style and when women tried to swim with nightgowns on Only an un-iouCi un-iouCi person referred to lower limbs as legs. It was perfectly proper to call upper limbs arms. Legs was 1 word to be said In a whisper and with a blush. Leg is a legitimate word It is to be found even In abridged dictionaries. diction-aries. Everybody has 'em Ew.n censors, who will probably order them amputated In the Bennett comedies. The absence of musical comedies on the stage is gh en by Bennett as fch reason for the revival Of girl -show pictures. Few musical comedies are on the road because of the cost of transportation. George M Cohan. the Shubcrts, Hammcrsteiu and others have ma ! money with musical comedies not because of the music or the comedy contained in tho shows so much as be, aUSS of their selection of chorus girls. That s very probably truo, but where s the art in a musical comedy that contains little music and little comedy ? Winter changes to spring without a break in the film or a movement of the camera in ' The Siren Call ' When Irvln Wlllat was directing the picture In the Yoscmlto Valley he noticed that the snow melted very I rapidly when the sun came out The scenario called for a sprlnc scene He had the camera sot ur after a snowfall one day and shot a scene. As the snow melted more fljm w&t exposed. After several days the snow had mc-lted entirely This change t seasons is shown In B few seconds on the screen Yesslr, nature's ft wonderful won-derful thing. In the movies. THE MOVIETOKIUM. Lloyd Hamilton has used the samr cutaway coat In his comedies for eight years. '"The Inheritors." magazine serla by I. A. R. Wylle, Is to bo filmed bj Goldwyn. "Don't wear yourself out waving a palm-leaf fan." Is the advice of Dr. Royal S. Copeland, New Yorl; health commissioner, in a pictorial Interview for the next Movie Chat. m Bessie Love will be icadlng lady In "Prince Courageous." Jack Mulhall will bo featured In a series of pictures called "Tales Ol tho Fish Patrol " t Al Jolson says he wants to be known as 'the Harold Lloyd of th( stage" since he saw ' Grand tl I I 't Boy." Kenneth Harlan and Marie Prcvost will have featured roles in the film ersion of E. Scott Fttzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned Dr. Oscar Penning. explorer. Il working as an extra In ' The Stranger's Strang-er's Banquet" to obtain experience fot a career a.s B direi tor A Lnwson Butt Is directing blmsell in the leading role ol The Flyln Dutchman." The most engrossing picture I have seen in quite a time Is ' The Mystor Box." It has no love thomo. Iltti humor, no star player, no beaoitlfu settings In I'hort, it has none of th' elements by which the entertainment value of a picture i:; usually estl mated "The Mystery Box" tells the ston of the radio I! Is on of those Mr i films of combined line drawings anc photographs It makes the transmission transmis-sion of sound waxes In expressive forms as easy to understand as tlx most abstract physical phenomena. The amateur radio operator u shown just how and why the varlotti elements of the receiving and send Ing r.eta work. He sees how the radlc wave is varied by the sound of th voice in the transmitter and how thh variation is recorded in the recolvinf set. the pound being converted agair Into Its original form that of the voice Humans have communicated bj sound ever since the beginning of hu man creation yet the secret of aoum transmission has been known for only a short time. Many Jyng hours o study are required to learn the B li n tlflc principle In school. The motloi picture visualizes the entire procesi in ten minutes. "The Mystery Box" is amplo prooJ of the merit of visual education. Al I recall Ions: houri in the army spen' In the study of communication, ballls tics and other subjects of similar na ture necessary In the preparation o an army, i wonder why the govern ment did not employ the motion pie' ture as a means of visual education One tblnT that the reviewer of flc tures must constantly guard again- is bias for or against certain player; ! whose screen personalities have ; definite re-a tlon upon him Screer personalities are not ulways the saim I as real personalities Even if the I were they should not enter into I judgment of the merits of a film. with this explanation it is prob, j ably not unethical to say that the on. character on the screen that Irritate: me above all others Is Bobby Ver non. one of tue stars of Christie com edies. No matter what his rolo h I seems to be a smart aleck. just Al I Johnnie Klnes does. Vernon's manner Indicates that In ; realizes he Is supposed to be funny I and. like the small child called U I recite his pi) ct- When company comes, he; shows off before the camera. cam-era. Yet this very manner makes "Par don My Glove." the next Christie comedy, better than She average run I of comedies In that Vernon is a youth who j takes to prize-fighting after his fath-' fath-' er disowns him tor being expelled i from college for fighting I He is to travel ahead of the chani-I chani-I plon and establish a reputation for ' himself by knocking down a huge negro who travels with him Then I he Is to be a "set-up" for the chain-1 chain-1 pion when the latter arrives I The situation is complicated when ' Vernon and the champion fall in love ! with the same girl The fight that j follows Is one of the funniest and I bost done in any recent comedy, due chiefly to Vernon's acting The Situation in 1 Pardon My Glove" finds Its counterpart in pria -fight circles today. Tho champions In almost every weight division are sidestepping side-stepping engagements with men who stand the best chance to wrest their crowns from them. They're willing to fight If they could find set-ups Censorship of books can be mad.- as silly as that of pictures. Walt Whitman Whit-man Is .suppressed in Hungary' a an anarchist and communist writer Th" United States bans the translation of "Mademoiselle do Maupin." French story. France discontinues the B -rial publication of Sherwood Anderson's Ander-son's "Wlnesburg, Ohio." but permits per-mits the Issue of Joyce's "L'lysses," banned In America and England. Edith Roberts has replaced Enid Bennett as hading lady In "Thorns and Orange Blossoms." e e Blessed are they who are endowvd with a sense of humor. They shall Inherit the kingdom of contentment. One is ready to bespeak the kingdom king-dom of marital felicity for Walter Heirs, the roly poly movie comedian, after talking to Miss Adah MacWll-llams, MacWll-llams, to whom he is engugee Folk up at Syracuse, N. Y., call her "Peaches." She's bout five feet six inches til, is quite slim and has tltlan hair and blue eyes and very red Hps. And many a young nabob of Syracuse Syra-cuse thinks she's the most beautiful girl In town. Aak her why she became onjrage-1 to Heirs and sho replies. "They say 'Nobody loves a fat man.' I just wanted to be contrary. Exit why shouldn't a girl love a fat man 7 "When I go to tlio beach I'll Just walk along in Walter's big shadow. "When we pass througn a crowd. Pll just walk in back of him and not be joatled. "He likes the old-fasbioned waltz and if I'm terribly tired, he. can rak mc across tho floor on his feet 1 he) '11 : stand it "I've always wanted a big houac. With Y alter as my husband, we'll have to have that kind. "I'll never have to make his shir.s. Thnt would be. a waste of material When he can buy a large sise in r . uly-made ones. "When he comes home after a I loniT, hard day. he will not be ill-I ill-I natured. if I'm out of sorts, he will , j Joke me out of It. That's the nature of big men. "Anybody can love a fat man and Walter's not TOO fat, anyway " P. s. Miss MacWllllama will enter en-ter the College of Home Economics. ; Syracuse university, this fall t.) earn the intricacies of a cream puff. Heirs occupies a unique place in i filmdom He is the first fat man lo rise to the rank of leading man in feature photoplays. His characterizations characteri-zations are distinctive because they eem to reflect a keen senso or jubtlety The comedy of other fat comedians has ben of tho llap-stlok uriety. Space in advertising columns of various publications has been used n ntly to set forth remarks of thl writer about certain players and certain cer-tain pictures, the inference being that recognlUon by a rovlewor or critic Is proof of the merit of a player or production. pro-duction. That fallacy has long been extant among the producers of stage and screen plays. Regardless of wnat reviewers re-viewers may say th. success of a person per-son or a producUon depends chiefly upon Its merit. Many readers follow the remarks of newspaper reviewers b( cauee they so often disagree with their opinions that they go to see a rll I IMI I 1 11.11 MM show when that reviewer condemns It ! and Stay away when lie commends it. A certain v eal her forecaster is well-known throughout certain sections sec-tions of Ohio. Indiana and Kentucky for the accuracy of his pronostlca- tlons. lie bases his forecasts on studies of the zodiac. He once met a government weather forecaster who asked him how he.ob- j talned hla results. Not recognizing the government man, the reader of i the signs of zodiac replied. "You know this fellow (naming the man he was addressing! ? ell, I watch for what he predicts and then predict! Just the opposite." That's the way with many news-paper news-paper readers. They read what cer- ' tain reviewers have to say about stago I and screen plays and are governed by j the opposite opinion. Howevpr, thoy , are at least Interested In what that reviewer has to say. mm (iaston Glass is to be the hero of "Souls for Sale." Four two-reel comedies written for the screen by A. A. Milne and produced pro-duced In London have been sent to America. Harold Lloyd has completed "Doctor "Doc-tor Jack." Flowers used In Louis B. Mayor pictures are ruised in his hothouse. Mrs. Jeanne Trebaol has 12 children chil-dren acting in the movies. Jean-nette Jean-nette appeared in "A Poor Relation," Yves in "Come On Over" and "Tho Wall Flower" and Edward lg playing with Jackie Coogun In 'Oliver Twist m m m Mary Plckford is supervising the editing and titling of "Garrison's Finish," Fin-ish," Jack Plckford's last picture. . Think of some of the laces you havo seen in motion pictures. The ones that come first to your mind are probably the ones that have shown the bost acting in the pictures you have seen, regardless of whether they are your favorite plaers The mark of an actor's ability Is. after all, tho Impression he inu.k' s on the mental screen of the spco-J tator. The faces that have most lm-, pressed me are those of Lillian Glsh in "Orphans of the Storm " Richard Barthelmess In "Broken Blossoms. Eric Von Strohelm in "Foolish Wives," the woman, whose name I do not know, who played the role of the old hag In 'Foolish Wives. Jackie Coogan in "Trouble," .'ind Charlie Chaplin in "The Kid." Pauline Frederick In "Madame X" and George . Hackathorne in "Human Hearts " I think of these players in the characters in which I saw them rather rath-er than in their own personalities All I have noted except the woman, whoso name I do not know und George Hackathorno are generally recognized among the leaders of the scroen players. This list results fron-i the impression upon only one spectator, spec-tator, one who sees several million feet of film a year However. I believe that if any movie fan were to recall to mind the faces that navo impressed him or herj very deeply, he or she would find that they are the faces of recognized recog-nized leaders. The future of Hackathorno seem' bright. His features are mobile. He understands pantomime And better' owsponHraUoal lwal of SJe J In "Human Hearu However. Hv 0f Om title role in .rrrel I e Minister bim m Compson rhancter fH These two cH&rl 1 versatility i. to S'ow HackathorD' I JM Strohelm has shown ra m any other director o Inspiring a Pver th" role. Htf up to P,r0"f pound" Part in MerO Oo tjm prove one of the 1 tW l L-ter work yet ts1v. JonD Conquest gjM who has written prelB 11 amu8?n Tcn SJm imi rlcans, t ,o0 sue cess of so - '.H Miss Conquest tffiW tt the k'ZylM desert life is 'preaaj : la f.uster K''0"