Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, January 14, 1924, Page 2

: SQOTION PICTURE FRODUCER. Close-Ups of Interesting Film Folk IRST off, isn't there a delight- fully domestic flavor to the top center picture? Two of F the favorite silver sheet heroes, promenading with their better , halves. Mrs. Lloyd is known to Screen fans as Mildred Davis. Mrs. Meighan was Frances Ring. In the upper corners are the direo- tor and a featured player of one of the interesting new pictures, “Flam- ing Barriers.” George Melford is the man and Sigried Holmquist the pret- ty little actress who has been adding 50 rapidly to the already great num- ber of her admirers, Ernest Torrence in a little more than a year has reached the position of being one of the most sought after character actors in pictures. Adrian Plummer, the minister in “West of the Water Tower,” Bill Jackson in “The Covered Wagon,” the clown in “Singed Wings,” agd Cousin Egbert in “Ruggles of Red Gap” are among his outstanding roles. He exudes Personality all through his work. Somebody recently asked him how he entered the movies. “Spent 20 years on the stage,” he replied, “and five trying to convince producers I was suitable for some kind of a part.” Isn't it astonishing to ses mere ¢children making names for them- selves on the screen! Mickey Bennett is @ seven-year-old who has done just: that, He appears in “Big Brother” with Tom Moore. We are safe in mentioning her last because she can never be least— Gloria herself. Do you know anyone else with just that same flair for clothes? We are sorry we can't show frock she is wearing here. in which Ethel Barrymore starred, GEOPGE MELFORD, you the colors in the stunning little eng “Argentine Love” 2UCRBY BENNETT, AGE Z “Bic by Vincente “The Blasco Ibanez are two pictures in Laughing Lady,” Alfred Sutro’s play which we are promised a chance to see Miss Swanson in the future. Builds Fairy Castles Over Night HE hammer of the motion pic- T » ture carpenter has today be- come a symbol of the imposs!- ble. It is more potent than the legendary Aladdin's lamp. s Under its strokes, palaces spring quickly in brillant reality. Beautiful gardens, glittering cabarets or quaint home-like breakfast rooms blossom into life for a few hours only to fade Tapidly into prosaic lumber Sometimes useless rubbish, Work, Not Magic, This ability to make architectural beauties spring into sudden life dif- fers widely from the power of an Aladdin's lamp, although its results are the same. It is a business-like arrangement which functions with machine-like efficiency. It is meas- and SEN BroTHeR.” AS 7DGE MURRAY” IN ured in such terms as organization, loyalty’ and the capacity for hard work. Each studo in Hollywood has its special methods of building, wrecking and salvaging sets. Modern motion picture producers build fairy palaces on a modern economic system— quickly, artistically, lavishly and yet cheaply. Work From Scenario, The director gives general instruc- tions from which designs are pre- pared by draftsmen. These men are especially trained in the producing of sets which suit the action of the picture. In the filming of Pola Negri’s starring picture, “M, Man,” for instance, an under-world cabaret Was constructed in which the doors and windows were arranged to per- mit the full dramatic effect of a raid by the police and numerous other fight scenes. By studying the scena- Tio, the set designer is able to build in accordance with these needs of the director, Sets must be produced quickly and in large numbers’so as not to retard production, More than 1,500 sets are constructed annually for Para- mount pictures, for example. A week isthe average life of one of these structures. They are built in from five days to a month, depending on their size and amount of detail. Thus life involves a double light, Our acts and words have many brothers; Contrary to the common belief, there is little “faking” about the con- struction of motion picture settings. Even more care must be taken with carpentry and plaster work than in actual building. Wood panelling, brick walls and rough-plastered in- teriors are produced in the same manner and with the same materials used by ordinary builders. Representatives of every building trade including machinists, orna- mental plasterers, hod carriers, brick masons and blacksmiths help to build these artistic interiors. Set- tings which take a month to build are often torn down in two hours. But by an elaborate system of salvage, 60 per cent of all materials are saved for future construction. Nails are Here and There in the Movie Worl drawn from lumber which Again and again until it is ay honeycombed with nail-holes. Mod- ern doors, windows and woodwork are stored and indexed, Wide Knowledge Needed, The set designer must have a knowledge of the architecture of every country in the world and of every period in history from the cavemen to modern times. Great re- Search departments are maintained where accurate details of construc- tion during definite periods of his- tory are kept on file. Thus the studio carpenter, backed as he is by skilled architects and in- terior decorators, is indeed a moderh Aladdin who builds fairy castles al- most over night. “The heart that makes its own delight Makes also a delight for others, Some Tests for a Film EOPLE who see poor motion P pictures on an average of four out of ten theater visits have only themselves to blame, ac- cording to a statement by William DeMille, . “American people do not pick their entertainment with enough care,” says Mr. DeMille. “They are inclined to attend theater haphazard. The vast majority will deny this accusation, but let them question themselves as follows: “After I see a good picture, do I im- mediately find out the name of the author and scenario writer? “When I have , seen @ truly good photedrama, do I think of the man ~3 directed it and watch for his fu- are efforts? ollowing a pleasing evening satching a worthwhile film, cor- " rectly made, well photographed and with no evidence of cheapness, do I learn the name of the company that made it and guide myself accord- ingly when next I visit a cinema theater. “People who have asked themselves these questions and who make use of the information thus acquired, usual- ly pick entertaining photoplays,” de- clared Mr. DeMille. “People who do not, and this class far ottnumbers the other, sit through a large propor- tion of bad pictures. Then they blame the entire industry, rather than the responsible parties.” Bulgaria has nearly 15,000 acres of rose gardens, which last year yielded about 30,000 ounces of pure rose oil. —Charles Swain