Evening Star Newspaper, June 14, 1925, Page 61

RICHARD DIX- Columbia ~ News and Comment By W. H. Landvoigt. HAT with a break in ‘temperature to prove conclusively that Washington is not hot in Summer, coupled with a midseason production and performance of “one of the outstanding hits of the New York season” and “The Butter and Egg Man” actually backing up to the door, everybody ought to be happy. “Spring Cleaning” demonstrated beyond a doubt that the dear old National Theater is run- ning true to form, even though the “regular season” may be lost in its mythical Summer lethargy elsewhere. And up at the Shubert-Belasco “The Butter and Egg Man.” with a wijdely heralded radical cut in prices, to reduce the high cost of living, already is smiling in anticipation of gen- erous patronage. The Earle, “packing them in under the roof,” has broken out at the top to supply its customers, and B. F. Keith's doesn’t look a bit different inside and outside from its midwinter get-up. Surely, so far as human enjoyment is concerned, the seasons have come to mean nothing but a change of clothing to give the styles a show. * 3k 3k Xk SO excellent was the performance of the National Theater Players in “Spring Cleaning” during the week just closed that the dramatic critics forgot themselves and mingled a wallop with joyous acclamation, just as they do when the winds blow cold and the snow flies. It is the fashion to coddle stock and learn to love the players, every one, especially the handsome leading man and the beautiful leading lady. When the critics, who usually ignore all but the profound and the profligate drama, unstrap the hammer on a stock performance it is not at all a sign that the stock is bad, but that its offering ranks high and is entitled to the same treat- ment that is accorded the prodigal son after he has been clothed in roy! raiment and the fatted calf has been killed. * ok ok ok ND the movies are whooping with all their might of the future, with an occasional look of scorn at the revival of their “wicked past.” They are pursuing the even tenor of their way with an audacity born of con- scious power and irrepressibility. One thing they have discovered, and that is that their future demands more than the mere posing of pretty women in stories more or less risque, or the display of their physical charms in gorgeous spectacles. The vital art of acting also has a tech- nique that cannot be ignored, and so attention now is being devoted to the development not only of faces and forms that will stand the camera test, but of the talents of players and the technique of dramatic expres- sion. Screen drama is in no sense different from that of the stage, and while much can and should be done by directors, the necessity yet remains of calling in the assistance of all that the player can-and should give in the portrayal of characters and in expressing the psychology of incidents and episodes. Intelligence is as indispeasable to the screen as to the stage, and by the same token are the dramatic ways of expressing it. The movie school, if properly conducted, should accomplish wonders in this direction. * ok k% FIL.\I DAILY has been conducting an inquiry with the object of fixing the relative value of studio organizition in the production of photo- plays. It scems a timely inquiry. It long has been the opinion of the picture admirer who gives thought to the subject beyond that of whether this or that picture is good, bad or indifferent that the director has over- played his hand. And the director “passes the buck” by blaming faults at- tributed to him to some one else, usually to those whose special care and consideration is the box office. The money man has a perfect right, since that is why he is in the-business, to choose for picturization stories that will make paying screen drama or acreen entertainment. Those who shape that story as he wishes it should be the judges of what the director is fo put upon the screen. That fixes responsibility for the story. It is up to the director to put the story, as it is furnished him, upon the screen with the materials provided, and this means ‘players.and scenic and light- ing effects. There his responsibility should begin and end. The players should be adequate for the characterizations expected of them, and each is to be judged by what he or she produces,“under the direction of the director. For years the director has considered himself lord paramount of everything, asserting the right to twist and change the story, as well as telling the players when and how to “act,” and therein has the director found the opportunity to be “the whole shooting match.” Lacking the ‘artistic breadth of vision” and often the wonderful skill of a Belasco, the director, in the ambitious endeavor to soar into the realms of the truly great, the incomparable, sometimes out-Belascoes-Belasco—and the wthor of the story raves—and the press agent, who has to beost the pic- ture, no matter how poor it may be, does boost it. This directorial tyr- anny is due for a topple, and maybe that is why we have so much litera- ture sounding the virtues and the praises of directors, almost to the ex- clusion of everybody and everything else. That, too, is why some directors assert with lordly authority “rules and regulations” that cause the wraiths to rise in the dramatic temple. Every director wants to be a David Wark Griffith or “the Belasco of the screen.” One doesn’t hear so-much about directors in general on the stage. . * ok ok X TNCIDENTALLY the annual directors’ num{er of Film Daily is mighty interesting reading. Avicr TerrY- Pila Wy ce Current Attractlo ns At the Theaters This Week BELASCO—"The Butter and Egg Man,” comedy. evening. NATIONAL—“The Best People,” comedy. KEITH'S—Clark and McCullough, EARLE—"The Little Cottage,” vaudeville. BELASCO—*“The *Butter Man.” The Shubert-Belasco Theater will re- open tomorrow night with a Summer scale of prices and a new comedy bearing the somewhat mysterious title of “The Butter and Egg Man,” with that quaint and_original @ght come- dian, Gregory Kelly in the leading role. The new play is by George S. Kauf- man, whilom Washington journalist, and ‘more recently a member of the famous playwrighting duo, Kaufman and Connelly, authors of pieces as “Beggar on Horseback,” Merton of the Movies” and “Dulcy.” “The But- ter and Egg Man” is Mr. Kaufman's first individual effort. The new comedy is not, as might be supposed, a small-town play, nor has it anything to do with the du:i y is de- and Egg business, even remotely. It scribed in the preliminary announce- ments as “a gay comedy depicting certain aspects of the theatrical busi- ness from the viewpoint of a humor- ous observer.” Though nothing has been given ot in detail concerning its story the information has been vouch. safed that it concerns the misadven- tures of a naive young man from the Middle West, who comes to New York vest a legacy in the “show busi- and who finds no difficulty in meeting_gentlemen who are prepared to spend it for him. Mr. Kelly is said to have a role admirably suited to his whimsical comedy method. Others in the cast include Denman Maley, Mildred Mac- Cleod, Robert Middlemass, Francis X. Conlan, Lucille Webster, Jane Sey- mour, Robert Thorne, Edith Van Cleve, Puritan TownseRd, Harry Ne- ville, Edward Power and Tom Fad- den. NATIONAL—“The Best People.” The National Theater Players, be- ginning. tomorrow night, will present the satirical comedy “The Best Peo- ple,” which Avery Hopwood adapted from the magazine story by David Grayson. The piece had runs in Chi- cago and New York totaling 40 weeks and was seen here late last season, when sponsored by the Charles Froh- man interests. Immediately the road tour ended, the piece was released for stock and the National Players are one of the first organizations to lease it. “The Best People” deals with the Problem of what is to become of the younger folks and asks what is to be done to combat the present jazzy tend- ency and to keep the youngsters in- side respectable traces. It is deftly concerned with characterization and, as would be\supposed, with smart, so- phisticated Wit from the Hopwood pen. It is peopled with types one en- counters in this loosely golden age— the harassed business man of means, chained to a snobbish wife whose one performance in life is to preen and primp and look decorative; types of the younger set and, in contrast, one or two contributions from commoner NNE GRITTITE Tivoli Opens tomorrow Opens tomorrow evening. lle. Opens this afternoon. Opens this afternoon. vaude walks of life, such as a slangy, world- wise chorus girl and a kindred male type. Leneta Lane will be the patrician Mrs. Bronson; Minor Watson, the im- posed-upon husband, and Kathryn Givney the chorus girl. KEITH'S—Clark and McCullough. The bill of music, dancing and thrills at B. F. Keith's Theater this week will be topped by Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough, late of Irving Berlin's “Music Box Revue.” These famous comedians have been called “the funniest men of the day.” They will present two of their famous skits, “The Senators” and “The Bath Be- tween," assisted by a company of five. Bob and Gale Sherwood and their entertainers, in classigs and jazz alike as a feature of the week. Others will include Leo Beers, with |crisp storles, songs and lilting plano melodies; Arthur Wanzer and May- belle Palmer, in a comedy skit, “One Saturday Night,” which offers wide opportunity for song and fun; Baby Henderson, the dainty, diminutive dancer, described as a virtual pocket edition of Pavlowa, in a series of re- markablq dances; Lauretta Rhodes and Ruth Watson, in the latest from the pen of Neville Fleeson, A Mu- sical Menu"; Le Roy Bros., “athletes de luxe” in “Feats of Ciass,” and Roy E. Mack and Peggle Brantley, “In a Whirl of Grace,” an act that consists of six unusual numbers, to- gether with Aesop’s Fables, Topics of the Day and Pathe News Pictorlal. Earle—“The Little Cottage.” “The Little Cottage,” a George | Choos production, heads the new bill at the Earle this week. It is described as a timely musical trifle, with book and lyrics by Darl Mac Boyle' and music by Walter L. Rosemont and the,/ latest production to be presented by Mr. Choos, with Frank Sinclair and Mildred Keats as its principal players. Others will include Lillian Herelin, popular singing star, with Charles Egbler in tuneful numbers. Donahue and Morgan “The Long and Short of It,” in a_comedy offering; Sylvia and George Di Gaetano, ‘Philadelphia’s Own Dance Stars”; “The Mosquito Trust” by Otto G. Johnson, who wrote sketches for the famous black-face comedians, McIntyre and Heath will be presented by Morris and Shaw. On ' the screen will be presented Charles Ray in ‘“‘Perc: This film marks the return of Mr. Ray to the line of endeavor that first brought him fame. The entire Earle program has been laid out for warm-weather consump- tion. MAYFLOWER GARDENS. The dance music of the Spencer Tup- man Dance Orchestra and the weekly art cabaret are nightly features of the Mayflower Gardens that lie like a fairy grotto under the Mayflower Hotel. Tupman’s orchestrations of classics / Awmbassador WASHINGTON, D. C. SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 14, 1925. Lrwis STONL. American Women's chion's Benefit. **WILLIAM TELL." accounted as one of the best of the his- ¢orical motion picture plays, directed | by Emil Harder, an American film director, and in the making of which the Swiss government is said to have rendered substantial aid in the loan of relics from fts historic museum, will be shown at the Marine Barracks, in the open air, Friday evening, June 19, at 8:30 o'clock, under the auspices of the American Women's Legion, the proceeds to be degoted to the altruistic aims of the legion. The United States Marine Band Orchestra will provide music for the showing and the Marine Jazz Kings for the dance that will follow in the barrack’s band hall until midnight. Tickets may be had at Robinson’s, 1306 G street northwest. Henry C. De Mille Plays. T may seem a little 0dd to movie- goers of today to find the late Henry C. De Mille as the author of a photopiay and his son, Willidm De Mille, as the director of it. Yet that is the situation with regard to “Men and Women,” the picturized version of the Belasco-De Mille stage hit that comes to the Washington screen this week. As plays, Henry C. De Mille's writ- ings have fong been stored away, but the current season has witnessed at least_two, which have been brought out by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. The first was called “Forty Winks, in which Raymond Griffith gave himself an upward boost toward stardom. This story was really De Mille’s “Lord Chum- ley” In movie disguise. The second is “Men and Women,” with a cast of players who were infants when De Mille was at the height of his powers. Cooling Systems Tested. THE cooling systems in the Cran- dall theaters are said to be all right. During the recent warm weather actual thermometer readings were recorded at Crandall’s Tivoll Theater, Fourteenth street and Park road northwest. Between 8 and 9 o'clock in the evening the temperature under the brightly lighted marquee-that sur- mounts the box-office corner of the buflding was 91. Inside at the front of the orchestra floor the temperature was 73 and at the rear under the bal- cony, 75. This is declared incontro- vertible fact. The same variation between street and theater also was found at Cran- dall's Metropolitan, Ambassador, Cen- tral, Savoy, Avenue Grand, Apollo, York and Home Theaters, all of which are systematically cooled and venti- lated, and, it is claimed, are, on an average, actually 20 degrees cooler than the outside. Openair gardens are conducted in connection with Crandall’s Savoy and Apollo Theaters. in dance music have attracted much attention and the young director is now planning some of a sensational type, including adaptations of com- positions of Rimsky-Korsakoff and the famous music of “Salome.” During the Summer it is planned to introduce notable artists at the May- flower Gardens Art Cabarets. High- ly artistic numbers and singers of the highest type will be featured. BLANCHL SWIIT Metropolitan New Motion Picture Polxcy PRELIMINARY rumble of the thunder of the cinema that is to break in August, when the big pro- ducers of motlon pictures and motion picture theaters throughout the Unit- ed States will inaugurate _their “Greater Movie Season,” is indicated in the announcement of full-page ad- vertisements by the Producers’ Dis tributing Corporation in connection with the usual methods of exploita tion. Cofncident with the advent of “Greater Movie Season,” Cecil B. De Mille, in association with such other big producers, as Al Christle, Hunt Stromberg, Frances Marion, Marshall Neilan, Renaud Hoffman and Sam Rork, will go direct to the public with the announcement of the big picture plays to be made during the next 12 months. Heretofore the public has been kept more or less in the dark regarding the class and scope of the motion pic- tures prepared for future presenta- tion. But now, under the new policy adopted by those producers affiliated with the Producers’ Distributing Cor- poration, the public will be advised of the entire year's program in advance of production, by meaps of newspa- per advertising in connection with their other distribution methods. United Artists’ Costly Plans. N interngtional expansion program entalling the expenditure of mil- lions, it is\announced, will be launched in_ Chicago this week by the United Artists Pictures Corporation, and at the same time a comprehensive na- tional schedule of exhibition values will be arranged for the Fall releases of five United Artists features, repre- senting a cash valuation of more than $5,000,000. Plans will be discussed also for ad- ditional special productions which will add vast sums to the $81,000,000 to be spent in motion picture production this vear. Joseph M. Schenck, chairman of the board of directors of United Artists, made the announcement. Old—Time Love Stories. 'AMUEL GOLDWYN, who carved a. record for himself as an inde- pendent producer and who sponsors George Fitzmaurice’s production, “His Supreme Moment,” is firm in the be- lief that the public is reverting to the old-fashioned love stories. Mr. Goldwyn, a ploneer in the de- velopment of motion pictures, has ob- served the many fads, fancies, styles and tastes of the public, favoring first one type of picture, then another and then as rapidly changing to still an- other. Now, after a survey of conditions in this country, and after three months abroad, he finds that the out-and-out love stories, with at least one strong central dramatic situation, amplified by varied incident, is the trend of present taste. “I believe,” said the producer, “that the day of the purely spectacular and of cheap so-caHed ‘thrill drama’ is giving placé to the more wholesome human type of film play. “The producer is being guided by the fact that the man or woman sit- ting in front of the silves reen ex- periences a bigger thrill m the old- fashioned love drama than from a mob of thousands of extras rushing past the camerac, The love spectacle thrills his emotidns, stirs his feelings and gives him a sense of entertain- ment and satisfaction on the inside. The spectacle with its crowds reaches the eye and stop £ on the outside, Automobiles MILDRED Mac PRINGLL-Liscolw Bel a&cfiEOD photoplays This Week | At the Photoplay Houses This Week METROPOLITAN—"His Supreme Moment.” and evening. PALACE—“Any Woman.” Shown this RIALTO—“The Broadway Butterfly.” evening. COLUMBIA—“Men and Women.” Shown this afternoon and even TIVOLI—“Declasse.” Shown this afternoon and evening. AMBASSADOR—"His Supreme Moment.” Shown this and evening. | { EARLE ROOF—“Sally.” Shown this evening. CENTRAL—"“Super Speed.” Shown thi: LINCOLN (colored)—"“I Want My Man.” evening. Shown this afternoon crnoon and cvening Shown this afternoon and ng. afternoon afternoon and evening. Shown this afternoon and RIALTO—Brooke Johns. cial circles are said to form the back The Rialto announces as a special | §round for Willlam De Mille's film attraction this week Brooke Johns, |Version of the David Belasco stage | former star of Ziegfeld Follies and|Play. “Men and Women,” in which oo & his | Richard Dix, Claire Adams, Neil Comic Supplement,” assisted by his | Fichaid DI ca e on will be Oklahoma Collegians and _ Goode ber b S e ewctmE.—— Henry C. De Mille, father of its cur- The photoplay will be “A Broadway Butterfly,” a Warner Bros. pro- duction, with a cast headed by Doro- thy Devore, Louise Fazenda, Willard Louis, John Roche, Lilyan Tashman rent produce “Men;and Women" is a vivid story of a young wife's inordinate love of luxury and her salaried husband’s ef- o g e forts to satisty her demands at the > e ; risk of lifelong infamy and even The story depicts the daring life of | 1yeon~ william De Mille, the direc Broadway show girls and their com. | Prison. William De Wi c Y - 5 | tor, is or realistic productions. panions, the rich joy-hunters called I Pmenabout-town.” Into this alembic |, Richard Dix has the role of a young cashier, whose ass; ant, por- comes a country-bred girl, seeking | (e PIMCE, oS assisiant, por fame and glory as a dancer. Believ-| Grimip gtar, is apparently winning ing that renown is just around the| i ge sums of money in the stock corner, she accepts a position as a chorus girl and finds herself stum-| ifre:s Gesire for finery and luxuries, bling around in a maze of UNKNOWN | he cashier permits himself to join quantities that make up the Great|wyih his young assistant in a market market. Determining to gratify his | White Way. “killing,”” but when the ‘killing" | The Rialto Orchestra, under Mischa | fares back and both are wiped out Guterson, will play Von Suppe's| 39,000 in securities of the bank have “Poet and Peasant” overture. A COM-| disappeared and the broker that han edy and the International News will | gled the deal has committed suicide conclude the program. A new juvenile comed, “Baby Blue,” the International ews plc- S tures and Mr. Brusilof's orchestra! METROPOLITAN— Supreme | ;rogram are other attractions an- nounced. “His Supreme Moment,” with Blanche Sweet and Ronald Colman in the leading roles, will be the at- traction of this week's bill at Cran- dall’s Metropolitan Theater, beginning this afternoon at 3. Other features will be Bobby Vernon in Christie's ‘Air Tight,” the Metropolitan world survey and a scenic. “His Supreme Moment" is a drama that reveals a play within a play, with two of the most important char- TIVOLI—"Declasse.” Corinne Griffith will be pictured at Crandall's Tivoli Theater the first two days of this week in First National's film version of Zoe Akins' play. “De- classe,” supported by Lloyd Hughe: Rockliffe Fellowes, Clive Brook, Lilyan Tashman, Hedda Hopper, Louise Fa zenda and Eddie Lyons, together with Al St. John in “Fares, Please,” and the Pathe Review; Tuesday and Wed acters actresses w?n.nre en)z);’;fi nesday, First National’s production of ;r{ex;\;gd:lcx:n;er:t;'e\ldo‘n?“,;& natural | - 1dle Tongues,” featuring Doris Ken yon and Percy Marmont, with Claude | Gillingwater, David Torrence and Ma! | colm MacGregor in support; Ben Tur. pin in “The Marriage Circus” and & Lyman H. Howe “Hodge - Podge’; Thursday and Friday, Douglas Mac Lean in “Introduce Me" and install ment of “The Pacemakers,” and Sa urday, Florence Vidor in John Ince's production of “The Girl of Gold,” from the novel by Cleveland Moffatt and Anna Chapin; Walter Hiers in A Rarin’ Romeo,” and “Sunken Silver," No. 3. colors, and the more adventurous ac tion that ensues in the jungle countr) of South America is sharpened b: contrast. The development of the plot hinges upon the strange compact that a beautiful actress and a young mining engineer entered upon. A second woman forms the triangle and it s her bitter jealousy toward her more successful rival that brings the play to a powerful climax. Others in the cast are Jane Winton, a comparative newcomer. in films; Cyril Chadwick and Belle Bennett. The overture will be gems from Verdi’'s opera of “Rigoletto”, played by the Metropolitan Orchestra under Daniel Breeskin, and their numbers will include “A Kiss in the Dark,” from -Victor Herbert's “Orange Blos- soms,” and the popular “Lady, Be Good.” AMBASSADOR — “His Supreme Moment.” “His Supreme Moment,” the Sam uel Goldwyn production, directed by George Fitzmaurice for First National release, will be seen also at Crandall's Ambassador Theater the first three days of this week, together with Hal Roach’s “Riders of the Kitchen Range,” a new news reel and pipe organ music; Wednesday and Thurs day, Alice Terry and Lewis S. Stone in “Confessions of a Queen.” adapted from Alphonse Daudet's “Kings in Exile”; “Red Pepper,” a laugh-maker, and added short reels; Friday, Pedro De Cordoba and Renee Adoree in “The Bandolero,” a Metro-Goldwyn produc tion, directed by Tom Terriss, and one of H. C. Witwer's new two-reel com- edy-dramas, “The Pacemakers,” fea turing George O'Hara and Alberta Vaughn, and Saturday, “Stop Flirt- ing,” featuring Wanda Hawley; Mack Sennett's “Giddap” and the fifth in- stallment of “Sunken Silver.” Palace—“Any Woman." A dramatic study of beauty versus brains in the business world will en- list the histrionic talents of Alice Terry, star of “The Four Horsemen' and “Scaramouche,’ in “Any Wom- an,” a cinema version of the story by Arthur Somers Roche, at Loew's Pal- ace this week. It was directed by Henry King, director of ‘““Tol'able David” and “The White Sister.” Miss Terry is supported by Ernest Gillen, a new Paramount leading man. Miss Terry is revealed as a debu- tante who arrives from abroad to dis- cover her father a bankrupt and her- self faced with the necessity of earn- ing a livellhood in a brekerage office run by two married partners, one of whom loves the girl but is honorable, while the other' is hampered by no sense of ethies. Meantime the “girl [Roof Colleen Moore's recent success, has fallen,4fi love with a young pro- | “Sally,” with Leon Errol, who created moter, who leaves for the West on a | the walter in the original stage presen business trip that is expected to spell | tation of the Ziegfeld musical comedy either his failure or success. During | transferred to the screen: Tuesd his absence the girl falls in with some | night, “One Year to Live,” a First of her old society friends, and the un- { tional film: Wednesday Thur: scrupulous partner so comprises her | nights, “Charley’s Aunt,” with the and his partner that the latter is sued | brother of the famous Charley, Syd for divorce, the girl being named as [ney Chaplin, portraying the leadjng co-respondent. Through the. self-sac- | role; Friday and Saturday, William rificing efforts of the divorced broker | Fox's production of “The Riders of the two lovers are later reconciled. |the Purple Sage,” with fine views of Harry Langdon's comedy, “His|the Rockies. Marriage Vow"; the Pathe news ree An additional feature will be the foplos-of the day and Mr. o Qemoor’s | Floyds Whesler orchestra. musical program will be a¢ attrac- tions. £ CENTRAL~—"Super Speed. Earle Roof—“Sally.” Today and tomorrow on the Earle Columbia—*Men and Women.” Modern New York soclal and finan- (Continu on Third Page.