Evening Star Newspaper, June 20, 1926, Page 63

Part 3—12 Pages Che Sunday R MURRAY. fpa5sador News and C_o_rpment By W. H. Landvoigt. of the saddest things that coniront the movie in its onward and upward technicia them. flicker in the old pictures. < that are running it die t Technique in the movies is It gets on your nerves sometimes. rch is the fact thiat when the present staff of « will be no one to replace tting to be much like the And yet | it has to be. Those who have it seem unable or unwilling to part with | , it to others, being in this respect Great actors and actresses of the tain what it can be, and then return, dejected, because they do not have it and also seem unable to acquire days never dreamed of it. That is have to be remodeled in the studios, for technique stands head and shoul- ders ing movie storics. structed. The public appreciates seem to. ek o oK HERE is another hump on the movie Parnassus which is impassable to all save those who are especially gifted by Divine Providence has appeared in The Star concerning an actor with a “camera- One of the indispensable prerequisites to admission to the s The applicant must stand the searching test of the camera and the camera tells truths the world never before The fact that one girl “photographs better” than another is late proof movie ranks te face. the movie test. dreamed of. not due at all to the photographer, something that the girl who does has. will photograph well from any angle focused by the camera. more than that. -It is a face that you attack it, full face, profile, three-quarters or even at greater or less Sometimes what would otherwise have been impossible may be converted into a perfect “cameraproof face,” but then that is a secret of the movies—and one never tells secrets. Many a proud mother has adored the beautiful face of her darling daughter as handed down to posterity by the local photographer, only to wilt with a broken heart when told the movie that “Athena hasn’t got and never had a movie face.” ong offshoots of the body politic, who are the glory of the haberdasher, the barber and the manicurist, have quailed like a leper on being told that they haven’t a “camera face.” Is it any wonder that the movie has a hard | | Fears Foreign Skall. * ok Kk % | ITH it all, there seems to be one defect in moviedom which hampers degrees. b; time trying to be good? its output more than all the select interesting and pleasing stories for its photoplays. old gentleman in theatrical matters in days gone by, who, however, has) &ot vet had much success in breaking into the movies, once did it in onc of his plays, which member—“The play’s the thing.” by none more emphatically than the modern movie-maker, who challenges The girl's the thing.” him squarely with * nice to be disparaged. movie-maker. He wan But it isn't there w not always done, for there are instances where the star has had to for her salary. Well, from the star it passed on to “the firmament,” and tar” casts such as had never been known before came to light. The movie girl has been hard to shake—not, that any one wants to get rid of her, but only to let others in the cast have a try for fame. Now, it appears, people are getting tired of all of them, and the movie But they will have to be “cameraproof.” and their or that other indescribable something that then “all-s ing for new faces. owners must have technique makes non-camperaproof faces successful. What will happen in the * them? HE fact is that the movie has its little tricks of trade just like the other Many of its prerequisites are really indispensable; many of vell, unless one knows how to overcome them. ely “prerequisi of new and interesting stories, and in order to get them the movie- maker ought really to consult the judgment of literati outside the -ups, instead of the warhorses who have been unloading tri- angles, shockmakers and “sich like” so long that they believe there is no other kind of story that can be successful as a movie. The movie needs fellow. them afe not. unless What is most impres studio mak to learn to adapt its technique to verse subservient to its own idiosyncrasies. rists and its cameramen and its directors and its players are as good for movic work as they would have us believe, it will be their fault if they cannot adapt their technique to well loved stories already told, as well | as to new stories that might be well loved if properly told in terms of the This technique business has been too one-sided. It ought to work screen. both ways, and if it does, the world * I in the present list of gre ingly characterization of “the boatman. kind have been furnished by little way, are “discovered” by some flattering sycophant of the big bo doesn’t know a star from a doughnut, except when a picture in which the unknown appears draws big at the box office. It was the big boss who brought to life the “type” player and catalogued all the others according to the roles he had to fill. What soul-weary body. living and yearning just for one chance to shine hefore > The great trouble has been in molding newcomers to inflex- ible molds. making all of the same type, like the potmaker who make: nothing new in any the public? 1%l alik his pots by the doz “the big ho! very often, mdeed [ along the same lines, if Story of Pat who fired his brother Mike when he became foreman of the mine because “it's th’ authority T on this score which it very carefully keeps folded under a became so in spite of the “discoverer,” be- Many a wonderful “discovery cause he or she was cheaper and * what does this profit us? * % ok k OBERT E. SHERWOOD, who ranks high in the field of photoplay criticism, in his interesting column this week (to be found elsewhere in this section), offers some constructive suggestions affecting the stellar They show how nebulous is the fame that attaches They seem to show, also, that some of the stellar lights will be lost to the screen firmament unless there be considerable improvement in those who select and those who make their screen vehi- lassic coach of Aurora wouldn’t amount to shucks if it did lights of the movie: to the movie star. cles. The cla nog—let us say “photodramatically”—fit Aurora. and i : the mo are not always going to get by with that technique excuse for their own Next week Mr. Sherwood will discuss. “directorial lumina- Aurora’s siste vehicles in shortcomings. e ries.” It should prove interesting long have needed uncovering. ve everything else, even the story itself. one of the big producing lights recently advised “amateurs” to quit writ- It can’t be done, except in the studios as now con- this. but those who have spent years | in the study of the theater and oi what is created into art there never ts the naughty girl, either in fact or by implication. He has made her his “star,” and the more he has wanted her the more salary she has wanted, until, unless it be within a very recent period, s no velvet in a 'movie after the star’s salary was paid, which was i he ever thinks—and almost everybody knows the much like the owner of a bald head. | stage hie them to Hollywood to ascer- it why so many of their stories a Novelists and playwrights of other plays That, perhaps, is why A it is because the girl who doesn’t lacks A “cameraproof” fa It may be photographs pleasingly no matter how Even | rest, and that is the lack of ability to A very wise id—and he | many present-day old-timers may re- Since then he has been disputed. and | Now the “nice girl girls—nice girls—are 100 "“who is popular with the sue is clamor- And suppose they cannot get movie world? * k x e” at the present moment is a grist the world at large, not make the uni- If its adapters and its scena- will profit with better pictures. > Nothing more convinc- Time and again surprises of the same extras” who, after they have won their s who does he care about hidden talents in a f them. Sometimes— gives way to the “director” who thinks have” The movie has a pathetic page eavy weight. “probably would get by ail right.” But the same is true of e firmament. The story selecters ce is one which | * | “The Volga Boatman” proves nothing else, it proves conclusively that all the really fine actors available for picture-making are not grouped at stars of the screen. i ablishes this fact than the work of William Boyd in the difficult WASHINGTON, D. C, SU DAY o Geor: SIDN B and Myrtle STEDMAN. W CFIELDS. Palace A movement to provide the screen with future directors who shall be not only American, but trained in Ameri- can methods of screen production, has been launched recently by Alfred A. antell, a director associated with irst National Pictures, who also has announced that plans are under way to reate positions and opportunities | for young men with directorial am-| bitions | According 4o Santell’s plans, youths | selected from those now serving ap: srenticeship as assistant directors with the large film companies will be given the chance to direct pictures of their own. By this means it is expected that the flood of foreign directors into key positions with American companies here will in great measure be stem- med. “American plctures should be a re- flection of American life. No foreign- er, no matter how subtle or observant he is, can possibly bring our national | characteristics to the screen with the exactitude of an American-born direc- tos antell contends that most foreign directors are carried along to success in this country by the skill of Ameri- can film technicians. “This beinz the case,” Santell said, “the only respect in which the for: eigner excels over the American di- s in his knowledge of continen- antell has just completed “Sweet Daddies” for First Nacional release. Others that he has made are “Classi- fled,” “Bluebeard’s Seten Wives” and “Joanna.” “Volga Boatman" Draws. “THE Volga Boatman,” Cecil B. De Mille’s notable production, which was brought hack to Crandall's Metro- | politan Theater for a renewal of its downtown first run less than a month after its initial presentation in the same theater, drew crowds so large arly in the week that it was neces- sary to stop selling orchestra seats for the lasf performance. Today the picture opens a three- day engagement at Crandall's Tivoli exactly as presented at the Metropoli- tan, with Imperial Male Chorus off- stage, and it is later to be shown in all the Crandall residential houses, the Apollo paralleling the Tivoli book: ing and the Avenue Grand taking the picture on Wednesday, Thursday and | Friday. Getting Old Screen Habit. OR years the screen has been strug- gling to break away from the domination of the stage, and now the stage is driving the screen away from it as a long-tapped source of story ma- terial, says Sam E. Rork, First Na- tional film producer. Rork, who spent two monthb view- ing the New York plays In a search for storles, says because of the stage trend toward immorality fewer plays than ever will be bought this year by film producers. Rork was a stage producer for 20 vears before entering the picture indust The present trend in spoken drama, 1< evidenced by the recent activities of the New York play jury in the in- stances of certain so-called objection- able productions, he points out, is to- to follow his spotlight weak spots that 0 “+ ward the same fate that befell the : + screen—strict and legalized censor- ship. b ELEANOR. DURKIN, Earle. JUNE 20, Shat 1926. " ALLENDER, - 0BYINA RALSTON, ’]{5/2000/1[(2/@ National " ;// Wi D = Current Attractlons. At tl'xe Theaters Thxs Week. NATIONAL—“The Show Off,” comedy. TH'S—Violet Heming, vaudeville. RLE—Herman Timberg & Co., vaudeville. NATIONAL—“The Show Off.” George Kelly’s prize jolt at that class who are completely at home un- consclously treading on other people’s “The Show Off” by name, opens ¢ night at the National, with Romaine Callender doing the title role. In Burns Mantle's book, “The Best Plays of 1923-24, he heads his list with this play. 1 “The Show Off” had nothing else to recommend it, it would occupy a rather unique position, in that its locale is not New York, the nestling habitat of the show-off class. The author has chosen Philadelphia for the locale. It might just as well have been Kokomo, or Chicago, or Frisco, or any other city. “The Show Off” is to be studied- psychologically, though the study is accompapied by incessant gusts of laughter. He has an abnormal streak of egotism in his make-up, and his whole object in life is to hear himself talk. His boasting is without founda- tion. His tongue outraces his brain by a wide margin. All he demands is an audience, and whether his audience is his barbar, the cigar clerk, an in- surapce agent or members of his fam- fly, he cares not. He cannot be in- sulted. He bores listeners to extinc- tion, but still he rattles on. To use a current expression, he's one who can strut sitting down. He is harmless as a rule, and though he inspires in every one a desire to kick him, ‘Author George Kelly has made of him a prime comedy character. ‘Adelaide Hibbard will do the caustic, all.seeing Ma Fisher, whose duels with the main pest evoke laughter and all that goes with it. Leneta Lane will do Amy, the unseeing sweetheart, who thinks her Aubrey is all his own tongue paints him. KEITH'S—Violet Heming. Violet Heming, the charming emo- tional actress, will be seen at Keith's this week, beginning this afternoon, in Edwin Burke's latest comedy suc- cess, “The Snob,” and sharing top honors with Miss - Heming is the famous American concert Vviolinist, FEddy Brown, who js making his first appearance in vaudeville after many years of successful concert work both here and abroad. A feature will be the musical comedy dancing stars, Willlam Sea- bury and Margaret Irving, who bring a large company, including Mignon Hawkes, Valma. Valentine, Viola Goer- ing, Wilma Chapman, James Roxey Clements and Jack Young fn an act original and entertaining. Others are Kin Carroll, with the strumming uke; Erma Calvert and Vir- ginia “Ginger” Phillips, the “Charles- ton” queen, in one of the breeziest acts in many months; the musical comedy star, Carl McCullough, in “Bright Bits of Travesty”; Pearl and Opens tomorrow evening. Opens this afternoon. Opens this afternoon. Violet Hamilton and Jessie Fordvce in an entertaining bit called “Play- time,” by Tom Howard; Fraley and Putnam_in “A Breeze From the West”; Raymond Pike in “Versatility Personified” and the screen features— Aesop'’s Fables, Topics of the Day and the Pathe News pictorial. Today “Keith Koolies” once more come into their own at B. F. Keith's Theater. They are the ice cream souvenirs given free at_every Keith matinee throughout the Summer. EARLE—Herman Timberg & Co. The Karle Theater announces for this week, beginning this afternoon, Herman Timberg, "celebrated come- dian, and his brother Sammy and com- pany in an entertaining sketch called “A Family Affair.” The added attrac- tion will be Rosita, noted Spanish dancer, supported by Paco Morino and Pllarica and Louls’ Marimba Band in a pretentiously staged offering of songs, dances and instrumentalism en- titled “A Gorgeous Hispano Revue.” Other offerings will include Stanley and Elva in “On the Wire” Dixie Norton and Coral Melnot in Andy Rice's skit, “The Meal Hounds,” in which are introduced dances and songs, and James Burke and Eleanor Durkin in_“If T Could Only Think,” by Teddy Wild. The photoplay will be “Shipwreck- ed,” a realistic drama of the stormy sea, adapted from the play by Lang- don McCormick, which pictures an ac- tual tornado on the open Pacific. The cast includes Seena Owen and Joseph Schildkraut, with Mathew Betz, Clar- ence Burton, Laska Winter and Lionel Belmore. Alexander Arons, concert pipe or- ganist, will play “Echoes from Scot- land.” "Dul(e O‘{ Ladies." *“T'HE Duke of Ladies,” which the Robert Kane Company put in production in New York a few days ago, enjoys two distinctions among photoplays. It will be the first work in this country, under the direction of Lothar Mendes, celebrated German director, and as a photoplay it.will antedate the novel version of the basic story from which it is being made. As a rule a photoplay is made after the novel has been written, wide- ly distributed—and sometimes more or less forgotten. Mr. Oppenheim first wrote the story of “The Duke of Ladies” as a play en- titled “The Ex-Duke.” Subsequently a text version of the story was pre- pared for publication in a leading Eng- lish magazine. Finally that text ver- slon was developed and refined for publication as a novel which will be called “The Interloper.” The novel will be published in the near future. (3w WILLIAM S HART,. Strand. tphotoplays PALACE cvening. RIALTO—"The Prince of Pilsen.” ning. METROPOLITAN. evening. COLUMBIA—*Moana” and evening. Desire for Adventure. 'HAT curious and insatiable desire of the human heart for excite- ment and adventure was 2 sponsible for two unusual ords—"“Moana,” Rob mance of the réal “Grass,” the film record of annual trek of the Baki men of Persia, which are s for the first time today. Meriap C. Cooper, Ernest Schoe- daack and Marguerite Harrison, all Americans, made the perflous trip into the Persian mountains to film “Grass,” but money was the least of the prizes sought, for many a camera expedition right at home would have pald better. The same is true of Robert Flaher- ty, the man who made “Nanook of the North” and who now comes along with just as fascinating a camera rec- ord of the other end of the world, the South Seas. Flaherty, like the three other Americans, ¥s said to find but Httle pleasure in civilization. He is never quite happy unless poking his camera into some far and remote cor- ner of the universe. semi- tribes. hown here Charlot Revue Stars in Films. EATRICE Lillie and Jack Buchan- an, internationally famous as the stars of “Charlot’s Revue,” have been signed by Cecil B. De Mille to appear in pictures. Miss Lillle and Buchan- an have never worked before the cameras. Before they had been play- ing In_Hollywood a week they had been offered screen contracts by half a dozen studios and only recently de- cided to make their screen debut under the Deé~Mille banner. Testimony from China. OTION pictures shown in China are getting “decidedly better,” so says R. M. Vanderburgh of the China National Pictures, Inc. In a report to James Yard of the West China Union University he says: “As to the quality of movies reaching China, I would say, after reviewing approximately 100 of them since my arrival, that they are de- cidedly getting better. “I think that this is almost entirely due to the efforts at good production in America, rather than inclination of buyers out heré, for the buyers are inclined to buy the speediest pos- sible pictures and tnose with risque elements. The European pictures on the whole are not nearly as high toned as the American. ning. evenihg. STRAND—“Tumbleweed LINCOLN (Colored)—"The Crown and evening. PALACE—“It’s the 0ld Army Game.” ‘W. C. Fields, famous' comic of the Ziegfeld “Follies,” will be pictured this week at Loew's Palace, starting this afternoon, in his first Paramount starring_ production, “It's the Old Army Game,” with Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring., William Gaxton and Mary Foy in his cast. The Glenn Tryon comedy, “Say It ‘With Bables,” the Pathe News Reel, Topics of the Day and an overture and accompaniment by the Palace Or- chestra, under Thomas J. Gannon, will be added attractions. “It's the Old Army Game"—a title which is said to mean “never give a sucker an even break"—reveals Mr. Flelds in the role of a small town Florida druggist, much enamored of his pretty assistant, who falls in with the plan of a New York go-getter to sell New York real estate to Floridi- ans. On the strength of the first boom the druggist invests in a new automobile and everything seems to be going fine until his partner dis- appears. Then starts a succession of hilarious adventures. Just when things look blackest the real estate profits materialize and the druggist is saved from jall. RIALTO—"The Prince of Pilsen.” “The Prince of Pilsen,” starring George Sidney and Anita Stewart, is the photoplay at the Rialto this week, starting today, with Sidney in the role of Hans Wagner, the Cincinnati brewer, who, with his daughter, pays a visit to his old home in Europe and 1s mistaken for the Prince of Pllsen. They are accorded a flattering re- ception by the townspeople, and when Hans is commanded to wed a princess of a neighboring principality he be- lieves he is being initiated into some secret lodge, such as the Loyal Order of Squirrels back home in Cincinnati, of which he is grand imperial chief It is a lavish production, filled with humor, and 1§ said to strike a new note in film entertainment. The supporting cast includes Allan Forrest, Myrtle Stedman, W. von Brincken and Otis Harlan. A prologue staged by Mischa Guter- son, consisting of scenes and songs from the musical comedy ‘“The Prince of Pilsen,” features Elizabeth Thorn- ts the Old Army Game.” Sweet Daddies.” “Grass.” berry as the daughter of Hans Wag-| WILSON, Central This Week At the Photoplay Houses This Week. Shown this afternoon and Shown this aiternoon and eve- Shown this aiternoon and Shown this afternoon and TIVOLI—“The Volga Boatman.” Shown this afternoon and evening. AMBASSADOR—*“Sweet Daddies.” Shown this afternoon and eve- CENTRAL—“The Night Cry.” Shown this afternoon and evening. WARDMAN PARK—‘Quo Vadis?” Shown this afternoon and Shown this af*ernoon and evening. -of Lies.” Shown this afternoon ner, and prince. pupils studio. “Mignon” (Thomas) has been se- lected for the overture, and the In- ternational News will complete the s COLUMBIA—“Moana” and “Grass. Two screen novelties will be shown for the first time here at Loew’s Co. Iumbia Theater this week afternoon—the South S ture, “Moana,” said 1 be a true pic ture romance of Samoa. and its people. in conjunction with “Grass,” the epic film record of a nation’s flight from disaster. “Moana’” is declared the first au thentic motion picture of the South Seas, so long celebrated and carica- tured by the synthetic drama of the studios.” It was made by Robert Fla- herty, producer of the Eskimo classic, “Nanook of the North,” who spent three whole years in the troplcs of the south Pacific filming an authentic record of the lives of the islanders. The cast, exclusively native, includes Moana, son of a tribal chieftain, with the physique of an Apollo. “Grass” is a camera record of a strange people—the hill tribes of Pem sla, the Baktyarl tribesmen, wha twice a year encounter and endure the most incredible hardships in their semi-annual trek in search of grass for their herds and for life for them- selves. Each year a mighty mountain range is scaled and torrential rivers are forded in this annual trek of a ‘whole nation. Three American explorers, Mar- guerite Harrison, authoress and trav- eler; Ernest B. Schoedsack, war corre- spondent and photographer, and Merian C. Cooper, aviator, sailor and writer, are said to have braved the wrath of the tribesmen and ignored warnings that the trip would prove fatal in order to obtain this unique record. The International News reel, with musical embellishment by the Colum- bia Orchestra, under Leon Brusilof, will be among other_attractions. Romeo Guaraldl as the The chorus is composed of 14 from Estelle Wentworth's METROPOLITAN—“8weet Daddies.” The frolicsome spirit of early Sim- mer is promised in the comedy bill at (Continued on Third Paged