Evening Star Newspaper, December 12, 1926, Page 79

: THE SUNDAY STAR, 1926—PART 3. : o Photoplays This Week" ’ WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 12, A A ¥ A Flashes From the Screen BY C. E. ORE trouble for the cen- sors! The scissors experts are confronting a problem which is intricate and de- serves the deepest of thought and consideration. Here is the proposi- tion as outlined and placed before them “What Price Glory?” a picture which threatens to become as im- ortant an attraction as “The Big arade,” does not make use of “rough” subtitles. The action of the story, as thrown upon the screen, does not call for any special stir among the censors, An yet the story is filled with some of the rudest of trench language. This is made possible on account of the fact that the audience is easily able to follow the words of the actors— lip-reading the story as if the sub- titles were flashed on the screen. The strong language, which was a very important feature of the stage play, has been kept in its entirety without resorting to the printed word. The resu't, according to those who have viewed the photo- play and studied the innovation, gives the audience a new thrill— the satisfaction of being able to make out what the actors are say- ing at the time they are saying it. And the claim is made that one finds “nothing shocking in the panto- mime.” But what are the poor censors to d They might issue an order that, in future, all actors in screen drama really join the ranks of the “silent” while at work, so that an audience may not be lured into lip- reading. Aside from thés particular angle to the titleless “What Price Glory?" photoplay producers are freely pre- dicting that the printed subtitle is to be a thing of the past and that it will be eliminated before the present theatrical season ends. The idea did not originate with Raoul Walsh, director of “Glory”; he cut the tit'es because they would not pass the censors. “The Last Laugh” the German Ufa film, with Emil Jan- nings in the star role, was the first to run six or eight reels without a single subtitle. Many Hollywood writers will be looking for work when the big studios’ cut down ex- penses and do away with such phrases as’ “Came the dawn” and “Darkness steals o'er the land like a skulking thief.” * % k% ILDA GRAY now joins the ranks of the highly paid, or overpaid, movie stars. She has just signed a contract to appear in three pic- tures during the coming year. The paper to which she attached her mame explains that she is to have 50 per cent of the net profits from the three pictures and that she is to have.a weekly drawing account of $2000. This drawing account, however, comes out of the profits when the bookkeepers tabulate the returns from the three pictures. Such pictures as Gilda will make are said to average between two and ‘two-and-a-half million dollars each. That is the gross earning. Then the expenses are deducted and the actress gets her 50 per cent. If the pictures are what 1s known in the theatrical world as “flops,” Gilda can hardly complain. for she will still have her $104000 for the year's work—$2000 a week. * k ok % EW YORK is going in for long- run movies, and the newest ad- ditions to the list are “Old Tron- sides” and “Michael Strogoff.” All records have been broken by “The Big Parade,” which is now in its second year. “Ben-Hur” is running a close second, and it wi!l complete a year during the holidays. ther long-run pictures in the metropolis are “Don Juan” “The Scarlet Let- " “Beau Geste” and “The Better ’Ole.” “We're in the Navy Now” and “Potemkin” are expected to draw crowds for many mouths to come, according to the attendance to date. * k x x ANY words have been hurled hither and thither regarding the “happy ending” of the photo- play. Some of the more sophis- ticated writers of screen affairs claim the producers are in® the wrong; that they are to blame for the sweet finales and that the pub- lic is really not in sympathy with NELSON. fact that most pictures suffer the “clinch fadeouts” and the Pollyanna endings. This is pretty tiresome to the movie fan; it was all right for the first few years, before the de- velopment of the screen industry as a new art, but the storymakers have not kept pace with modern affairs. The producers who tack on the sweet nothings for the customers turn back into the account books and refer to such pictures as “Greed” when one starts to argue with them. This photoplay—stark realism and | a wonderful picture—was not a big box office attraction. It cost much money to produce, but it did not draw any amount of ready cash into the coffers of the exhibitors. For the reason that a picture like “Greed” did not draw, the producers turned thumbs down on such efforts. However, the logica! solution to the problem seems to be in a liberal application of common sense. All pictures do not require the happy endings, and some of them are ruined when the directors move to- ward that plan. As an illustration, one might reca!ll “Manon Lescaut,” the Ufa film first exhibited in Wash- ington. The happy ending pyt it into the storchouse with the “flops.” The German producers had been warned that American movie audi- ences demanded the “clinch end- ings.” Why not get away from any hard-and-fast rule concerning the endings of photoplays? Why not make the ending in accord with the story. If the “only man” and the “beautiful lady” are expected to live happily ever afterward, the picture can end with the half-Nelson against the setting sun; if war is declared in the last scene, the average audi- encé would not object to them throwing radios and fireless cookers at each other. 1t is really the story, and the “g'ad” fadeout never made a box office attraction, regardless of what the producers contend. * k% Kk ARL LAEMMLE and his press department of Universal can be depended upon to bring out.a new publicity idea every once in a while. The latest is a group of awards to be known as the Carl Laemmle-Vic- tor Hugo scholarships. They will be given for essays-on Hugo's mas- terpiece, “Les serables.” Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler is to become one of the group who will rule on the relative merits of candidates for scholarships. There will be 11 awards, the highest amounting to $1,000, and the total amount given out will be $6,000. * Kk Kk ’I'HE progress of the motion pic- ture industry now goes into tapestry. Sol Lesser has ordered, from the Gobelins people a big woven picture which will require from three to five; years to com- plete. The “stil” of motion picture history will be 25 feet long and 14 feet wide, the main design repre- senting “in striking symbolic form or pageant the chief screen tri- umphs and the development of the motion picture industry.” And per- haps the gigantic tapestry will carry likenesses of such well known screen characters as -Charlie Chap- fin, Bill Hart. Doug Fairbanks and Harry Langdon. Who knows? ok ok % HE Germans have produced an- other super film called “Maya, the Life of the Bee” and the pic- ture is said to be a hit in London. This offers all sorts of opportuni- ties for American producers who go in for the unusual. Why not a big spectacle on ‘Adolph, the Career of a Bo!l Weevil.” or “Celia, the Won- der Story of a Champion Broad- jumping Flea”? * ok ok K NDER the Studio Lights.—From London comes the news that Dorothy Gish' was ordered out of Hyde Park by the bobbies while making a scene in her new picture, Then she appealed unsuccessfully for more “latitude for British films.” Carl Akeley, who died recently at Kabale, Uganda, British East Africa, was one of the pioneers of the mo- tion picture industry, his specialty being the photographing of wild animals in their native haunts. He was collecting specimens and mak- ing motion pictures for the American the idea. - Whoever is to, blame, there is no getting away from the Perkins, one Bobby which opens I\'Bchy," of the pfincrh produet! in Washington Tuesday night, Decembgr 21. Museum of Natural History when stricken. | in Zlegfeld’s new Hon, CLAIRE WINDSOR>— Palace HOIOPLAY DoRIS KENYON and VIRGINIA LEE CORBIN Metro olitarn. YWETTE GUILBEQ‘Il‘ and EMIL JANNINGS — Columb "THE American screen director tries to be a dramatist first and a screen technician afterward; the continental director is a techniclan first, last and all the time, and his dramatic effects are incidental to his worship of technique.” So thinks Edward Sedgwick, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer director of “Tin Hats,” the post-armistice comi- y. ‘The foreign director,” continues Mr. Sedgwick, “never for a moment permits his audience to lose conscious- ness of the camera. He is incessantly striving for weird camera effects, for grotesque angle views, ‘trick’ shots and the like. He is intensely enam- ored of what a writer would call ‘style,’ rather than subject matter, and an audience never for a moment can forget that it is looking at some- thing a camera recorded, not at some- thing that actually happened. “I don't believe that I ever read a criticism of a major foreign screen eftort, or heard one informally dis- cussed, that the manner of its film- ing did not take precedence in the mind of the beholder over the dra- matic thesis involved. “That is precisely opposite to the method employed on this side of the ocean. We are constantly striving to conceal the camera, to plead igno- rance of its whereabouts. We are always striving to create the illu- sion that the spectator himself, and not the camera, is looking at an epi- sode in real life, For this reason we | constantly avoid placing our cameras in positions where the audience would never find itself were it on the actual scene. 'As a matter of fact, we have to work harder for our effects in Amer- |ica than the Germans do, for we are not only trying to create wn illusion but we are trying to heighten the illuslon without resort to trickery that will immediately stamp a scene as a ‘trick’ one, a ‘fancy shot,’ a di- rectoral gesture.” # 'VER try to take home a flock of Christmas gifts and the family Xmas tree on a bicycle through heavy trafic? If not, there’s one unique experience you have missed in your search for thrills and heartaches, and this episode furnishes a hilarious por- tion of the Hal Roach comedy, “There Aln’t No Santa Claus,” starring Char- ley Chase. Charley, as would any full-blooded young American, becomes very en- thusiastic over the approach of Christmas, and fails to measure his enthusiasm with the contents of his slim purse. By shrewd manipula- tion, he manages to spend the rent money for the wife and baby. But he failed to reckon with the inquisitive nature of the landlord’s rascally son, and from then on, it's a hectic Christmas. ' the 1 OTIS SKINNER_ — Wardman Pari The Moving’ Picture Album BY ROBERT E. SHERWOOD. 'HE craze for comedy continues on the screen; instead of waning, as many professional predicters prophe- sied, it is actually increasing to amaz- ing proportions. T have studied carefully the various announcements of pictures that are to come, and it appears that the gag crop s to be a bumper one this sea® son. Possibly ten out of every hun- dred productions on schedule are of a deliberately serious nature, and even these will be filled, to the great- est possible extent, with attempts at humor. Examine, for example, the an- nounced plans of Famous Players- ky—a corporation that manages to keep its finger glued to the public pulse and knows, as well as any one can possibly know, just what it is that the public wants. Famous Players has 39 Paramount pictures on schedule. Of these, two will feature Dorothy Gish, two Bebe Danlels, - two Wallace Beery, one Harold Lloyd, one Eddie Cantor, one Ed Wynn, one Raymond Griffith. three Richard Dix, two Esther Ral- gton, one Gilda Gray, two Florence Vidor, two Betty Compson, two Clara Bow, one Thomas.Meighan, one Pola Negri and one W. C. Fields. There will be also ‘“specials” from various directors, such as Malcolm 8t. Clair, D. W. Griffith, James Cruze and Edward Sutherland. ‘With the exception of “The Sor- rows of Satan” (the D. W. Griffith picture), “Hotel Imperial” (the Pola Negri picture), and possibly one or two Zane Grey Western melodramas, all the Paramount offerings from now on will be comic in intent. Whether they will all actually be funny is something else again. * oK K K Famous Players, with Eddie Can- tor, Harold Lloyd, Ed Wynn, Bebe Daniels, Raymond Griffith, Clara Bow, Wallace Beery, W. C. Fields and Douglas MacLean on its string, is going in more heavily for comedy stars than any other company. The other Hollywood producers, however, are making comedians of those stars who previously were dedi- cated to more somber subjects. First National has converted Ben Lyon, Corinne Griffith, Colleen Moore, Doro- thy Mackaill, Lewis Stone, Doris Kenyon and even Milton Sills into cansistent farceurs. Metro-Goldwyn has done likewise with John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Lon Chaney, Conrad Nagel, William Haines, Ramon No- varro and Marion 11‘“"“' * K kX Of course, the acknowledged comedy stares—Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Johnny Hines, Doug- las MacLean, Syd Chaplin and Regi- nald Denny—are prospering as they never prospered before, and so are lesser lumllw:ul who furnish what is known as “comedy relief.” Consider the number of' pictures that you have seen lately in which Chester Conklin, Charlie Murray, Bert Roche, Karl Dane, George Cooper and other out-and-out clowns played a not inconspicuous part. Consider also the fact that “What Price Glory?” one of the bitterest plays ever written, emerges on the screen as a hilariously laughable comedy, with numerous outbursts of slapstick to enliven its grimly real- istic war scenes. * k ok K The movie producers have learned that hunior is a universal language— that the same gag performed by a Harold Lloyd or a Syd Chaplin will inspire equal amounts of laughter in every section of the world. " It is impossible to guess how long this unprecedented craze for comedy will last, but the prospects are that it will continue indefinitely. * ok kK Hollywood, Calif.—Gilda Gray will make one more picture for Famous Players, and will then go to United Artists for three productions. . . . Lon Chaney’s next picture will be “Frank- enstein,” to be directed by Tod Browning. It sounds pretty grue- some. . . F. B. O. is to prodyce an eplc of the B. P. O. E, entitled “Hello, Bill”. . . . Buster Keaton has completed his Civil War picture, “The General,” and is about to leap ahead three decades to do one called “The Gay Ninetles.” New York, N. Y—Two imported super-features' opened here this week, “Potemkin,” at the Biltmore Theater, and “Michael Strogoff,” at the George M. Cohan. “Potemkin” was made in Russia under the auspices of the Soviet gov- ernment, and ‘“Michael Strogoff” was brought from France by Universal. . .. In the first seven days of its ex- istence, the Paramount Theater took in over $80,000—probably the highest earnings for one week ever recorded by any theater in the history of the world. Wilson Flayers Thursday The Wilson Players open their fifth consecutive season with three oneact plays, at Wilson Normal Auditorium, Eleventh and Harvard streets north- west, Thursday evening, “The Man in the Bowler Hat,” by A. A. Miln “Mansions,” by Hildegarde Flanner, and “The Trysting Place,” by Boot Tarkington. Three other plays are in rehearsal, “The Unchastened Woman,” ‘“‘Mam- ma’s Affairs” and “The Truth.' Tl:.l: group of Little Theater play- B RAD PAT OMALLEY and /AAR]AN Nixon — Strand Next Week's Photoplays COLUMBIA — Rex Ingram’s production,” “The Magician.” METROPOLITAN — Lewis Stone and Anna Q. Nilssen in “Midnight Lovers.” RIALTO—"“The Mystery Club,” featuring Edith Roberts and Matt Moore. PALACE — Raymond Hitch- cock and Betty Bronson in “Everybody’s Acting.” > TIVOLI — Rudolph Valentino in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” Blanche Sweet in “The Far Cry.” AMBASSADOR—Lewis Stone and Anna Q. Nilssen in “Mid- night Lovers. WARDMAN PARK—"“Cabinet of Dr. Caligeri” featuring Werner Kraus, followed by “Napoleon and Josephine.” Movie Sidelights By the Assoclated Press. Art in motion pictures has been judged by educators worthy of ex- hibition in the salon of the new Los Angeles Public Library. Charcoal drawings by leading film artists taken from their work in creating scenes of the life of Christ for the biblical plcture “The King of Kings” com- pose the display. The eye of the movie camera, keen to expose imitation jewelry, was al- most foxed by the fllm research lab- oratories. Science discovered that paste gems, if subjected for a time to radium’s rays, would outphoto- graph temporarily the genuine stone: A check of the tests, however, showed the radium necessary for practical application of the discovery would cost more than the precious stones. ‘Vilma Banky has mastered the En; lish language so well that she was able to make her first personal ap- pearance in an American film theater this month. ‘When Miss Banky came to America about two years ago from Budapest she knew German and French but only about fifty words of Englisl Pola Negri, a purchaser of rare first editions, is on the catalogue mailing list of nearly every noted bibliog- rapher of the world. “A motion picture is good when the spectator derives from it a satisfac- tion similar to seeing.an expert bridge player making a close bid.” The simile is that of Erich Pommer, Eu- ropean producer, now at Hollywood. “One gets used to being the moun- tain goat of the pictures,” remarked Tom Mix, “but outriding avalanches and skipping chasms is not the worst of it. The altitude often makes such play exhausting, and even pain- Two hundred extras drew their sal- aries at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot for eating ice cream sundaes and drinking ice cream sodas. They were part of a dance hall scene. The ac- tion called for a well patronized soda fountain, so one s installed with real soda ‘“jerkers” to operate it. More than fifty gallons of ice cream and hundreds of sodas were consumed. A son of John Kent, the English inventor of the electric arc light, works in the light of that very inven- tion. He is Crawford Kent, a cha: acter actor in “The Missing Link. The modern arc type studio lights which furnish most of the light for photographing movies are a develop- ment of his father’s invention. Try these over on your piano and see what happens. Frank Bahr, in charge of music at the Paramount Long Island studio, has analyzed the “SILENT DRAMA" ATTRACTIONS RIALTO—"“The Lily." COLUMBIA—“Faust.” PALACE—"Tin Hats." This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“Ladies at Play.” This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. TIVOLI—“Aloma of the South Seas.” This afternoon and evening. AMBASSADOR—“Ladies at Play.” WARDMAN PARK—“Kismet.” LENTRAL—“Dancing Days." LINCOLN (colored)—"The evening. RIALTO—"“The Lily.” Starting yesterday, “The Lily, plcturization of David Belasco's play of the same name, began a week's run, with Belle Bennett in the title role. The story is laid in France. Miss Bennett plays the role of a woman ‘who at the behest of her selfish father gives up the one real love of her life, and years later stands up valiantly for her younger sister, who has loved unwisely. Ian Keith plays the part of the ar- tist lover of the young sister. Reata Hoyt, an 18-vear-old English girl, makes her debut in pictures in the role of the girl with whom the artist is enamoured. The stage presentation will be & dance revue, headed by the Mosconi brothers, and including the Triana sisters and Nono Otero in an ensemble of 12, with special lighting and scenic efects. Brief reels and an overture by the Rialto Orchestra will complete the program. PALACE—"Tin Hats.” Loew's Palace Theater, the week starting this afternoon, will offer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s post-war com- edy “Tin Hats” as the principal screen offering, and stage attractions include Al Lentz and his recording orchestra, Easter and Hazleton, whirlwind dan ers, and Davil Armandi, guest con- ductor and solo planist, together with popular Palace features, such as Dick Lelbert’s organlogues, Loew’s Palace Magazine, Aesop’s fables and the Pal- ace Orchestra. “Tin Hats” will present Conrad Na- gel, Claire Windsor, George Cooper, Bert Roach and Tom O'Brien in a story of three American doughboys overseas whose fighting activities are cut short by the armistice, but who invade German single-handed, find a beauty In distress, battle boishevik: In a haunted casile and eventual emerge triumphant after a series of hairraising experiences. Edward Sedgwick wrote the story and directed the picture. METROPOLITAN—“Ladies at Play.” " This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening., This afternoon and evening. Quarterback.” This afternoon and including Dorls Kenyon, Lloyd Hughes, Louise Fazenda, Ethel Waies and Virginia Lee Corbin, also as a stage attraction Gene Austin, one of the favorite Victor recording artists who have appeared before at that house, together with a new two-reel comedy, “Napoleon, jr..” the Metropol- itan World Survey and short reels. The Metropolitan Symphony will con- tribute its usual concert overture and Interpretative accompaniments. ‘Ladies at Play” is a fareical com- edy which revolves about the experi- ences of a young woman who is be- queathed $6,000,000, with the proviso that she be married to the satisfaction of two maiden chaperons within & pe- riod of three days. Doris Kenyon § the young heiress and Lloyd Hug] an unwilling groom. Hallam Cooley and John Patrick are young Lotharios Who are intrigued for a sum of money into bringing havoe Into the lives of two maiden ladies, impersonated by Miss Fazenda and Miss Wales. ; COLUMBIA—“Faust.” ; A masterplece of opera will be brought to the screen In Washington at Loew's Columbia this week, start- ing this afternoon, in “Faust,” UFA's Continental production of Goethe world-famous classic, which will be shown for the first time locally, with Emil Jannings in one of his greatest roles, supported by a cast of dis- tinguished European players. “Faust,” which 1s being released in the United States as a Metro-Gold- wyn-Mayer production, was directed by F. W. Murnau, the famous UFA director. The screen production closely fol- lows the Goethe narrative, which re- veals the effort of Mephisto, the lord of darkness, to win over to evil the soul of Faust, a benevolent old scholar, who barters his soul to save his village from the plague and who, endowed again with vouth, sets forth on a career that involves the beauti- ful Marguerite and the enactment of the miracle that releases both Faust and Marguerite from bondage. Gosta Ekman and Camilla Horn are seen in the romantic roles of All this week, beginning this after- noon, Crandall’s Metropolitan Theater will feature First Natlonal's produc- tion of “Ladies at Play with a cast Faust and Marguerite, respectively. Yvette Guilbert, famous opera and concert star, also has a prominent role. Rough Riders’ Roll Call. [E first roll call of Roosevelt's heroes of San Juan Hill since the reunion of 1905 was begun today bv Herman Hagedorn, secretary of the Roosevelt Memorial Association. In the search to discover what has become of the Rough Riders, looking toward a possible convention at an early date of the romantic adven- turers of 1898, it was discovered that approximately twoscore of them are residing in Los Angeles. Col. H. B. Hersey, who was a major in the Rough Riders, is the weather man in Los Angeles. Mason Mitchell. noted Shakespeareian actor of more than a generation back, who served as a sergeant under T. R., is in the brokerage business there. More than a score of Rough Riders are living at the Sawtelle Soldiers’ Home in California. Among them are David L. Hughes, Westerner, who, semiconscious from a bullet through the head, led a lost group of soldiers back to the firing lines; Thomas Led- widge, circus acrobat, who brought a corrected military map of Cuba through the Spanish lines sewed under his skin in silver pellets; Frank R. McDonald, Distinguished Service Med- al man: Dave Warford. who ruled as tribal god of a village of head hunters for two years in Luzon, and others, each with a history of peril and ad- venture to his credit. Of late there has been an influx of Roosevelt's troopers to Los Angeles in connection with the filming of “The Rough Riders” by Paramount. Jack Tait, cowboy pal of Buffalo Bill came up from Arizona. George Hoff- man. Easterner, who adopted the West, has settled here. R. L. Carlin, first- class bugler, is working in films. Colton Reed, secretary-treasurer of the Rough Riders’ Association, is a Californian now. Lewis Maverick, vice president of the association. came up from San Antonio, Tex., recently to see familiar scenes of 1898 being filmed. An_ effort to locate every Iliving Rough Rider is being made by Mr. Hagedorn. In the first place, he wants all of them to know the par- ticulars of “their production” and to send them each a copy of an illus- trated story of ‘“The Rough Riders” as it will appear on the screen. Jesse L. Lasky, first vice president of Fa- mous Players-Lasky Corporation, ‘in charge of production, is desirous of featuring the Rough Riders at the national premier of the big picture. He wants each of them to have a special invitation. Rough Riders are requested to send their names and addresses, as well as names and locations of every other Rough Riders they know, to Mr. Hagedorn at the Famous Players- Lasky Studio in Hollywood Scenic Effects in "Fauet“l ONSUMMATE craftsmanship in scenic and lighting effects are sald to be revealed in UFA’S production of Goethe's “Faust,” which in screen form comes to Washington this after- noon as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer re- lease. F. W. Murnau, the director of “The Last Laugh,” is the man who is cred- ited with vitalizing “‘Faust,” and his work is sald to have been wonderfully alded by two architects, Herlth and Rohrig, who have contributed a se- ries of settings and lighting effects that are sald to be remarkable both from the standpoint of illusion and of art. The medieval gloom of the Middle Ages, which forms the background for the earlier scenes of “Faust.,” has been superbly reflected in a brown, Rembrandt style. Over a year of re- search was necessary as a prelude to the actual work of building the effects. A breath of Spring is exquisitely introduced in the Easter‘scenes when Faust meets Marguerite, but perhaps the most startling scenes of all are the storm sequence at the opening of the story and the subsequent scene in which Faust and the evil one are portrayed in flight through space on the latter’s cloak while the earth rolls by beneath them. IN “A CELEBRATED CASE”