Evening Star Newspaper, July 26, 1931, Page 37

Stage News and Screen and Gossip | Part 4—10 Pages' Calling Out the Militia War Looms on the Horizon Somebody Wants to Fight The King's Horses and the King's Men Gird for the Fray-»Sometl’:ing Ought to Be Done About It. By W. H. L:ndvoigt. ELL, in the lnniuaze ot the gay 90s, here's a howdy do! All the king’s horses and all the king’s men are romp- ing up and down the boulevard! ‘The militia are burnishing up their accoutrements, ready at a nod of the head to fight or to flop. Horrid war is on the horizon. Something, indeed, seems to have broken loose again. And it's all because the theater has given no- tice that it is trying to break a: from bad company and be itself. Movie editors and clerics, as with the mighty voice of Vox Populi, are roaring defiantly, “They shall not pass!” And a big slice of the world is wondering if they will. There is a hope, it is true, that these zealous protagonists are a bit mistaken in their Midsummer tantrum. And there is a possi- bility that one or both are shoot- ing at the wrong target. Perhaps if their misconception of the eternal verities can be put to the test, the conflict may be averted and peace may be permitted to dribble along until the advance notices arrive in the Fall. Post- ponements help a lot at times, and, anyway, the policewomen gppear to be headsteady. A GREAT many of our good people, it is suspected, get “the theater” “the show business,” tangled up with especially since the advent of the talking picture. Few, it must be admitted, will deny that the stage, during the centuries of its existence, like many of the celebrities it has helped to make famous, ever and anon has been disposed to indulge its idiotic fling. Certainly in some periods of its history it has been the object of virtuous vitupera- tion, both clerical and lay. death and extermination often have appeared to be imminent, and that is certainly a death blow to the hope that it is immortal. But if it be true that the hegira of all the worthwhile players to Hollywood has attained the pro- portion reported, then, indeed, there isn’t a wisp of hope for the American theater, for the ever- present longing of the average actor to live without work has at last been appeased. And no ma- chine can operate without a motor. 4 Those who have taken the flight 0 with golden reward include, we are told, the redoubtable Richard Bennett, “America’'s fiery war- horse of the theater,” and this after he has been nursed through 35 long years of fame and finan- cial support aboard the ship he is now abandoning. Yes, even Rich- ard has forsaken the “racket’—at least until it can do better than Hollywood in the| way of real stories, and, perhaps| also in the matter of reward. At| this very moment and right now| it should be chronicled—and not| be permitted to slip out of the| memory—that ~even our great| dramafists, Eugene O'Neill ex-| ay | Its | indulge a preference baited | dirty | responsibility for the conse- quences. But the stage saw the talkie scooping in ood]es of money, with but little in the way of art or talented effort and with, oh, such funny things as the bait. | The stage producers, of course, became moon-eyed and then be- |gan the descent into Avernus of our sacred relic, the theater. Why, even that splendid zctor John Barrymore, with his gifted brother Lionel, both of the royal family began to tug and strain at his bearings and finally sent his stage fame hurtling down the corridors of time, and all for what—simply three times as much money as he had ever made before, with less than a thirtieth of ‘the effort. George Arliss became so fasci- nated that he swears he will never come back—maybe. Britons don’t often quit a good thing. And poor little' Ina Claire, who seems to have enough of the cinema dust of all kinds, turns her weary heart back to where she can see the audience grin and beat its hands. R APPLYING serious thought to the problem, it really doesn't appear that the cleric section of the king's horses and the king's men is at all animated by what might be termed malicious mili- tancy. Something appears to be wrong somewhere, and whether it knows what it is or not, that department of the king's forces certainly ought to be up and do- ing. When the stage, hypnotized by those oodles of money—the life blood of the box office—next found itself, it had abandoned its high ideals, and, on the prin- ciple that tit for tat is perfectly | fair, it then began transforming the American theater into “the show business,” with blatant and alluring, often insulting, publicity and a series of explorations into the art of subterfuge, until you could scarcely tell the result from its mother. Now, however, it is repentant. It sees its error and wants to get back into good company. And surely, no cleric, however austere. will want to repulse a repentant sinner. Some mischievious, if well meaning busybodies, how- ever, are messing up matters by insisting that the clerics have been shooting at the wrong tar- get. The movie, they insist, is the | father of “the show busines,” and |it is the movie, they say, rather {than the theater that should be “given the works.” The ultimate manifestation of the spirit of jus- tice, however, it is believed, will straighten out the situation by an agreement, after conference, as it were, and all should then | be well in the world. * X % x expression are and ever have been the forte of the theater. And these are inspired, in the first instance, by the people of the times that are portrayed in the drama. In an honest theater and by an honest dramatist and play- wright the conditions and culture of a period will be portrayed with 'HEATRICAL art and dramatic | cepted, have also drifted from the | stage immortal to help pep up| Hollywood. George Arliss, also, fine actor that he is, has ex- pressed a preference to join the non-toiling lilies that he ma everlasting truth. If that truth be unsavory, repellant, it would seem that the people whose lives are portrayed, and especially those who by their patronage force the y . share in their financial harvest. gmd“‘ffi""}‘flof such drama, must Ina Claire, too, our very own Ina,| efl'l;.h e blame. Seeing oursel’s Jong since took flight to the sunny | 38 ithers see us” sometimes tends slopes of the Golden State—but rumor hints that she may come back. All this is very dreadful! * ok X | to bring about a reform in which | we ourselves are the prime and | potent motivating force. Psychol- | ogists tell us that the recalcitrant Y is more amenable to persuasive HE chaplains among the king'’s | influence than to the policeman’s horses and the king's men, | club. On the other hand, people however, seem bent upon bolting of the finer sensibilities may be and demolishing both the stage|shocked and outraged, and they and the cinema show. They de~4 have the right to be, even though clare that dramatic expression on|the drama portrayed be an in- the stage in these evil days is|fallible reflex of conditions that worse than in the movies. There |confront them in everyday life. are some other points of objec- | The remedy here, in part at least, tion—all examples, however, being |is to stay away from that sort of selected from the movies. Sus-|drama and even to endeavor to picion strongly suggests, however, | persuade others to do likewise. that there is sore need of some|Lack of patronage will kill bad wise neutral who knows and who | theater more quickly than drastic can explain to the overheated rotagonists the exact difference etween “the theater” and “the show business.” Many sterling champions of the theater doggedly contend that the theater is not actually bad at heart, although they are willing to admit that it did succumb to dire temptation from quarters that appear to be escaping the |laws and censors who believe themselves endowed with a mis- sion. Education .and culture are needed to develop refinement and taste in the people who patronize the theater, but above and behind | it all must ever be spiritual beauty |and truth that are indispensable | to true art. The policeman, it is humbly submitted, is not the in- | stitution to supply these. Arliss’ Art hr ANY have been the analyses of the art of George Arliss. One of the latest has been offersd by an Eng- lish cr ‘who thinks he finds one of the nt'al secrets in the actor's use of his hands. When Mr. Arliss was asked about this, he smiled and declined to commit himself, beyond an agreement that he finds the use of his hands is of great importance in interpreting a character |al on stage or screen. But his judgment is that everything is important that enters into good acting—the voice, the , the facial expressions, the &:fly attitude, oh lots of elements that are not so popular in movie acting. He did not say the last, but his twinkling ;!i“ seemed to express a suspicion e it. The English critic was inspired by a study of the play of the Arliss hands, however, in “Old English.” The phys- ical manifestations of the aged though still active-minded and worldly Syl- vanus Heythorp are certainly to be ob- served, to a large extent, in the use of his hands. Their grasp of a wine glass is a caress; the motion of the butler to fill it up, the air of ownership as he cuddles the bottle close to his body, like a child who is prepared to fight to retain his dearest possession—these small touches speak volumes. And then the short, sharp rap of the knuckles in Acting. |on the table, as Heythorp winds up an | argument; the quick liftiaog of one hand iumch seals a shady bargain; the anger |and determination with which a threat- | ening letter is torn up—in such fine | points the art of George Arliss is shown by means of his two hands. In “Disraeli” and “The Green God- dess” similar characterization through 10 ordinary human fingers, such as we 1 possess, was achieved. And in “The Millioniare” the same Arliss artistry is to be observed. Even if the London ecritic is wrong in giving the hands first place—and George Arliss certainly feels that he is —There is no doubt that they play an important part in the dramatic inter- pretation of character; snd no actor has afforded a more convincing demon- }strnuon of that than Mr. Arliss him- self! NP p— KECP an Eye on LES]iC! ESLIE HOWARD, who will appear opposite Ann Harding in “Devo- tion,” her first feature on R-K-O Pathe’s new program, played opposite Marion Davies in “Five and Ten,” with Norma Shearer in “A Free Soul,” and has & featured lead in “Never the Twain Shall ey, Bquare,” AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star, WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 26, Motor, Avi ation, Radio Programs 1931. They Scintillate on Downtown Movie Screens PAUL LUKAS and GEOFFREY KERR *WOMEN LOVE ONCE” . PALACE JACK OAKIE “DUDE RANCH” CoLUMBIA L m CONSTANCE BENNET and JOEL McCREA “THE COMMON LAW* KEITH'S T‘ ORAWINGS BY J.T. BERRYMAN AND N.S.SUDDUTH Novelty and fieauty. OVELTY and beauty are said to have been the keynote of the suc- cess achieved by Anatole Friedland, pro- ducer of petite revues, who now pre- sents “The Twentieth Century Revue” at Warner Bros." Earle. Anatole Friedland revues have been known for years to vaudeville, also to | those who attend the New York night clubs. With a hobby for novelty, Fried- | land has a corps of assistants continu- | ally working on electrical, musical and terpsichorean effects, while he himself travels to all parts of the world in search of entertainer: o S —— a knowle plays a big part t:‘ :he succb!:;;‘\flyst:kc: revue, Mr. Friedland scours the country for feminine pulchritude. This does not mean that girls are selected for beauty alone. Each girl must be able to dance, sing and pley some musical instrument. R-K-O Keith Promises. FOR the first three weeks in August R-K-O Keith's Theater promises | “very attractive fare to its patrons.” The first week will bring Barbara Stanwyck in “The Miracle Woman"”; August 7, Columbia’s sensational fea- ture, “Dirigible,” will be shown for the first time here at popular prices, and for the week of August 14, Richard Dix's ne cture, “The Public De- fender,” will g the attraction, D‘, i PEGGY SHANNON STHE SECRET CALL® FOX SYLVIA SIDNEY ' anq PHILLIPS HOLMES S CONFESSIONS OF A CO-ED” SCREEN ATTRACTIONS FOR THIS WEEK. FOX—“The Secret Call.” This afternoon and evening. R-K-O KEITH'S—“The Common Law.” This afternoon and evening. PALACE—“Women Love Once.” This afternoon and evening. EARLE—“Confessions of a Co-Ed.” - This afternoon and evening. COLUMBIA—"Dude Ranch.” This afternoon and evening. Bids for World Fame first, the success of Cantor’s first picture for Goldwyn, “Whoopee,” based on the -will tour of the principal cities of | Broadway stage show, and second, Can- Europe, making personal stage appear- tor’s desire tor a Europsan holiday— ances in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, | the first since his honeymoon, when he Rome and possibly other citics,” all in | and his bride went to England in 1914. connection with the showing of his | Incidentally, in the Charlot’s Revue of Sonihd talking picture, “Palmy Days,” | that year he introduced the song, “I $°Samuel Godwyn production for |Love the Ladies.” United Artists. In “Palmy Days,” Charlotte Green- This, it.is stated, effectively sets at| wood appears with the goggle-eyed rest the rumors that Cantor planned a | comic, along with “the most decorative return to the Broadway stage this|femininity that Goldwyn and his EDDE CANTOR will leave within the next few weeks for “an extended good: staff could gather from the Hollywood beauty EARLE Glen Echo Life Guards. LL the life guards at Glen Echo have had interesting experience before coming to the crystal pool. Ben Wissner, the captain, has been a life guard at the Wayneé Country Club in Pennsylvania and swimming director at Camp Kohut, Oxford, Me.; Bob Hickman, a sophomore at the George Washington University, has been a life guard at Ravenwood Beach, ‘Washington, was captain of the swim- ming team at Central High and in the South Atlantic swimming meets was second in 1928, third in 1929 and sec- ond in 1930 in the 100-yard back- stroke. Dick Garrett is a Pittsburgh man, but | a graduate of Tech High in Washington. For the past few years he has been a life guard at the Central High School Community Center swimming pool. Dr. Joseph Blair, the pool physician, is a graduate of Gonzaga and also 8 uate of medicine at s - grad University, with experience Indianapolis; Robert C. Verela, born in | $47 “Art Versus Industry” Shifts to a Court Room For Fin al Settlement Theodore Dl‘eisel’ and H;S “Amer;can Tragedy" Go Before a Yonkers Judge—More on the Wode- house Incident—Two Types of Local Audiences. ByC.E. 'HE next scene, ladies and gentlemen, will be in a court room. The plain- tiff’s witnesses 1 be seated on one side; those of the defendant on_the other. Crowds of curious! Uproar from flash- 1iBhts!. It is the case of ‘Art vs.| Industry.’” | ‘Theodore Dreiser, the author, comes into court with a copy of his “American Tragedy” under his/ arm. A representative of the Paramount company arrives with several tin cans containing the| motion picture version of the| same “American Tragedy.” Jus-| tice William Bleakley, in the Su- preme Court of Yonkers-on-the- Hudson, orders his bailiff to con- jIv:ne the session, and the battle on. No one knows how many thou- sand dollars Mr. Dreiser received for the motion picture rights to his “American Tragedy.” That is| aside from the point in court. He claims, in a heated manner, that the producing company, Para- mount, switched his story all| around. For instance, in the novel, Dreiser says he pictured his| central character, Clyde, as a vic- tim of society. What did the movie people do but change so- ciety into a victim of Clyde? Mr. Dreiser’s attorneys, Arthur Gar-| field Hays and Carter Hume, have | sent out a letter to several thou- sand persons and publications, quoting from their literary ex- perts on the iniquities of the screen version of the Dreiser-novel. In part, they say: “When the motion picture rights of the book were originally pur- chased, - Mr: Lasky specifically stated that the producer wished to make a ‘gesture’ and to pre- sent a picture of real merit, quite unlike the ordinary screen mate- rial. This was insisted upon by Mr. Dreiser before he would sell it. The contract of purchase con- tained this rather unusual clause: “The purchaser agrees before pro- duction to submit to the seller the manuscript intended to be used as a basis of or from which there will be adapted said motion pic- ture photoplay for such comment, advice, suggestions or criticisms that the seller may wish to make with respect thereto and to afford the seller the opportunity of dis- cussing with the scenarist of said motion picture the manuscript thereof, and the purchaser agrees it will use its bast endeavors to accept such advice, suggestions and criticisms that the seller may make in so far as it may, in the judgment of the purchaser, con- sistently do so. Interpreting this last bit of the contract paragraph, it would seem that the producing company pret- ty well protected itself—that is, in spite of an agreement to hear criticisms and suggestions of the author, it retained the right to “rmake changes in so far as it may, in the judgment of the purchaser, consistently do so.” From this angle, the whole mat- ter resembles a “tempest in a tea- pot.” Picture “experts” who have viewed the finished “American Tragedy” say it is one of the best talking pictures, if not the best, ever turned out by Paramount. In the meanwhile, the case is proving a sort of gold mine for columnists. The outcome will be closely watched by authors and by the Hollywood producers, but | the general public does not care| much how the decision goes. The demand of the theatergoer is for a good picture, whether it holds to the original story or not. The producer certainly is in a more satisfactory ition when he aligns himself with the public, rather than with the author. * X Xk X 'HE fact that P. G. Wodehouse, humorist, was paid $104,000 by a producing company for a year’s work, and then. the employing company failed to utilize a scratch of his expensive pen, has created considerable talk of “movie waste” and “movie mistakes.” Writers have gone into great detail over the errors of commission and omission of the producers, and the ‘Wodehouse incident has attracted much attention on account of the fact that it comes at a time of depression. But one of the most far-fetched excuses for the gen- erous producer is found by an editorial writer of the Motion Pic- ture Herald. He says: “We are eternally hearing about the mistakes of the movies. Just offhand, out of memory of a writer who has had considerable contact with American business for the last two decades, come| § recollections that: Once a great motor car eompany had to call in| a_whole season’s output because of a silly error in construction: once a great tobacco company’s advertising department lost track of five carloads of costly enameled signs, which were found in a warehouse four years after the brand which they were devoted to had passed -out of the market; once a great Government spent ,000000 on a hydroelectric plant which has never done any- thing yet; once a great construc- tion company had to build a bridge over a big river three times and drowned a tribe of Indians before it would stand up; further fiery good American newspaper ys and produces twice as much copy as it prints; struggling| authors write a hundredfold more novels, plays and stories than ever will be published. The fact that the race, and its various concerns, survive indicates that the mistakes are an essential part of the prog-, Neleon. ess of operation. It is the basic natural story. The codfish lays a million eggs and produces, maybe, with luck, a dozen offspring. An elm releases several million seeds, and maybe two or three become trees. When the bankers and the eficiency men and the pet cer- tified accountants of Wall Street learn to teach efficiency to the codfish and the elm, they will also he able to tell the motion picture industry how to make motion pictures.” Putting the picture producer in a class with the lowly codfish and slippery elm (never known for its intelligence) is carrying the mat- ter a little too far. While some of the modern talking pictures do not give the impression that their producers were burdened with a large amount of gray matter, they are, at least, far and away above anything that might be turned out by a production studio headed by a codfish or an elm. I feel that it is my duty to speak up for the producer in this matter. * x % ¥ ‘VASHINGTON has two distinct types of theater audiences— downtown and suburban. If you do not believe this to be a fact, you should have seen the two versions of “Strangers May Kiss.” In a downtown theater, the heavy hand of the censor had not fallen; in a large suburban theater, only a few blocks from downtown, you never knew that one of the lead- ing characters had a wife and family living in Paris. Instead, a type subtitle was inserted, a large slice of the film eliminated. What is meat for the down- towners must be poison for the neighborhood theatergoer. And vice versa, etc. 4 * oxox x "LIETHODIST Immoral Movie Crusade Is Halted by the Heat.” According to last week’s statement of the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals, its battle against immoral shows in the District of Columbia will be postponed until the arrival of Fall and cooler weather. During the hot Summer days, however, Washington movies can be just as immoral as they please. Reformer Deets Pickett recently made a complaint against a local vaudeville bill, claiming there were several off-color spots in the production. The city's women police, however, after viewing the show, said it was en- tirely within the law. The greatest advance of the movie industry has been made in the short subjects—two-reelers dealing with educational and humorous features. These have improved fully 100 per cent dur- ing the past couple of years. The producers of such reels are leading the way for the feature picture directors. * % * % 'ONSIDERABLE trouble is being experienced in the production and exhibition of foreign versions of American pictures. When the sound films came into being, di- rectors rushed out with the idea of Spanish, German and French versions for the foreign markets. ‘These, according to financial statements, have not “clicked” with the movie-goers over the seas. The time has about arrived to term the experiment a failure, and the producers will have to take up some other idea if they expect to obtain a share of the foreign business. One picture expert maintains that silent versions of the Amer- ican talkies are the best for for- eign productions. These, of course, would carry the subtitles in sev- eral languages. I saw such pic- tures carrying the titles in three different languages in Antwerp— English, Dutch and French—and they seemed entirely satisfactory with the audiences. Also, there are many American films which are not suitable for foreign exhi- bition. No attempt should be made to have these screened in other lands. No less an authority than Doug Fairbanks claims that the 100 per cent dialogue picture does not permit the action of the silet screen. He announces that he will make no pictures vased upon fic- tion, plays or novels, but will con- fine his efforts to travelogues. He is now putting together the travel material taken on his recent trip to the Far East, with, of course, Mr. Fairbanks appearing through- out the picture. If this film makes a hit, he says, he will continue to produce such films. * x X X HORT FLASHES: While Clara Bow has no movie contract at the present time, several com- | panles are reported to have maae offers for her services. Also, Zieg- feld and other New York stage producers have approached her with contracts. Marilyn Miller may go abroad to make certain scenes of “Her Majesty, Xove.” The story ts s German affair. “Our Social Whirl,” reported as the next Marilyn Miller production, has been postponed. Edward G. Robinson, Basil Rathbone, Bessie Love, Fifi D'Orsay and Lupe Valez are tak- ing short whirls in vaudeville. Is the movie cycle turning back to “cave man stuff?” This query comes from the rough treatment of feminine players in “Smart Money” and “Night Nurse.” Ed- ward G. Robinson used his boot; Clark Gable, his fist. Dorothy Mackaill and James Cagney will be co-starred i “The Bm Spot,” for First N