Camera - April 14, 1923 to February 16, 1924 (April 1923-February 1924)

CAMERA ! The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry" Page Five "Selected Pictures" of Interest to Everyone Interested in Any Way in Motion Pictures That there are 703 motion pictures of 1574 submitted to the National Board of Review during 1922 and now available, which constitutes worth while entertainment is revealed by the 1922-23 catalog entitled "Selected Pictures" just issued. This catalog, which is compiled by the National Committee for Better Films, affiliated with the National Board at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, lists pictures of feature length, short comedies, scenics, cartoons, reviews and various entertainment-educationals chosen by the disinterested colunteer committees of the Board at the time the pictures come before it for possible editing and action as to passage. Exhibitors, schools, churches, community houses and others using motion pictures find this catalog valuable, as do also libraries, clubs, better films committees and the individual movie patron. "Every effort has been made," writes the secretary of the committee, "to make this catalog accurate and serviceable. The name and address of the producer or distributor from whom the films can be obtained is given, the number of reels, the "star" or "stars," a brief description or characterization of each film and the published source when not based on an original scenario. This information is of particular interest to schools and libraries. And above all, although we do not expect everyone to agree with these selections — as people's opinions differ so much on motion pictures — it is nevertheless the testimony of those who use our catalogs and supplementary lists year after year, that the selections are reliable. "In this connection I should point out that one of the most valuable features of the catalog is its designation of age-group suitability for each film listed. 340 films suit able for young people, in age from 13 up and 10 up, are specially marked, thus affording a guide to the selection of pictures for special young people entertainments and for the patronage of children as supervised by careful parents. These are the ideal 'family group' films, as everyone both young and old can understand and enjoy them. Most of the remainder we say are also suitable for the family group, where children are accompanied by intelligent adults who can explain pictures and regulate their attendance with a thought to the child's temperament and development. Only eight of the films listed in the catalog are advised for strictly adult audiences only. "Thus, by means of the catalog and our Photoplay Guide issued weekly and monthly, which supplements it, people can be apprised, in advance of seeing them, of the better pictures, while another publication, 'Exceptional Photoplays,' supplied under our popular plan of membership, will actually contribute to their enjoyment and appreciation of the finer pictures critically reviewed in its pages. Just as one must first hear good music and then study it, in order to thoroughly enjoy it, so must one see the good pictures (as listed in our catalog and Photoplay Guide), then study and analyze them (as can be done by reading 'Exceptional Photoplays'), in order to discriminate and fully appreciate the best. A quarter only sent to us by mail will procure the catalog for anyone anywhere in the country, together with complimentary specimen copies of our three monthly membership publications — The Photoplay Guide and Exceptional Photoplays already mentioned, and an interesting bulletin-magazine for members exclusively entitled 'Film Progress.' Membership in the National Commit tee is on a popular basis, open to anyone who desires to join." Communications should be addressed to the secretary of the National Committee for Better Films at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Officers of the Committee are: Clarence A. Perry, chairman, Associate Director Department of Recreation, Russell Sage Foundation; W. D. McGuire, vice-chairman, executive secretary National Board of Review of Motion Pictures; Dr. Myron T. Scudder, head of the Scudder School for Girls; and Alice Belton Evans, secretary of the Committee. Members-at-large of the executive board comprise leaders in social and civic work, educators, ministers, clubwomen, etc. The membership creed of the National Committee is as follows: I BELIEVE that the best way to improve motion pictures is to select, patronize and advertise the best. I BELIEVE— In special performances for boys and girls and special "family nights." In educating parents to study their children and to regulate their attendance at motion pictures with intelligent care. I BELIEVE in the maintenance of the highest standards in the conduct of the motion picture theatres which I will attend. I BELIEVE in telling the exhibitor when I like his program and why, as well as when I don't like his program and why. I BELIEVE in the motion picture theatre as a community institution and in community co-operation with the exhibitor. I BELIEVE in the vast educational, cultural and recreational values of the screen, and in my own ability to add a little to the forces working for its constant elevation. Can Screen Adaptations Ever Satisfy Authors^ "Yes," Sa^s Creator of "Brass" "I came prepared to curse. I came away pleased and marvelling a bit." In these words Charles G. Norris, author of "Brass," the best-seller that deals with marriages and divorces, describes his reaction before and after attending the premiere showing of the screen adaptation of his novel. So enthusiastic did he become watching his puppets live on the silver screen that he wrote, in the first flush of pleasure, to Harry Rapf, the producer. Mr. Norris had made the transcontinental trip from California to New York City for the express purpose of sitting in the darkened theatre auditorium and observing his story of modern American life in celluloid version. "I reached New York," he explains, "and the first thing I did was to go and see 'Brass.' I confess I went with some trepidation. I had no idea how 1 should like my 'child' in other clothes, but I confess I was pleasantly surprised. The spirit of the book, its reason, is there, and what more has an author a right to ask. On the whole, I think you have made 'Brass' a big picture and I congratulate you." By thus revealing the pleasure the photoplay afforded him, Mr. Norris proves himself an exception to the general rule. In ninety-, nine cases out of a hundred, authors experience emotions ranging from contempt to disgust when viewing the mutilations and changes suffered by their brain children at the hands of motion picture producers, this proceeding sometimes so far that their work is unrecognizable. His stamp of approval on this Warner Brothers classic of the screen sets a fashion that can only be for the best in its influence upon motion pictures. It would be easy to bring example on example of writers who forsook the silver screen medium as hopeless, or who sell the movie rights to their novels with a shrug of indifference and never take the trouble to see their finished product on the silent sheet. That this novelist could sanction the film version is a tribute to the rare skill of those responsible for this production directed by Sidney Franklin. Norris, as he himself puts it, is a harsh critic, particularly where his own work has been altered or edited. "For an author to see his puppets that have originated in his mind and lived there," he remarks, "strutting about on the screen is a hard, tough and may I say, at best an unpalatable experience. In many ways you have accomplished the impossible — you have transferred the spirit, the lesson, the purpose of the book on to the screen. In places it is a beautiful picture. In spots, it has moments of bigness. Never is it bad. Let me say here that I am a harsh critic, particularly where my own work has been altered or edited, and so, what I have said of the photoplay you have made of 'Brass' is high praise from me." Much of the picture's success he attributes to Irene Rich, whose successful playing of the role of Mrs. G. won her a longterm contract with Warner Brothers following the release of the picture. Fred Thomson, world's champion allround athlete and latest advent into the ranks of screen actors, will not appear before the camera for several days, as the result of a peculiar and spectacular accident that marred one of his sensational "stunts." Thomson, in attempting to swing on a rope between two buildings at Seventh and Main Streets in Los Angeles, slipped, fell with a jerk to the limit of the slack of the rope, and suffered a badly sprained ankle. Thomson was doing the rope swing as a feature of "The Eagle's Talons," being produced as a chapter mystery play at Universal City.