Modern Screen (Dec 1931 - Nov 1932 (assorted issues))

Modern Screen To her own horror, Mary began to cry. Tears came into her eyes and ran .down her cheeks. The camera stopped grinding. The scene was over. "What an idiot I am !" stammered Mary. "Well, I don't know," said the director. "Maybe it's that you've got in you the makings of an actress. Now, we'll have you alone in the face test that Mr. Griffith wants. It might as well be the window scene itself, because if it should come out all right, it could be used in the picture and save expense. I'll take you over on his set." *~pHERE was the house with the window into which the girl was to look and then pass on. You would have thought that the scene could be taken and finished in five minutes ; that is, you would have thought so if you were an amateur like Mary. But it had to be taken and retaken at least a dozen times before the director and the cameramen were satisfied. That meant one hour's work ; but later, when the "rushes" were shown, it was found that the trouble hadn't been wasted. Little Mary Moore's hair was a glory and the wistful, innocent look in her long-lashed to understand that such captions as "Compromised Again" or "Immoral Violet" or "Gun-Molls de Luxe" serve merely as guarantees to the sophisticated parent that the subject matter of the pictures thus heralded must be "perfectly all right" for the little ones. EVIDENTLY, then, to attempt to form an opinion from the sidewalk is to become inextricably confused ; one must go inside the theatre to find out why the children need to be "brought back to the movies" — the thrilling glamorous movies where, not many years past, all children incessantly clamored to be taken. Is it possible that children no longer have to be restrained from "practically living" at the movies, that they prefer to stay at home in the evenings and listen to the radio — in a word, that they are bored at the movies? Children are a curious mixture of the "realist" and the "romanticist" — they like to see "one more redskin bite the dust" and will resent it if he does not fall dead from his horse with a convincingly realistic abandon ; but if they are given reason to believe that he is "really and truly" killed, they will be frightened and displeased. Children like pictures of animals — they like pictures of the hunting of wild animals; but if the hunted beast is actually injured they are troubled and the picture is spoiled for them. They will relish and thrill to most dreadful deeds of carnage if committed by ogres or dragons, be eyes was exactly what had been wanted for the scene. Whether the face and voice tests would do anything for the girl's future remained to be seen. So many good tests are made, praised and forgotten ; but she had gone away delirious with happiness at the kind words which had been said to her and she wasn't in the least tired. Happy people are seldom tired ! Dick Garth had waited for her, in his ordinary clothes again now, but Mary hadn't forgotten the thrill of seeing him as a flying man. "It was silly of me to cry," she apologized. "But I had the most awful feeling as if-^-as if we were really in love and I might never see you again." "Was that such an 'awful' feeling?" he asked. "Yes, it was," insisted the girl. "Which?" Dick wanted to know. "That we were in love with each other or that you were never going to see me again?" "Both," answered Mary, and then laughed a little at herself as Dick put her into his car. Dick grinned and looked keenly at her. Mary's heart thumped. Was he — did he — ? What did his look mean? (To be Continued) cause they are able to confine such creatures in the realm of make-believe; but it goes without saying that for children, as well as for most adults, the ending of a violent fairy tale must be a happy ending. Fairy stories, by the way, are a fairly accurate criterion not only of the taste of children but of their conservatism. Most of the possible plots for fiction are contained in their basic form in fairy stories, and these stories have remained unchanged throughout centuries. The children keep them so. Tell the tale of "Little Red Riding Hood" to a group of children, for instance, and you will be severely corrected if you depart in any degree from the original pattern. When a book familiar to children is dramatized into a movie, if any detail is altered, or any improvement made, the children of their own accord will write letters of reproach and indignation— they will display strongly their feeling that the movie has played them false. \X7'ITH children it is certainly true * * that "actions speak louder than words," and, since it is inevitable that the proportion of "speaking" to "doing" must be greater in the talking pictures than it was in the old motion pictures, perhaps this is one cause for the loss of child-patrons. Children used extravagantly to enjoy the old movie "chases" — from the jiggling and jerky movie days when a baby-carriage escaped and YOU can depend on the conveniently sized packages of Kapak Sanitary Napkins sold in your neighborhood S. S. Kresge stores. Millions of women will tell you so. Kapak Sanitary Napkins are made under modern sanitary conditions of the finest material. Deodorant.highly absorbent, easily disposable with close fitting oval shaped ends. Absolutely inconspicuous under any costume. ONE DOZEN I9< SIX FOR IOc EIGHT FOR SOLD EXCLUSIVELY AT 5.S. KRESGE CQ 5-IO-25 am/HOO STORES SURPRISE! SURPRISE! Watch Modern Screen for a new contributor— Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is the author of Tarzan the Ape Man— the film which sent clean-limbed Johnny Weissmuller sky-rocketing to stardom. Mr. Burroughs is doing a story for Modern Screen which is all about what would happen to Tarzan—Tarzan the character, not Johnny Weissmuller— if he came to Hollywood. It'll be a fascinating feature which you mustn't miss. 117 Too Much Love (Continued from page 37)