Movie Makers (Jun-Dec 1928)

DECEMBER I92S FILMING with FLARES Flare Showing Detachable Handle Professional producers use extensive electrical equipment or flares for shots in dark places or at night, but the amateur does not have hundreds or thousands of amperes available but the flares are accessible to him at a reasonable price. Use these powerful firework torches to secure professional results either on straight or special lighting effects. They may be used to light a cave, film a party or shoot an African native dance at night, for fireplace antl campfire effects, and in all special lighting effects to secure the same results as seen in the leading theatres. Many other uses are indicated from time to time in various issues of Movie Makers. No equipment necessary — the same flare the professionals use — five sizes, ^4, 1, 2, 3 and 4 minutes of light. Also electrically fired flares operating on flashlight batteries for firing several flares at once. JOHN G. MARSHALL 1752 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. "SNOW-WHITE" The Screen Supreme A pure white screen with a surface which will produce a clean-cut natural picture. Picture size 18"x25". Mounted on plain roller. Price $5.00. A Special Release For The Holidays THROUGH THE 1000 ISLANDS A picture of rare beauty and crystal clearness. 100 feet 16 m.m. Price $6.00 Reduction Printing is Our Specialty So Get Our Prices First. FADE-IN; FADE-OUT with the Simplex Fading Glass. Used on any camera, any time, anywhere. Sent postpaid upon receipt of $2.00 Produced by ERNEST M. REYNOLDS 165 E. 191st Street Cleveland, Ohio in a small city to almost empty seats during a winter blizzard. He sat in the third orchestra row with nobody nearer than the tenth, seeing the stage, as Ludwig of Bavaria saw Wagner's operas, in complete solitude so far as he was aware of others of the audience. That was a high spot in his playgoing because the identification with the action was almost perfect and he felt almost forced to intervene with apologies for being present in situations of dramatic intimacy. It was distinctly Dionysian — with the audience living in the play and becoming a part of it — and not Appolonian — with the audience as reflective and impersonal critics. Which is the higher aim of the theatre is not to be discussed here, but, by a combination of close-ups and sound, the talking movie can give a super-Dionysian quality to the spoken drama. One must keep a stern grip not to react too harrowingly to what goes on so close at hand. It is possible to eliminate those non-essentials of setting, proscenium arch, other characters silent for the moment, a halfvisible audience and the like which make us, at best, Appolonian outsiders when we view the legitimate stage. This may envisage a triumph for the Dionysian school. The abolition of time and space is, of course, an old tale for the silent drama. In stage technique it has heretofore been a dream and a hope toward which hundreds of experiments have aspired, such as the new stage settings of Gordon Craig, Norman Bel Geddes and the whole expressionistic school of play writing. In "Interference" we follow characters into houses and buildings, up stairways, to windows whence they call out and from which we see and hear the answer just as we should always have followed stage characters had this been possible. One rough place is left for later smoothing. The lowered curtain of the stage is still paralleled by the abrupt "cut" and a sound-movie equivalent of the dissolve is yet to be offered. We understand it is even now being perfected. Realizing seriously the possible effect of sound pictures of the "Interference" type upon the whole future of the spoken sjage and seeing the possibility of their eventually removing actors from public contact at all, making them studio artists completely — and we must, before condemning this as an absurdity, recall that all poets once were declaimers and not authors and were seen and heard in person and not through the medium of print — this reviewer presents the following artistic theorem, with full confidence that the future of the talking movie can defend it if producers will but give us as many intelligent plays as has the spoken stage: The "talkie," while not motion picture art, can be, with directors and actors of high quality-, a more intimate, a less limited and a more universal means of artistic expression than the spoken stage. Again we have to record another Paramount achievement. Our Dancing Daughters TT is astonishing how rapidly word ■*■ of a good motion picture travels, even if these occasions for movie telepathy unfortunately are infrequent. This is as true in a "town" the size of New York as in Pataskala, Ohio. No less than a dozen persons, most of whom never think to mention a photoplay, had advised us, in spite of its name, to see Metro-GoldwynMayer's "Our Dancing Daughters," assuring us comfortingly the title had nothing to do with the picture. We did, and can now join in broadcasting the good news that, even if it were billed as "Their Petulant Parents," the film would still be exceptional entertainment. Much of this exceptional entertainment, it must be admitted, is due to the delightful presence in the cast of Joan Crawford. In this photoplay she reveals herself as a sensitive artist, and as delightful a person to look upon as the screen can boast. The cast and acting throughout are above reproach. The direction of Harry Beaumont is exceedingly astute and indicates a degree of familiarity with the milieu of the picture, the haunts of smart Burlingame society, which is as refreshing as it is unusual. To this department of production and its allied forces must also be given the credit for the remarkable interiors in the modern manner, executed by Cedric Gibbons. Only in one other picture with which we are familiar, Paramount's "The Magnificent Flirt," has modern decoration been so seriously attempted, and it must be admitted that the Metro designer carries off the honors. We venture to say that nowhere in America has the spirit of modern decoration been more successfully expressed. There is a chasteness and simplicity of line in these settings which bring the modern very close to the classic. This is well illustrated by the beautiful archway pictured in the current "Critical Focusing" department. Also the choice of locations, a directorial task, has seldom been more effectively discharged. The scenes at Pebble Beach near Monterey (one is also illustrated in "Critical Focusing") are of memorable beauty.