The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

18 ■THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY The Smalleys Turn Out Masterpieces Lois Weber, greatest woman director, in her workroom. HE caption "Produced by the Smalleys" is coming to have as deep a significance on a film, as "Produced by David Belasco" on a play. Some of the finest feature films which the screen has known have been the work of this talented couple, who call Universal City their home. Phillips Smalley is the son of George W. Smalley the world famous newspaper correspondent; and Lois Weber, his wife, besices being a professional musician and an actress of high rank, is known by the title "Greatest woman-director in the world." A long string of film classics stands to their credit. "Hypocrites," the picture play which was recently revived at the Strand Theatre on Broadway in response to thousands of requests, made a furore when it first appeared and served to put the Smalley name on the screen map. "Scandal" was another famous production, and "Jewel," one of the most appealing of all film stories, is another picture which lingers in the memory of all who saw it. The Smalleys directed Anna Pavlowa, the Incomparable, in her film debut in "The Dumb Girl of Portici," one of the biggest things ever undertaken on the screen. "Where Are My Children?" the picture which ran for weeks to crowded houses in a Broadway theatre, is another of the Smalley masterpieces. But ,^ they are not remembered for their longer pic tures alone. A gem was "There's No Place Like Home," a one-reel pearl and their two-reel picture "A Cigarette— That's All," was one of the most perfect bits of screen technique which the picture-art has known. When the Bluebird organization was formed, the best available material was engaged to produce and act the pictui-es released by this company. It stands to reason that "the best available material" must include the Smalleys, and so we find them producing for Bluebird. Their first picture was "Hop, the Devil's Brew," in which they themselves assumed the leading roles, that of a United States Customs Inspector and his wife. This picture was written by Rufus Steele, who secured permission from the Treasury Department to use the real inspectors during their visit to the steamship "Manchuria" in search of smuggled opium. Their next production for Bluebird was a screen version of Booth Tarkington's story "The Flirt," in which Marie Walcamp was featured. Then came two pictures with the eminent American actor Tyrone Power playing the lead. One was "John Needham's Double," in which the directors handled the art of double exposure as it had never been handled before; and the succeeding one, "The Eye of God," in which Lois Weber played opposite Mr. Power. After these, came the sensational discovery of Mary Mac Laren, the wonderful emotional actress, whom Lois Weber picked out of a group of extras and cast as the star of that masterpiece, "Shoes." Two other releases in which the new actress was featured fallowed the tremendous success of this picture. They were "Saving the Family Name," in which Mr. Smalley took the male lead, and "Wanted — A Home," which he directed without the co-operation of his wife. Since the production of these, Mrs. Smalley has been at work on a screen version of the Stielow case, while Mr. Smalley has been producing five-reel features with his own company. "Idle Wives," the picture which has had the widest popularity as a State Rights feature, has done much to increase the ever growing reputation of this great team. In all the Smalley productions there is an element of novelty, and this one is no exception to the rule. It is a film play within a film-play, and there are no less than four distinct stories running at the same time. Yet so masterly is the direction that the theme is never for a moment confused. There is a prologue which introduces us to various characters, who, by a combination of circumstances, all visit the same picture playhouse, where the feature "Life's Mirror" is running. There is the husband and wife, who are rapidly losing interest in each other, and growing apart. He leaves her to visit another woman. They decide to take a walk and enter the theatre where the picture is being played, attracted by the posters outside. Another group *s a tenement house family, who are getting on each other's nerves, irritated by the high cost of living, ana the barrenness of their lives. The young daughter envies the girl who lives across the hall and whom she sees going out with a young man. A quarrel is averted when the children beg their father to take them all to the movies. The girl across the hall also ends at the theatre. She lives with her mother, and there is no harm in her whatever, but she has formed a friendship with a boy whom her mother does not trust. She defies all warnings and insists upon going out with him. In the meantime the deserted wife has also decided to go out. She sees her husband entering the theatre with the other woman, and follows them. So all these distinct personalities, with their conflicting problems, are gathered for the same purpose. By constant cutbacks, during the course of the photoplay we watch their emotions, and the effect of the picture upon them.