The Moving Picture Weekly (1917-1918)

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12 THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY Important News: No. 208 Straight from the Shoulder Talk by Carl Laemmle, President of the Universal Film Mfg. Co. 0' IN the tenth of June the Universal will start releasing two-reel Western and Railroad Dramas at the rate of one every week. This will be good news for the many exhibitors who have urged us ' to resume making two-reelers; and it is important news to every man in the exhibition business, whether he has asked us to make them or not. The two-reelers that we intend to release are selected gems. They will contain the punch, the story, the direction and the settings that you expect in great big productions five reels or more in length. The only difference will be that about five reels of GOOD STUFF will be packed into two. Without the shadow of a doubt the picture public is being five-reeled to death. As I have said time after time, many of the long features now on the market are not to be compared with high-class two or three-reelers when it comes right down to the question of ENTERTAINING the public and not boring them to extinction. Fortunately, enough exhibitors are now awake to the fact that A TWOREELER IS JUST AS MUCH A FEATURE AS A FIVE-REELER if it contains the goods and is properly advertised by the exhibitor. There wsis a time when the exhibitor paid his money according to the LENGTH of the film he got. When that time came, the Universal quit making two-reelers — because they cost more to make in proportion to their length than the average iive-reel picture does. But we are now assured by huge stacks of letters from exhibitors that they want more variety in their programs; they want to snap up their shows; and the only thing that will do the snapping up is a series of two-reelers OF A QUALITY BETTER THAN WAS EVER ATTEMPTED BEFORE IN SHORT PICTURES. We'll be ready to shoot on June 10. Get in touch with the nearest Universal exchange NOW and make arrangements to do all future booking in a way that will leave room for THE BEST TWO-REEL DRAMAS THAT EVER CAME OUT OF A STUDIO.