Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1916)

January 8, 1916 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 231 Triangle's Patriotic Play "The Flying Torpedo" Is Said to Be a Sensation— A Fine Arts Production. HE FLYING TORPEDO," a war story of the year 1921, has been shipped East and will soon be disclosed at the Knickerbocker theater, with general ii'Y^ release a few weeks later. The Triangle-Fine Arts, in making this war play, preferred to pack the material in five reels Scene from "The Flying Torpedo" (Fine Arts). instead of extending it a la the familiar type of military serial or of a long-reeler taking up an entire evening. The motif of an impending foreign invasion of the United States controls the action of the piece. In response to an appeal of the National Defense Board, an old inventor (Spottiswoode Aitken), perfects an aerial torpedo controllable by wireless mechanism. A band of international outlaws who sell their booty to foreign governments steal the plans and the torpedo boat itself and murder the inventor. Prior to his death he has made one duplicate of the mechanism. Winthrop Clavering, chemist, detective and Conan Doyle type of novelist (John Emerson), enters the action vigorously at this point. Aided by a clever servant girl (Bessie Love), his tracing of clues brings him finally to the crooks' den, whither the police are summoned and the robbers and their spoil are taken. Clavering and Haverman (W. E. Lawrence) start the manufacture of the torpedo. An army of yellow men from the Far East invade the West Coast. The deadly swarm of novel missiles annihilate most of the enemy, and those that are not killed are driven back ignominiously to their ships, thus removing forever the threat of foreign invasion of these shores. The exciting war scenes of "The Flying Torpedo" were directed under D. W. Griffith's supervision by W. Christy Cabanne, whilst the earlier scenes were staged by Jack O'Brien. Besides Mr. Emerson, the star, and those already mentioned, the cast includes Ralph Lewis, Fred J. Botler, Raymond Wells, Viola Barry and Lucille Younge. The working title of the story was "The Scarlet Band," changed to "The Flying Torpedo" recently. A notable characteristic, lifting it out of the class of ordinary war-plot dramas, is the strong vein of comedy that runs through it. CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM FAR AWAY. The Moving Picture World has received a seasonal message from far-away Cape Town, South Africa. Mailed on November 18 it reached New York on December 31. It is from Joe Fisher, proprietor of the Grand theater, of that city. There is a splendid photograph of the big community at the foot of Table Mountain, with the pier in the foreground. Mr. Fisher was a visitor to the convention and exposition held in the Grand Central Palace in New York in 1914, and made many friends among his fellow-exhibitors and among film men and screen players. While here he appeared in an impromptu story staged at the Edison studio. Mr. Fisher carried back home with him the film, which showed him surrounded by the Edison stars. The Moving Picture World reciprocates the good wishes of Mr. Fisher. It hopes that he will enjoy a full measure of happiness and prosperity during the year that is to come. World Film's Tropical Annex Selznick Says He Is Going to Build a Studio in Cuba — Thinks It the Best Location. WITH the announcement of the departure at an early date of Clara Kimball Young and company for Cuba comes the news that Lewis J. Selznick, vice-president and general manager of the World Film Corporation, has completed plans for the establishment in that island of a great studio and picture plant to be known as the World Film's tropical annex. Negotiations have been closed for the long lease of large sections of land near Santiago and the Dykeri mine district. The property includes long stretches of sea coast, many acres of dense jungle and cane fields and every possible variety of tropical settings. The sea coast included in the World Film holdings, ranges from fiat sandy beaches to clififs of the most rugged and massive character. At points along the sea front the full force of the Atlantic sweeps in majestically in great rollers of green and white, while at other points are quiet lagoons of still water many feet deep, but so translucent as to permit the taking of motion pictures from above, in which the figures of divers and submerged wrecks can plainly be seen. "We secured the lease to the Cuban property at a remarkably low figure," said Mr. Selznick, "and the architectural plans for the studio and living quarters for the company and working force have been passed upon. The work of construction will begin this month. It is our purpose to use the Cuban studio for many of our winter productions. It will be large enough to accommodate at least three companies at a time. On our property are locations available for almost every sort of scenic environment, from mountains to sandy beaches." A Pertinent Question By Theodore W-iiarton. ONE of the most unhappy situations in the motion picture world today, which militates against the making of many a beautiful picture, is the relation of the theater to the children in its community and to the law as regards them. I am not the only director in the business who has looked with high appreciation upon the possibilities in the field of pictures solely for children; and Wharton Incorporated is not the only producing company that has tried to solve the existin,g condition in a way that would allow of the presentation of pictures that would draw and interest and instruct and delight little patrons. But the fact that state laws here, there and nearly everywhere, prohibit the attendance of children unescorted by elders, has led to such a problem for the exhibitors themselves, in discriminating between children of proper age and those who have not arrived at that age, that the exhibitors cannot be blamed for wishing to do away with the whole matter by refusing to show pictures for children at all. There is no field more attractive than that of child-life; there is none as yet so nearly untouched; and the reason stated above is the true one. The recently started movement on the part of certain very good people of fine ideals and high intent to secure "better pictures for children" has the sympathy of The Whartons and probably of practically every other producer in America. We would all be working for better pictures for children, if the condition described did not stand like a stone wall in our way. If our friends outside the profession could find a gate for us in that wall, they would discover that we are quite sincere in our desire to promote the very end for which they are striving and talking. It would seem feasible that matinees could be given for children weekly in thousands of theaters all over the country, and that such a thorough understanding of the law and the difficulties it creates for the local exhibitors could be so made known to local patrons that the problem of the unattended child could be eliminated, and so make a way for child-pictures to come into their own. No one in the business of making films to delight the hearts of America's picture-lovers is any keener than my brother and I to use the wonderful material in child-life or to give to American children the joyous entertainments of picturedom. Wharton Incorporated has undertaken some pictures of the sort and will doubtless undertake more; with the hope that we shall help the campaign along. But it needs the intelligent cooperation of all agencies concerned to bring about the right result. I, for one, would like to see a discussion along this line, with a free expression of opinion from as many men, in the business and out of it, as could be given space — not to neglect the women — who should have a word — and who will have the last word, anyway, on this subject perhaps most properly of all.