Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1917)

1462 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD June 2, 1917 fusion, the brand of humor expected from this grade of moving picture. "Back Stage" is a lively burlesque on the doings back of the curtain during a performance at a vaudeville theater. Billy West appears as a busy but uncommonly bunglingproperty man, the rest of the cast representing the different turns on the program. "The Hero" discloses West as an ambitious waiter in a tough drinking place who manages to break into society after he has risked his life in assisting a charming young lady. "Doughnuts" is, perhaps, the best of the three farces. It shows the salesroom and workshop of a fancy bakery. West, in his familiar Chaplin imitation, is employed as a baker, and turns the establishment upside down so often that the spectator becomes dizzy from watching him. The trio of King-Bees are produced with all necessary details, and go with biff and bang throughout the two reels. Babe Hardy, Leo White, Budd. Ross, Ethel Burton, Florence McLaughlin and Joe Cohan are members of the dependable support. Arvid E. Gillstrom was the director. MISS TALIAFERRO RETURNS TO SCREEN. Mabel Taliaferro, screen and stage star, has returned from Boston, where she starred in Hall Caine's play, "The Woman Thou Gavest Me," and has resumed work at the Metro Rolfe studio. The first of a series of new plays purchased for this popular star is "The Will O' the Wisp," a delightful story of Ireland today. It was written by Katherine Kavanagh and will be directed by Tod Browning, who recently came east from the Fine Arts studio to become a Metro director. Miss Taliaferro will play the role of Sheila Desmond, an Irish lassie, the daughter of Magistrate Anthony Desmond, landlord of an impoverished estate. Her beauty attracts rich and poor from all parts of the Emerald Isle, who fight for her hand in marriage. The part is a very difficult one and affords Miss Taliaferro an excellent opportunity to display her acting ability. In support of Miss Taliaferro appears a cast of well-known artists. The role of Neil Dacey falls to Thomas J. Carrigan, who finds in it a part well suited to his art. The scenes, laid in the Ireland of today, are extremely beautiful. BLOW UP VILLAGE FOR BARRYMORE PICTURE. An entire village was recently blown up "somewhere on Long Island." It was not a gunpowder explosion, nor was it ' a German bomb that destroyed the thirty houses that went up in smoke. The village was erected in one week by Edward J. Shulter, technical director of the Metro-Rolfe studio. The scene will be one of the greatest ever screened and will be shown in the next Metro feature in which Ethel Barrymore will star. "The Greatest Power" is a story that calls for exceptional work on the part of the technical director, and Mr. Shulter spent many days finding a suitable location for the village that was destroyed by a mighty explosion. The buildings, thirty in number, among which is a church, required one week to construct. Mr. Shulter mobilized his forces for the task, rushed the work to completion, and then stood quietly by and watched the fruits of his labors blown to atoms. BRITISH MISSION FEATURE OF MUTUAL WEEKLY. Naturally the visit of Mr. Balfour and the British Mission to New York becomes the leading feature of the current issue of Gaumont's Mutual Weekly. However, the distinguished members of the French Mission were still being entertained, and their pictures also appear to advantage in this issue. Mr. Balfour and his party were caught by Gaumont cameramen to great advantage, the pictures showing exactly the hearty welcome extended our allies by America's greatest city. The various ceremonies at which Marshal Joffre and Minister Viviani were the central figures form an important section of this reel. The pictures range from the presentation of a miniature Statue of Liberty to the Marshal of France before 60,000 people in Central Park and his unveiling of a statue of Lafayette in Brooklyn to the conferring of degrees upon the distinguished visitors at Columbia. THREE "PUNCHES" FOR BRENON SUBJECT. While most melodramas, both stage and screen varieties, depend for their success upon one big "punch" scene, Herbert Brenon's production of "The Lone Wolf" for Selznick-Pictures contains three big incidents, any one of which would be sufficient to establish the piece as a supreme thriller. The first of these is the burning of Troyon's, a Paris hotel. This, in the story, is done by a gang of criminals to conceal a murder which they have committed. The next sensational episode is the automobile chase through the streets of Paris. The hero and his' sweetheart, in a light roadster, are pursued by Apaches in a powerful touring car, and they speed through the city without regard for the police. The concluding incident is a fight in the air, in which three aeroplanes take part. Great difficulty was experienced in geting this part of the picture made, owing to the stringent government regulations governing aeroplane flights. MISS TALMADGE FINISHES "POPPY." Norma Talmadge in "Poppy," an adaptation of Cynthia Stockley's charming novel of South African life, is the next Selznick-Pictures release. Director Edward Jose has finished cutting and assembling the picture and it will be shown for review this week. Joseph M. Schenck, president of the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, Mr. Selznick and all his executive staff attended a private showing of "Poppy" last week and all enthusiastically pronounced it by far the finest production in which Miss Talmadge has yet appeared. The central role affords the talented' young star an extraordinary chance to display the versatility that has made her famous, a gift that enables her to make the transition from childhood to maturity with remarkable ease. LASKY STUDIO HAS DEPARTMENT OF PRODUCTIONS. The increased activities at the Lasky studio in Hollywood have necessitated the creation of the "department of productions." Fred Cley, business manager of the studio, is to have supervision. It will be Mr. Cley's duty to supervise all matters pertaining to the different productions and directors after the scenario has been passed upon. This arrangement will have the incidental effect of abolishing the continuity department as such. The new plan calls for two continuity writers to be assigned to each director, the three working in collaboration to construct the continuity as it seems most advisable from the technical and directorial viewpoint. "CURRENT EVENTS" TAKES HOLD ON PUBLIC. A new record for booking has been established for a singlereel release on its first showing by the new Universal special feature, Current Events. This interesting reel of latest happenings of importance in the world made its first appearance on May 14, and twenty-eight of the leading theaters in New York showed it on first run. All the big motion picture houses on Broadway from Fortysecond to One Hundred and Tenth street ran Current Events from two days to a week. The Rialto theater played it a solid week, and Manager Rothapfel was enthusiastic in his praise of the timeliness of the subjects presented in the reel. CAPTAIN PEACOCKE RETURNS TO SCREEN. Captain Leslie T. Peacocke, widely known as a short story writer, scenario editor, poet, actor and screen star, will return to the screen in support of Jackie Saunders in her latest production for Mutual entitled "Betty Be Good." Captain Peacocke will appear as Jackie's millionaire father. Captain Peacocke has more than two hundred short stories to his credit and is the author of more than four hundred original photoplays and forty adaptations. He is the author of "Sunshine and Gold," one of the Jackie Saunders features which will shorty be released through Mutual. TOURNEUR TO DIRECT ELSIE FERGUSON. Elsie Ferguson arrived in New York last Thursday following the conclusion of "Shirley Kay," one of the season's most successful theatrical offerings, and will commence her motion picture activities for Artcraft Pictures . within a few days. Simultaneous with her arrival it was announced by Artcraft that Miss Ferguson's first picture, "Barbary Sheep," by Robert Hitchen, will be staged under the direction of Maurice Tourneur, producer of the Mary Pickford pictures, "A Poor Little Rich Girl" and "The Pride of the Clan," as -well as various other recent film successes. EXHIBITORS REPEATING ON ARBUCKLE. The increased business on Paramount Arbuckle Comedies placed with the William L. Sherry Feature Film Company as soon as the first picture, "The Butcher Boy," had been exhibited a few days was taken as an indication that the picture was going extremely well in the houses where it was being shown. The word of the exhibitors who had played the picture strengthened this indication. When rebookings on the same picture began to come in, however, it was definitely and indisputably certain that Arbuckle was a winner with the public and that his first picture had the "punch." PARAMOUNT SHOWS "THE KEY TO BEAUTY." The subject called "The Key to Beauty," forming part of the sixty-ninth release of Paramount-Bray Pictographs, is sure to find favor among the gentler sex, for it is an exposition of the methods adopted by some of our famous stage beauties in preserving and developing their charms — and these methods can, if milady is ambitious, be used by her in her boudoir to her great advantage. Illustrative of Pathe's clean pictures policy is the March and April Bulletin of the National Juvenile Motion Picture Board. Out of a list of sixty pictures suitable for children, there are twenty-eight from the Pathe program.