Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

January 1, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 23 Resume of 1926 in Pictures Brings Predictions for 1927 The Year Was Good, on the Whole — Writer Sees More “He-Men” Productions and Better Material for Comedy Features HIS is the time of the year the sapient trade editor (who has been too busy for a week or more thanking a generous trade for all his nice presents to write articles), grabs off the last year’s file and a handful of copy paper and presently achieves “The Year in Retrospect” or “Looking Backward.” That’s too easy. Anybody can tab up the facts and rehash them. Looking backward is like holding a post mortem on an inside straight. It’s a lot more fun to sit down and guess at what the new year is bringing, and its reasonably safe, since few will hold onto the copy to wave at you a year from now. By and large 1926 was a pretty good year, as years go, though it marked the passing from the stage of many brilliant minds. It has been a year full of change and progress. It witnessed the advent of a greater number of really big pictures than ever before were presented within an equal period of time. It showed a gradual improvement of the entire product, it saw the realization of the Paramount Theatre ; most sumptuous of all temples of the cinema, and for the first time in history a single motion picture drew one million dollars into a single theatre. It was easily one of the most prosperous periods in the history of the picture. Perhaps by this time next year we’ll be sorry we swapped a tried and true old friend for a then unknown 1927. But will we? That’s the question. Chain System Is Expected to Spread Probably 1927 will see the completion or near-completion of the policy of condensation that seems to have seized upon both the production and exhibition divisions of the business. The chain house movement ; which gained its greatest impetus in 1926 through the aggressive policies of the Publix system probably will be spread. Publix will take over more houses, Metro will add to its control, Universal will tack on a few more, and the independents will be merged into booking circuits if not more solidly welded chains. It’s going to be a fine haymaking year for Wall Street, but not so good for the inocent bystander who will be asked to take up the underwritings. There are going to be some mighty good “buys,” a lot more than are not so good, and the bulls are going to have their hoofs scorched and the bears will get singed fur along with the denuded lambs. There is going to be dangerous overinflation of values and it is going to take some pretty tall lieing to get rid of the stock issues that will be promulgated in 1927. Probably there will be some stock selling on the production end, as well, but here the By E p e s W, Sargent Don Dickerman, of Greenwich Village, New York, visits Hollywood and is photographed by Pathe, with Marguerite Rainsford, a Los Angeles debutante. outlook is brighter because the proposition is sounder. Production mergers should, and probably will, reduce production costs and certainly lessen distributing expense. If the proposition is carried far enough, it is going to be a lean year for a lot of film salesmen. There may be one or two more war plays in the offing, but it would not be surprising to find the fall product largely tinged by comedy and comedy drama. One of the outstanding products of the year undoubtedly will be De Mille’s “The King of Kings,” not because more than two million dollars will have been spent on its completion but because of the immensity of the subject. Even those who may deny the divinity of Christ admire the majesty of the character and one has only to recall De Mille’s fine work in “The Ten Commandments” to feel that the treatment will be in keeping with the theme. To replace the action possibilities of the war play, the probabilities are that other periods of American history will be touched upon as Paramount already has done with Old Ironsides. And most of these big productions will depend more upon the character players than the beautiful heroines and the handsome leading men. Love interests ever will be essential, but the character men are coming into their own more than ever in 1927. It will be a year of he-cussers, and starry eyed heroines and. white collar heroes will be merely “good program pictures.” They will not help much to run up the seven-figure records. From this distance it looks as though there would be fewer imported pictures to score. For one thing we have most of the big German directors and players on this side of the water, and for another the novelty has worn off. Audiences are realizing that not all imported pictures are necessarily stu pendous, and in the course of time it is probable that even the newspaper critics will come to realize that “U. F. A.” is not a German abbreviation for “Use no hooks.” If you don’t believe this, try and get a look at “Chained.” In the next twelve months it is probable that directors and authors will figure more importantly than the players in shaping the hits. The star system will endure, but the stars must share the honors with their directors, and the director who puts the play before the star: who aims at an evenly balanced cast with the story dominating the personalities of the players will find himself at the top of the heap when next December rolls around. He may not fully sell himself to the public in so short a time, but he is going to be known and recognized by those who hold the seats of power in the home offices. And even the patrons are coming to realize that a good play is not the glorification of a single personality. In the exhibition end the trend will be toward larger and better houses, toward better programs and more variety. This will, in its turn, bring the short lengths more prominently to the fore in the program houses. This will mean smarter comedies and greater care in production, more care to the continuity to gain the semblance of story and a lessening in the number of tworeelers that are merely a series of disjointed gags employing the same players. The initial National Laugh Month of 1926 helped somewhat to better this condition, but only in part. The real change comes from audience demand rather than outside influence. The patrons are coming more and more to require variety and something more than slapstick and funny walks. They no longer regard the fillers as something thrown in with the feature, and the feature is no longer the whole show. Sees Large Market For Original Scripts This is a condition that has been forming for the past two or three years, but it should come to a head in 1927 and the greatest general improvement in any one line of the business should be found in the comedy product. And 1927 probably will see a greater number of written-for-the-screen productions. There will be a brisk market for book and play rights, but probably at least half of the outstanding hits of the year will be done from original scripts. The past year has seen great progress made toward a direct screen literature and an accelerated forward movement is to be anticipated. Probably there will be the usual exhibitor conventions, which will take on some of the aspects of a G. A. R. meeting as they count the chain house converts and there may — mind you, may — come the uniform contract that stays put, but that is asking almost too much of any one year.