The Moving picture world (May 1924-June 1924)

June 14. 1924 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 661 the type and studies the display effect. Knowing that Pola Negri will sell more tickets than Shadows of Paris, the star name is given the greater prominence, and then the play title is given display through the use of a contrasting style of face. Put the title in the same face as the star name and both would be foully butchered. Set as they are, the light and heavy lines each gains a distinction from the other. It's a simple proposition, but you must watch the printer to see that he uses proper faces. And both of these lines might be booted were the house signature in black instead of outline, but the outline again helps the star name and is helped by it. The selling talk seems to be from Mr. Bottsford; a clever appeal to the effect that in this single play you get both the Negri of The Cheat and the Negri of The Spanish Dancer. The supporting cast is well played up to the left. A panel of two and twelve point is the only ornamentation. This is only SO lines by two, but it would take at least a hundred on three to get the same display with a cut. Think that over some time when you can get no cut. You use less space with all type and get the same amount of attention. Script Title Gets Little Attention Since you get "Mae Murray" at the first look, the title of the play is a secondary matter, but if anyone could be sold on "Madamoiselle Midnight," the sale would not be made through this advertisement for the Colonial Theatre, Indianapolis, since so few will probably see it. The rest of the Stay of Yankee Pep and Spanish Fire^S A Metro Release A POOR SCRIPT TITLE space is nicely lettered, particularly the selling talk, which is in a neat italic that is more emphatic than straight Roman and yet scarcely a boldface. The cast is less well handled in the lettered box. The same type would have been just as emphatic and leading out would have given apparent size, but probably this space sold through the star name and the cuts, both of which come out well. Twin Cuts Tell of Lilies of the Field The Princess Theatre, Bloomington, makes good use of one of the best plan book cuts for The Lilies of the Field. This is a two column cut, narrower than the space to permit the use of rule, and the newspaper retains the thirteen em column, but the cut A First National Release STORY TELLING CUTS fits nicely and only the close observer will notice the square side at the left hand of the bottom of the cut. Sometimes -the effect will be better if supplied cuts are left with irregular sides so that they may be worked in greater widths, if desired. The top half of the cut, with no square edge, can be set into the centre of a full page without looking out of place, but the square sided bottom will not look quite as well as one with the edges softened. But the cut itself is remarkably intelligent, for the entire story is told in the two poses. You do not have to use much imagination to note the contrast in the two loves. You can get the idea of the story without great mental effort, and it suggests a story that will interest. It is one of those cuts that will sell as well as attract. First National is doing excellent work in its art department, but this is above the average. « Too Much Selling May Lose Interest It would seem that there is too much selling talk to this space from the Beacham Theatre, Orlando, Fla., on The Enchanted Cottage. There is too much talk about too little to promise much of a play. There is more selling to that endorsement from A First National Release TOO TALKATIVE Barthelmess in the upper left hand corner than there is to the string of chatter on the right. Pinero gets only a single mention in eight point below Miss McAvoy's name, though he is among the foremost modern dramatists. On the other hand the cottage is played up like a rural real estate advertisement. Its nice, mushy press book stuff about "kisses sweet wafted through latticed windows on summer's perfumed breeze" and "Where rooms and halls echo to the soft tread of many lovers," but an emphatic statement of what the play is about would probably gain more interest and if short enough it could be run in three or four strong lines. There is not much to "The touching romance of a young man and a girl to whom fate had been unkind." There would be better selling in : "He was seamed and scarred from the field of battle. She was just a hopelessly homely girl, but in the Enchanted Cottage they saw anew with the eyes of love. A powerful play of today by England's foremost dramatist, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero." Too much to read is worse than too little, and this space is sadly over full. The cut placement and main lines are nicely laid, but those open spaces did not absolutely require filling in with eight point. Too much tal v suggests a fear that the play cannot be sold, and talk will defeat the object it aims at.