The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

November 27, 1926 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 209 Who*s Who In "The Cheerful Fraud" The Star Reginald Denny WE have talked with Reginald Denny several times but when we wanted to interview him on his work in "The Cheerful Fraud" we found that he was already on location in Delmonte hard at work on a story of his own which will be his next picture. Knowing Denny, we can say that he is one of the most versatile stars in Hollywood. In the role of a comedian he has a unique advantage in that his physique, fine carriage and accomplishments give him a poise and appeal which make him more than a funster. Few of his pictures better illustrate this fact than "The Cheerful Fraud." Denny, in addition to being an amateur boxer and all-around athlete, has on his record prior to his enrollment an filmdom's constellation a hitch of service in the British Flying Corps and a period of time in musical comedy and light opera. In a message left for Moving Picture World, Denny lauds "The Cheerful Fraud" as "the best picture I ever worked an." He says : "I like 'The Cheerful Fraud' because it is a story about what could actually happen. My role is that of a real person and I do things that a real person would do under the circumstances. Thus, the more complicated the plot gets the more natural the characters in the story become. Back in Hollywood Among arrivals this week was Miss Beulah Livingston and Dr. and Mrs. Hugo Riesenfield. Miss Livingston, who is editorial supervisor for the Schenck organization, is here for several weeks, during which time she will look for screen material. Director William Setter RUNNING into William Seiter directly after we had previewed Reginald Denny's latest we congratulated him : "When you said during the last 'shooting' on 'The Cheerful Fraud' that you were completing your best picture and Denny finishing his funniest, you were absolutely right." A comedy with a high class crook angle and myriads of complications has to be closely knit otherwise it will confuse the him cutter and may turn out on the screen as a patchwork of incidents, Seiter pointed out. It was this point that brought more questions and the explanation of how continuity may be obtained in a comedy without an audience losing any of the laughs. "I make it my policy never to sacrifice story interest for the best of laughs," Seiter said. "I start out with the idea of graduating my laughs with the story. In other words I let the laughs develop the story. In that way, as you have seen in 'The Cheerful Fraud.' a comedy holds a double meaning for an audience. When you laugh the laugh holds some significance. When you don't laugh there is no slump in the action or no hole in the picture because you have the theme. Thus you can build up a climax of laughs. There is no picture which more practically demonstrates this belief than 'The Cheerful Fraud' be concluded." Honeymoon Ending Fred Hamlin, publicity director for Sam E. Rork Productions, just dropped into the World office to tell us that Doris Kenyon will be back here from her honeymoon with Milton Sills early next month. Cameraman Arthur Todd ARTHUR TODD is one of Reginald Denny's favorite cameramen. He has just finished work on "The Cheerful Fraud" and now is readjusting his camera for some of the first shots on Denny's next picture tentatively titled "Slow Down." In the two years or more Todd has been cranking away at Universal City it is confided to us that he never got more laughs while earning his pay than during the six weeks' production work on "The Cheerful Fraud." Todd is a great admirer of Denny. He is frank to say that this star is one of the most accomplished he has ever filmed. He also has a word for Bill Seiter, who directed "The Cheerful Fraud," which carries with it especially an expression of admiration for that director's knowledge of camera technique. In photographing "The Cheerful Fraud" much time and footage was saved by Seiter's perspective and insistance on filming from as few angles as possible. Todd reiterates what this director has already told us that the fewer the angles the easier it is for the cutting man and the better the chances are for a preservation of continuity after the picture has come from the cutting room. Todd observes that in few Denny pictures has he had to transport his camera so infrenuentlv as in the making of "The Cheerful Fraud" for Denny. Buy WorM RIerhts John McCormick announces as general manager of West Coast Productions for First National that his comnany has purchased the World film rights to Egerton Castle's "The Light of Scharty." Th e Ex t r a Jack Francis THE motion picture industry would be the most modest and unassuming industry in the world if everyone in it or associated with it were like Jack Francis. It took us more time to get Francis' photo for this column than it did to see "The Cheerful Fraud," talk to everyone else who helped make it, and write the copy. Francis plays a butler role in this Reginald Denny special. Accidentally bumping into him at the Universal City bar where soft drinks are necessarily dispensed we commenced quite customarily : "Well, what do you think of the picture and how did you like your part?" Francis, who was in the midst of a frothy root-beer, looked at us in frank disgust. "Why," he commenced, "I've been playing butler roles for Carl Laemmle for seven years if it is a day." Old "Pop" Lubin of the Pennsylvania days in filmdom is blamed by Francis for luring him away from the vaudeville stage where he had already stepped before the lights for fifteen years. "Yes, I'm an old timer," he remarked. "If I hadn't gone with Lubin as his 'Foxy Grandpa' I'd probably still be making the rounds," he laughed quietly. Hollywood "Variety" The Heinz Company, of bean and pickle fame, believes in showing the film industry's production center that it too knows something about exploitation. On one of the many mountain side? around here white numerals "57" appear almost a mile in length. Denny's Funniest — Seiter's Best