Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1923 - Feb 1924)

28 Some Authors Speak Their Minds Some very interesting observations on motion pictures as they are and as they ought to be were made by various professional authors who attended the First International Congress of Motion Picture Arts which was sponsored by Adolph Zukor and held in New York under the auspices of the Authors' League of America early in June. Some of the authors were incensed at the treatment their stories had received, some nettled because their literary products had not been sought by the picture producers at all, and most of them took a pretty gloomy view of the hiatus between the producer's point of view and that of the author. Basil King, for instance, who wrote "The Dust Flower," is through with movies. The results of his endeavors for the Goldwyn company — both financial and artistic — were far from satisfactory to him. Other authors naively admitted that they thought they could go into the studios and learn the technique of building a screen story in a year or two, though it has taken Jack Cunningham, the adapter of "The Covered Wagon," and other highly intelligent authors years to begin to understand this new medium. On the whole, however, the meeting was illuminating and inspiring and probably gave a much better understanding of motion pictures to those authors who have been inclined to dismiss the industry as wholly lowbrow, money-mad and unprogressive. One author made the following interesting observation about the movies as an art. "Literature is an art which has been trying throughout the ages to make a business of itself. The picture industry is a business which is now beginning to think it might be an art." Art Versus Business a pi The most genuinely constructive re marks at this congress were made by for Screen Clayton Hamilton, who has long been J?hjcs one of the most discerning critics of the theater, and has in late years been identified with motion-picture production. He said, in part : "I think' the motion picture belittles itself when it merely concerns itself with such an individual matter as whether or not the hero will finally succeed in marrying the heroine, or whether or not the rich and vicious banker will finally succeed in his fell purpose of seducing the poor but virtuous stenographer. Those are individual matters. The drama can deal with those more efficiently, but the drama cannot cope with the motion picture when it comes to dealing with epic material. The finest and biggest and greatest motion picture I have seen in several seasons is a picture called 'The Covered Wagon,' and I think the greatness of this picture is inherent in that its sub.iect is big. When I saw that picture I did not care at all whether the heroine married the hero or not. I was not very much interested in the individual struggle between the hero and the villain, but I was intensely interested in whether the thousand or more peoole who started out in covered wagons from Kansas City to trek across the illimitable open country would finally succeed in getting to the Pacific coast and accomplish the winning of the West. That was a communal purpose, an epic purpose, an historical purpose. "The great moments in that picture, the real big moments, were when the whole wagon teams were swimming across the river. You lose sight of the individuals ; you do not know what becomes of the hero or heroine, or any other individual. You do not know which wagon they are in. You do not care. You want those wagons to get across the river. You want them to get to Oregon. You want the West to be won. You want the frontier of the United States to be pushed to the Pacific coast. "We still compare all subsequent motion pictures with that great picture which set the standard many years ago, 'The Birth of a Nation.' That also had an epic theme. Its great moments were epic moments. The drama cannot deal with those ; the theater is not large enough. The theater cannot show a wagon train swimming across a mile-wide river. The motion picture, however, does really do something that the theater cannot do, and that the novel and short story cannot do so vividly. "I think, then, that we should seek for material in epic and historical literature. There is plenty of it. There is plenty of it in the Public Library." Some Pet Projects Some of the motion pictures that Mr. Hamilton would like to see made are a film version of "The Odyssey," a picture dealing with the life of George Washington, and a picture culminating in General Wolfe's victory at Quebec. There must be hundreds of such stories as yet untouched by the film producers. Almost every one has some pet story in mind that he would like to see filmed. What are yours ? In a forthcoming issue The Observer will discuss some of the stories that have never been filmed and that correspondents would like to see. Ajj Absence That Was Felt It is to be regretted that Katherine Fullerton Gerould took no active part in this conference because, more than any other distinguished essayist in America, she has taken an intelligent interest in motion pictures and maintained an unyielding attitude toward them. Her articles in the most conservative journals in America have served, two splen-' did purposes ; they have called the attention of people whose interest in motion pictures was at best dilatory to the tremendous influence pictures wield over the great mass of the people, and they have flung a gauntlet of defiance down at the feet of producers. Goaded by such brilliant critics as Mrs. Gerould. _ the moviemakers may yet discard some of the glaring falsities of screen sermons and high-society dramas. One of the outstanding events of this congress was the announcement of an annual prize of ten thousand dollars to be awarded the author of the best story produced on the screen during the year. Adolph Zukor, the president of the Famous PlayersLasky corporation offers this prize. Mr. Zukor Offers a Prize