Screenland (Oct 1923-Mar 1924)

Says Frederick James Smith The Boxoffice Successes of 192.3 ■^HERE is plenty of food for thought in the nowavailable records of the motion picture dramas of 923 which scored in the box-offices. In other words, here are the money making screenplays of the year. Herewith we present relative records of two sources: Motion Picture News 1. The Covered Wagon 2. If Winter Comes 3. Little Old New York 4. Robin Hood 5. Enemies of Women 6. Merry-Go-Round 7. Circus Days 8. Rosita 9. The Spoilers The Film Year Book The Covered Wagon M erry Go-Round Robin Hood The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Green Goddess Scaramouche Safety Last Rosita Down to the Sea in Ships 10. (tied) Human Wreckage Little Old New York Safety Last Anna Christie Hunchback of Notre Dame The White Rose Scaramouche Ashes of Vengeance The Motion Picture News vote is based purely upon boxoffice reports. The Film Year Book list, on the other hand, is the result of a canvas of newspaper and motion picture publication reviewers throughout the country, some seventy voting on the chosen ten. You can take either list you like. But it is interesting to find at least a number of good screenplays among the box-office hits. Anna Christie, for instance, wouldn't have been among them even a yeai or so ago. Yes, the screen public is developing. And so are our exhibitors, praise be! Our Adventuring Filmers G> UR screen players are adventuring everywhere these days. From Africa to the South Seas, the motion picture camera is steadily grinding. The start of the production of General Lew Wallace's Ben Hur reminds us of the famous 1,000-foot production of the novel, which was made bv Kalem in 1907 and which caused a storm of litigation. Glancing through a file of The Show World, an amusement weekly of the day, we find this interesting advertisement of this first celluloid Ben-Hur: "Scenery and supers by Pain's Fireworks Company, Manhattan Beach, N. Y., Direction of Mr. Harry Temple, Costumes by Metropolitan Opera House, Chariot race by 3rd Battery, Brooklyn. Book by Gene Gautier. Produced under the direction of Frank Oaks Rose and Sidney Olcott. "16 magnificent scenes. Nickelodeons everywhere crowded with the magnificent pictures adopted from Ben-Hur." Bad Weather and the Big Moment '—nJ RNST LUBITSCH told us the other day that one of hA Ameiica's biggest distortions of fife on the screen is ' j its slur upon the Weather Bureau' No big emotional ■ ' — ^* crisis is .ever reached in a screenplay, he says, without the elements letting loose. It either pours torrents or a snow storm tears about the heroine's windows, uprooting trees and burying the landscape. Herr Lubitsch infers that our directors seem to think the heavens become as agitated as our stars— and with considerable more effect, probably. Still Herr Lubitsch isn't wholly pessimistic. The bad weather of the big moments, after all, is not such a vital defect. Our screen is broadening, he says. And he points, as well he may, to A Woman of Paris and Anna Christie as instances in point. He hopes his The Marriage Circle will be another. After all, these are actually the pioneer days of the silent drama. The films have just come to realize that there is no Santa Claus. The Exhibitor Expresses Himself PEAKING of exhibitors, reminds us of some choice comments from film showmen gathered by the film trade weekly, The Exhibitors' Herald, in the course of the past year. The publication piesents repoits from exhibitors upon the various screenplays they run and, naturally, some gems slip in. For instance, there's the exhibitor who reported on Where the Pavement Ends: "A fine picture of the South Seas, but absolutely no pavement." While another exhibitor wrote of the Pathe News: "I read somewhere that this reel ran for 52 weeks in New York. It must be good." Then there's the pessimistic showman who said of Out of Luck: "Pleased all who saw it. I even Jiked it." Or of Toll of the Sea: "Some of the Smart Alecs told me it was Madame Butterfly, but I knew that before." And there's the harassed exhibitor who wrote of Cupid's Brand: "I once read of an exhibitor who hid in the operating room when his show was off. I didn't dare take a chance on the operating room, so I beat it for the basement." Another Exhibitor Lament r y >€ ^sjHE same publication presents a letter from an annoyed exhibito rwho has just heard of the almost fabulous salaries earned by the screen's baby stars. Just before writing the letter the exhibitor discovered that a baby luminary, signed to receive $200,000 for four pictures, had learned the whole alphabet and could count all the way up to a hundred! This exhibitor, who hails from a small town in Nebraska, compares the $200,000 with the yearly remuneration given the president who "knows the whole alphabet, can count up to one hundred and fifty, and, in addition, can recite "Twinkle, Twinkle, little star" — and yet only receives $75,000. Maybe, there's something in the Nebraskan's lament. But, as we've intimated, the thing goes much further than the salaries of the players, a small item after all in the sum total of production waste. The cost of production must come down, the size of film rentals to exhibitors must decrease and the admission prices to the public must be within reason. The Nebraskan says the motion picture business needs to get a few miles away from Broadway. There's something in that! 17