We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
PHOTOPLAYFARE
Reviews for the Cintelligenzta
Seventh Heaven
FOX, in presenting John Golden's stage success Seventh Heaven, has afforded us an interesting comparison between the stage and the present day photoplay. Although the director (Frank Borzag) has used but little that is truly cinematic in his presentation, he has surpassed the play in entertainment value. This is due not only to his work, and the excellent acting of Janet Gaynor as Diane, but to the one truly cinematic quality recognized by every one, the mobility of the camera.
It is this that allows us to see that "remarcable fellow" Chico (Charles Farrell) at work in the dim sewer, while above Diane is mistreated by her brutal sister. Then, in an unusual shot, Chico sees her thrown across the sewer's grating, and climbs out into the bright street above to
rescue her. This contrast in lighting values would have been more cinematic had the street been better lit. As it is it is superior to the single "long shot" of the stage.
After the rescue he takes her to his home, Seventh Heaven. Here is a scene that has been highly praised. The camera follows the two up seven flights of stairs to his door, as if we could see through the wall. But it is doubtful if this adds to the production, for its length and startling nature take from our interest in the action. Of course an advance in technique may do this legitimately, as did the angles in Variety, but this was only a stunt shot.
A scene in a later sequence shows the advantage of the mobile camera most clearly. Diane enters by the window to show Chico her wedding dress. The position of the camera
Photograph by Fox
AN ELEVATOR TO SEVENTH HEAVEN This Is the Elaborate Equipment Required to Film the Staircase Scenes
Photograph by Fox WHAT THE ELEVATORCAMERA SAW in Seventh Heaven
adds much to the effectiveness of the action. Yet only one theatre lover could have had this view, and his chair would have had to be somewhat below and on the stage side of the footlights.
Soon war separates the two. We see an excellent shot of soldiers marching far below in the street. Then a wonderful piece of acting and direction in Diane's nerving Chico to report for duty, their symbolic marriage, and his departure. Battle scenes follow, with the taxicab dash to the Marne and the death of Eloise for her country — though she was only Papa Boule's antiquated cab.
The reunion of the lovers ends a film that is excellent entertainment, and shows much care and thought. Yet we can wish that it had not been largely a photograph of the play. For example, cinematic opportunity was missed in the thought communication between Diane, in Paris, with Chico at the front. This might have been handled by visualizing their thoughts, as only the cinema can, but surely not by flashes from one to the other interspersed by titles which break up the feeling of the scene. Then there were other places where unusual lighting effects or close ups of small actions and emotionally connected objects would have heightened the effect. This would have been approaching the truly cinematic, and increasing the audience appeal at the some time.
That the audience does want its photoplays more cinematic is shown by the rapidity with which innovations are absorbed into the standard technique. Where this advance will (Continued on page 186)
O n e-hundred-sixty