Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

CAMERA! "The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry' Page Five EXCELLENCE UNEXCELLED! Wyndham Standing, famous actor of stage and screen, has just arrived in Los Angeles from a visit of two years and four months in Europe. During this sojourn. Standing made three trips through Europe. The countries he visited inchide England, France, Belgium, Italy, Holland and Ireland. Standing was starred in a number of pictures produced by the Hollandia Film Company of Holland. One of his most successful productions was "Hypocrites," adapted from the stage play which was produced from the story by Sir Henry Arthur Jones at the Hudson Theatre in New York. Other productions made in Holland include, "The Lion's Mouse" and "This Freedom." Mr. Standing, on his return to New York made two productions in which he was starred by the Syracuse Motion Picture Company. These productions were "The Isle of Doubt" and "The Inner Man." Mr. Standing says, "I am more than over convinced (hat Southern California in general, and Los Angeles and Hollywood in particular are the only places in the world to make successful motion pictures. The difficulties of picture-making that I found in Europe were almost insurmountable. The climate in England is such that only six months of the year is at all suitable for ihe shooting of exteriors. "I find that in Italy motion pictures have attained a much higher degree of i)erfection in the making than in any other country in Europe. The climate of southern Italy might be compared with that of Southern California, as the sunshine prevails during the greater part of the year." Mr. Standing concludes by saying, "Motion picture actors in England are nearly all recruited from the stage and consequently are filled with the tradition of the stage. This makes the transposition cf their talent to the silent drama a feat of no small importance. "Two of my European directors, Oscar Apfel and Charles Giblyn, said they would ;.:ladly give any of their worldly possessions to get back to Southern California and its wonderful climate." Mr. Standing's latest local release was "Sniilin' Through," in which he played the leading masculine role opposite Norma Talmadge. This production was named as one of the finest productions in the best ten of last year. On Standing's arrival in Los Angeles Wednesday, he was immediately signed by the Robertson-Cole forces in Hollywood to play the leading masculine role in "Daytime Wives," which is to be produced under the direction of Emil Chautard, and will include an all-star cast. Incidentally, Mr. Standing worked with Chautard about five years ago in New York when Standing was playing opposite Pauline Frederick. IMPORTING BRAINS b, donald h. clarr There isn't any tariff on brains. Chances are that if there were any way of putting one on, this country wouldn't do it. Anyhow, consider recent developments in the motion picture business, brought to mind by the announcement recently that Victor Seastrom, the outstanding figure of the Scandinavian film world, had signed a contract with Goldwyn to make his artistic pictures in America. Ernest Lubitsch is in California now preparing to make his exclusive brand of silent drama for Mary Pickford. Pola Negri, the Polish actress, whose latest appearance on the silver-sheet in this country, is in "Mad Love," also is in California going through the proper motions before the camera. The motion picture producers — Goldwyn with Seastrom, Famous Players with Pola Negri, Charles de Rochefort and Mary Picklord with Ernest Lubitsch and Svend Gade; D. W. Griffith with Ivor Novello — appear to have solved the tariff riddle, so far as their particular business enterprise is concerned. There may be a tax on foreign-made pictures, but there's none on foreign-born players and directors. So they're importing the taxless articles. It appears that the American motion picture producers are not only set upon continuing to produce the most popular films in the world, but also that they are not .satisfied until they are assured no other country surpasses them. The cry for some time has been against the "commercial picture." Critics have pointed out that the screen productions made abroad, particularly by Seastrom in Sweden and Lubitsch in Germany, liave been far ahead of those made in this country in their ideals and aspirations. In his room in the Hotel Plaza in New York, Seastrom, a great, energetic offspring of the seaharriers of old, with the frame of a Viking, the face of a scholar, and the driving force of an empire builder, said: "When I made this trip to your country I did not think I would stay, I had beard about 'commercial' motion pictures. I came because Mr. Godsol, president of the Goldwyn company, who had seen one of my pictures, had approached me through the cables and his personal representative. I thought I would return to Sweden soon. My INCOGNITO This is not Pancho Villa — but Director Edwin Carewe, showing his First National company appearing in "The Girl of the Golden West" how it should be done. The company is now on location in northern California. wife, Edith Erastoff, who is playing the leading feminine role in 'Loyalties' in Stockholm, thought, as I did, that I would only be absent for a few weeks. But now it is different. She is coming to join me as soon as her engagement ends in the spring — with our two children. I was surprised by the broadness of vision with which I was received. I have only to turn out the best pictures of which I am capable. "I love the United States. Coming, as I did, from a little country to this big one I was rather fearful. But I have found that my fears were groundless." Meanwhile, the great actor-director is going to theatres studying our stage folk, just as he is studying our literature for material for his first American-made picture. BULL MONTANA LAMENTS! Prom Truckee, where the snow is fifteen feet deep and the thermometer persists in staying well below the zero mark, comes ihe following brief, but nevertheless sincere epistle from Bull Montana: "Am h('i(> and am glad to come back. My cauliDower ears is froze. —Bull." Hunt St lonibcig promises some highly original comedy sequences in "An Eskimo Si)y," which is the working title of the subject to cause Bull so much worry. CAMERA! MOVES INTO NEW OFFICES The business and editorial offices of Camera! have been moved to the second floor of the W. P. Fuller Building, 6318 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood. The new telephone number is 439-869. This is the first time the headquarters of Camera! have been moved since the magazine's founding in 1918, the offices having always been up to this time at 4513 Sunset Boulevard. However, the demand for more spacious and more up-to-date quarters, necessitated by the increase in business, made the move Imperative.