Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr-Sep 1918)

Page Sixteen NORMA TALMADGE PRESENTS AN AMERICAN GIRL IDEAL. Portrays Wholesome Type in her Latest Select, ‘‘Her Only Way.’’ One of the truest types of the real American girl ever shown on the screen is portrayed by Norma Talmadge in her latest Select production, ‘‘Her Only Way,’’ in which she is presented by Joseph M. Schenck. For the first time during her long career in motion pictures Miss Talmadge has a role which calls for a faithful delineation of the true American girl from the average American town. There are no furs or frills in the pleture; nothing but honest unaffected portrayal of an American girl of sterling worth and irreproachable character. In many of Miss Talmadge’s other roles on the sereen she has depicted parts familiar to metropolitan life. In ‘«The Safety Curtain’’ she was a music hall dancer, in ‘‘Ghosts of Yesterday,’’ she was a cabaret singer and performer, while in ‘‘De Luxe Annie,’’ she plays the part of a refined crook. Again, in ‘‘By Right of Purchase,’’ Miss Talmadge was u fashionable society girl, but in ‘‘Her Only Way’’ she is just a simple, sweet ward of a fairly well-to-do family in an average sized American city. ALICE BRADY’S DANCING CAUSES SENSATION. Performance in ‘‘The Death Dance’’ a Remarkable Exhibition of Virtuosity. Not since the days of Carmencita has a danecr charmed her audiences as will Alice Brady in her latest Select Picture, ‘“‘The Death Danee,’’ which is now being given first run showings in the larger cities of the country. While this statement will undoubtedly cause a distinet sensation among those who have never connected Miss Brady with professional dancing, her performance of a Gifficnlt Spanish dance during certain scenes of ‘‘The Death Dance”’’ is certain to call forth unlimited praise for the feat which this versatile actress has accomplished. The plot of Miss Brady’s latest picture hinges about a dance which a Spanish dancer performs in a Broadway cafe. Damia, the character which Miss Brady portrays, is that of a famous dancer who is dining in the cafe. Her former lover is one of the entertainers, and as he enters into the rhythmic motion of a dance which they formerly executed together, the young girl jumps from her table and rushes into his arms. Together they whirl rapidly from one set to another until her partner whips a knife from the folds of his blouse and is about to plunge it into her heart when he is restrained. When Miss Brady and her director J. Searle Dawley, first read the script of the photoplay, Mr. Dawley advised Miss Brady to allow a professional dan Digitized by Go \ STORIES OF THE PLAYS AND PLAYER cer to double for her. But, characteristic of her enthusiastic professional spirit, versatile Miss Brady refused to listen to any such proposal. She declared that she would either be allowed to play the entire part, including the difficult dancing scenes, or she would not appear in any of the picture. CARMEL MYERS \Diuebird Ste OMT CCT O. HENRY FOR SEPTEMBER. Pleasing Short Length Broadway Star Features Include ‘‘ Transients in Arcadia’’ and ‘‘Tobin’s Palm.’’ As a fitting celebration of the fififtyfifth anniversary of O. Henry’s birthday in September, General Film will release two of this author’s most intense. ly amusing satires upon human nature. The subjects are ‘‘Transients in Areadia’’ and ‘‘‘Tobin’s Palm.’’ Both stories have a New York atmosphere. The former is located in a fine, dignified old down-town hotel, believed by O. Henry experts to have been the Astor House. The other story, ‘‘Tobin’s Palm,’’ has a setting partly at Coney Island and partly in the Chelsea and Greenwich village sections of the city. These two-part releases, ‘‘ Transients in Areadia,’’ Sept. 14, and ‘‘Tobin’s Palm,’’ September 28, are expected to be worthy successors to the recent O. Henry bookings at Rivoli, New York. They alternate as Broadway Star Feature releases with the Wolfville Tales by Alfred Henry Lewis. The first of these for September is ‘‘The Wooing of Riley’’ with Kate Price and Otto Lederer in the leading character parts, it being a comedy, with, as usual, a touch of drama. Monroe Salisbury, star of ‘‘That Devil, ’Bateese,’’and many other distinct Bluebird photodrama successes, says that nearly half of his ‘‘fan’’ letters ask the same question: gle THE CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST. SE EE eC ER EY BLD RE ED CE ce OLD ime ‘‘What nationality are you?’’ In this regard Salisbury has them guessing. His characterizations are so vivid that his appearance in pictures like ‘‘The Savage’’ stamp him as an Indian. Bnt in his latest success ‘‘That Devil, ‘Bateese’ ’’ he stars as a FrenehCanadian and with such realism that French-Canadian fans are hailing him as a long-lost nephew. The name, Monroe Salisbury, as it appears in 26-inch letters on billboards through the country, is unmistakeably British in its origin, although the owner thereof can pass for anything but a Fiji islander; and he has never even tried that. Alfred Allen, the veteran actor, who has an important role in ‘‘The Yellow Dog,’’ was entertaining some friends from the dry zone of the middle west the other night, and took them to a cafe in the outskirts of Los Angeles. A fellow actor of Allen’s ordered a greenopal cocktail. ‘*Oh, let me have one too,’’ cried one of Allen’s lady guests. ‘‘I got a pearl out of an oyster once and if I get an opal out of a cocktail I can have a nice ring made out of the two.’’ Ralph Graves, who was featured in Maurice Tourneur’s ‘‘Sporting Life,’’ and who came to Universal City to assume an important role in ‘‘The Yellow Dog,’’ has been cast as Mae Murray’s leading man in ‘‘The Searlet Strain,’’ the new production in which she is working under the direction of Robert Z. Leonard. Betty Schade, Harry Carey’s new leading woman, is a war bride in earnest now. Her husband, who has been stationed with the Coast Artillery at Fort McArthur near Los Angeles, where she could see him every week, has been transferred to an eastern cantonment, and Betty has only her bull pup for consolation. Dorothy Dalton, the Thomas H. Ince star, has returned to Hollywood, Cal., not with trunkfuls, but with a whole baggage car loaded with the most ravishing gowns in which she will spread heartaches and envy throughout the feminine world in forthcoming pictures. The first of these is to be a Paramount picture adapted from the story by H. H. Van Loan by C. Gardner Sullivan. A noteworthy feature in connection with Enid Bennett’s next picture for Paramount, the settings for which will be largely Hawaiian, is that the produetion will be directed by Fred Niblo, husband of the star. Mr. Niblo played the leading male role in’ the picture Miss Bnnett recently completed. In the new picture Jack Holt will appear as leading man. : Original from NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY