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Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr 1923-Apr 1924)

Page scan 000648 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Apr 1923-Apr 1924
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (April 1923-April 1924)
Leaf #:
000648
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, Early Cinema, and Canada
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
New York Public Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Editors: Merrick R. Nutting (1917-18), Raymond S. Peck (1918), Ray Lewis (1918-19 and 1920-54), Walter Greene (1919-20), Jay Smith (1954-57)

Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57) was initially a Montréal-based rival of the first film paper in Canada, Toronto-based Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18, edited by W.A. Bach 1915-17, J.W. Cambridge 1917-18, Raymond S. Peck 1918). The two periodicals were combined in 1918, keeping the Digest name, but moving production to Toronto with Peck as editor. Canadian Moving Picture Digest assumed The Bulletin’s volume numbering and always claimed 1915 as its year of origin. Ray Lewis (née Rae Levinsky) was a writer and playwright, who spent time in early Hollywood’s publicity departments. She briefly took the Digest helm in 1918, then long-term editor, later owner and publisher, from 1920 until her death in 1954. Under Lewis’s leadership, the trade paper claimed to serve as a voice for independent exhibitors and advocated for a Canadian cultural presence in cinema, particularly emphasizing British films as a way to keep a distance from Hollywood. Lewis's editorials were notable for their advocacy, wit, and critique of American dominance in the Canadian film market. While initially positioning herself as an outsider, she became integrated within the industry and a true insider. She even had an ongoing correspondence with Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, advocating for the industry as a whole and supporting British film imports. She was well-known at Toronto’s Dundas Square film row as well as in New York and Hollywood. Variety’s Sime Silverman called her “the Girl Friend in Canada,” and she delighted when U.S. writers not “in the know” presumed “Ray” was a man’s name. Lewis was later an inaugural member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, eventually the group’s first female president and Pioneer of the Year. After she died in 1954, her son Jay Smith took over editorial duties until Canadian Moving Picture Digest was bought by Nat Taylor’s Film Publications of Canada in 1957. Taylor incorporated the legacy journal into a joint masthead for Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70), which subsequently dated its roots back to the 1915 origins of the film press in Canada.

– Jessica Whitehead and Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Whitehead, Jessica, Louis Pelletier and Paul Moore, “‘The Girl Friend in Canada’: Ray Lewis and Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1915–1957).” In Daniel Biltereyst and Lies Van de Vijver, eds., Mapping Movie Magazines: Digitization, Periodicals and Cinema History, 127-52. London: Pagrave-Macmillan, 2021.

Date Added:
July 31, 2025
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Di TORONTO, CANADA. amie Page Thirteen HE DEST PICTURE [FAVE SEEN THIS YEAR ty KREDYACOD _ (Written Specially for the Digest.) It is no easy task to select the best picture shown here in 1923 because so many of them were of an even merit.” During the past year I have seen no movie that impressed meas being as perfect in its way as “Tol’able David” ‘or “One Glorious Day,” or, one might add as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and “The Birth of a Nation.” It is true that there are times when a really finely imaginative screen drama like “One Glorious Day” does not interest the general public, just as there are times when a popular picture like “Micky,” in which Mabel. Normand made so many friends, cannot by any stretching of the truth be called a good film. In selecting the best picture of the year, I suppose that one must bear in mind that it ought to possess popular appeal in addition to possessing qualities that will stand the test of critical examination, The best picture of the year cannot be one that the average fan does not like. Also, it cannot be one that a man possessing any intelligence whatsoever will regard as drivel. Having gone over the entire field with those two tests to guide me, I have selected Rex Ingram’s “Scaramouche” as the best picture that I have seen since New Year's Day 1923. Some one will rise up at this point and remind me that Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood” did not reach Toronto until this year, and that it was almost universally selected as the best picture of the year in the United States in 1922. To my way of thinking, “Robin Hood” was not a good silent drama, even though it may have been an extraordinary elaborate production. It was very much what “Hamlet” would be without the Prince of Denmark. One of the most picturesque romances in English history was served up without its leading character, or rather with Douglas Fairbanks substituted for Robin Hood. It missed the whole spirit of the legend that so many of us have loved. You cannot make great Pictures that way. For the same reason, I would dismiss the popular production of “Oliver Twist,” in which that charming little American boy Jackie Coogan was substituted for Dickens’ pathetic London waif. eee the most hopeful signs of the times in the i . 1s the tendency to get away from that feature of Hood”. system which we find exemplified in “Robin Ae pit Oliver Twist.” Stars are making an effort playin n Pais to impersonate the character they are een d erhaps they are finding that the fans are more orc in the play than in Valentino or Fairbanks oe Talmadge. “The Coney most attractive features of that fine picture orrence co 4 pasty _is the splendid acting of Ernest ‘ whom hey ais is Wilson. They become the people “Ernest Torrence supposed to impersonate in the drama. “uine artists, Th and Lois Wilson have always been genWagon” is such passing, I may say that “The Covered between it and “Ge out-standing picture that I hesitated feeling jn his PP rs oa ‘and it was my personal some respects othe that: finally settled my choice. In Picture of the two Covered Wagon” may be the better Wo, but I do know that I enjoyed myself more keenly at “Scaramouche.” e che i States, i lllttC “The Covered Wagon” is regarded as the picture of the year, but we must remember that in that country it makes strong appeal to their national-consciousness. It pictures vividly an epoch in their national life, and accordingly arouses emotions that Canadians do not experience when seeing it. To us, it is only a remarkable Western movie, —one of the most impressive productions ever made, with an inferior story. ; _Here are a few pictures that came to mind when I was making my selection,— “The Green Goddess” was an excellent example of a thrilling melodrama transferred to the screen. It was flawlessly done and. highly exciting. “Hollywood” was the best picture dealing with the movies that has been made to date, and had a touch of broad satire not common in the films. “Enemies of Women” was the best of the garish dramas. “The Hottentot” was the best of the straight farces, as distinguished from the typical movie farces that Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd make. “Three Ages” with Buster Keaton and “Safety Last” with Harold Lloyd were the best of the typical movie farces. My first choice would be “Three Ages.” After all “Saftey Last” is almost entirely an astonishing assault upon the nerves, and that is something just a little different from Comedy. “Diana of the Crossways,” an English picture, is the best example of a classic novel made into a picture that I have seen, because it caught the atmosphere and quality of a difficult book. “Grumpy” struck me as a rattling good show, and “Merry-Go-Round” was an example of movie narrative at its best, one of the artistic achievements of the year in the movies. “Nanook of the North” remains in the mind as the chief novelty seen here in recent months. . After going over all sorts and conditions of pictures that have much to commend them in one way or another, I come back quite satisfied to my first choice, the good, swash-buckling romance “Scaramouche.” Rafael Sabatini’s novel gave Rex Ingram an excellent story to tell, and he made the most of the material. The plot has been unfolded in such a manner as to maintain a steady crescendo of interest. It contains both suspense and excitement. In short, it is everything that a good romance ought to be. The picture has been made by a man who always gives us some beautiful photography. There is a great deal to delight the eye in “Scaramouche,” and the various actors have been carefully selected for their parts. Rex Ingram has an uncanny gift for finding just the right types to play even the smallest roles. Because he is so careful with details, he gets the. maximum amount of illusion. ; The historical background of “Scaramouche” has been created in a convincing manner. Rex Ingram hasan instinct for that sort of thing, and without the instinct, no amount of research will get a producer anywhere. The great thing about “Scaramouche” is that it is a rattling fine production of.a jolly good story.