Cinema Art (November 1926)

NOVEMBER, 192 6 “The Popular Sin,” he found that the author, Monta Bell, had created a character in La Belle that Miss Nissen could play perfectly The conviction grew on him, he says, that she was the only actress for the role. Film officials concurred in this opinion, and she was offered the part, accepted it, and was back before the movie cameras almost before she realized it. She has now abandoned ballet dancing twice for pictures. This time she says she means to stick to pictures. “My mind is made up for good now,” M iss Nissen says, “I feel I can express myself so much better in pictures.” T HE recent fire at the Charlie Chaplin studio in Hollywood has proved to be a much more serious affair from a production standpoint than was at first supposed. While the actual damage was fully covered by in- surance, the delay caused by the fire in the making of Chaplin’s new comedy “The Cir- cus” has created a great inconvenience, not only to Charlie but to the theatre owners throughout the country who have the picture booked for exhibition. The fire completely gutted the interior stage, destroying all parapbernalia, breaking the thousands of panes of glass which constituted the sidewalls and roof of this structure; circus settings, representing the back stage atmos- phere of traveling circus; also a large cafe set, which had just been completed, was totally destroyed. Unfortunately the picture was already be- hind schedule, and this unavoidable delay caused by the fire will mean that the newest Chaplin comedy, “The Circus,” may not be ready for release until after the first of the year. T HE most distinguished authority on love and the outstanding flapper of the screen met recently for the first time. They are Elinor Glyn and Clara Bow, author and star respectively of “It,” a colorful romantic photoplay, which is soon to go into production in the Paramount studio. “I am overjoyed at finding that Miss Bow in actual life loses none of the tremendous per- sonality and charm she so happily displays on the screen,” declared the famous English writer. “Her vivacity and radiance are almost overwhelming. She fits perfectly my concep- tion of the heroine of ‘It,’ and I do not hesi- tate to acclaim her as the most nearly per- fect girl of her type to be found anywhere.” LOYD WHITLOCK is one actor who delights in having his audience hate him! “In fact, the more my audiences hate me the happier I am. If I drop into a theatre where one of my pictures is playing and hear the men and women expressing the wish that I be shot or thrown overboard, then the world takes on a decidedly rosy aspect for me.” And the reason for all this is that Whitlock is one of the screen’s well-known villains, and when the audiences hate him he knows that his villainy is “going across” as it should and that he has done a good piece of work in the pic- ture. Whitlock is now playing the villain role in Ben Lyon’s coming feature vehicle, “Not Herbert.” “The only thing about playing villain roles that bothers me is the fear that many of the fans will get the idea that we villains of the screen are the same when off the set. That would be terrible, if so, wouldn’t it?” O CTAVUS ROY COHEN’S inimitable negro stories, that have kept the mil- lions of readers of national magazines in a con- tinuous uproar, are going to be presented on the screen by Universal. Mr. Cohen’s only stipulation was that the actors would be negroes. There will be several series of two reels each. Less than a month ago Universal announced that they had secured Mr. Cohen to write a series of original stories for their rotund comedian Charles Puffy. David C. Werner, assistant production manager of Universal, who arranged the contracts, has just returned from Mr. Cohen’s home in Birmingham, with the first two scenarios. The utilization of negro players has been a long-discussed problem of the screen. Mr. Cohen, himself a Southerner, believes that they will be received in the same manner as his stories in the National magazines. T WO ex^generals of the Rus- sian Imperial Army under the late Czar’s regime are playing “bit” parts in Corinne Griffith’s latest First National picture, “The Lady in Ermine,” now being produced in California. They are Michael Ple- schoff. formerly commander of the military school at Vladivostock, and Alexander Ikonnikoff, former major general on the Imperial staff. Be- fore landing in the movies Pleschoff worked in a garage in San Francisco The Judges have decided that Snoohums’ youth gives him a right to use his Kiddie-Kar in the great “Round-The-Block Race” Jack (“Zippy”) Duffy, one of the most ex- perienced runners in Cinema Art’s titanic “Round-the-Block Race,” listening for the starting gun and Ikonnikoff made a living as a Hollywood dishwasher. 'HE World Struggle for Oil,” one of X the most timely and entertaining recent films, has been obtained by Pathe Exchange, Inc., from Captain Hank Butler. The entire picture, five reels in length, shows the result of exhaustive research. From the early days of Noah and the Ark the film shows the need for oil, and its in- creased importance in our every-day lives. The development is traced down through the ages. We see Noah working on his Ark “pitch- ing it with pitch,” as we are told in the Book of Genesis. We are taken to a pagan temple and behold the worshipers tending the sacred altar fires which science tells us were built over petroleum seeps. We see the Indians skimming the oily fluid from the surfaces of ponds, peddlers hawking it about the country for medicine, and finally through its use as a lubricant, as fuel and as a universal source of power in a new civilization. The scenes of the opening of the first American oil well are especially interesting. ARRY LANGDON’S next First Na- tional picture is to be “Long Pants,” now well under way. The story was written by Arthur Ripley. Frank Capra is directing. Beginning in San Francisco just before the earthquake and fire, it touches briefly upon the birth of the hero, who is then shown at eight and, later, at seventeen. As the title indicates, the plot revolves around the boy’s first pair of long pants. G ENE TUNNEY and Jack Dempsey have been approached, it is rumored, by a film producer who plans to make a feature film with the two fighters as stars. It would be the purpose of the promoter, it is said, to obtain as nearly as possible a repetition of the recent Philadelphia fight. The law forbids shipping fight films from one state to another, but on a Actionized basis this legal difficulty would be overcome. Page Fifty-five