Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

March 7, 1925 EXHIBITORS HERALD 57 M ARTIN J. QUIGLEY writes from Los Angeles : “Carl Laemmle showed ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ following a luncheon Feb. 18 at the Ambassador hotel. I consider it a great picture. It is wonderfully well done. Mary Philbin is beautiful in it and her acting is marvelous. “It is one of the most interesting and intriguing stories ever done. It is entirely out of the beaten path and, to me, it was a real treat.” Open Letter to Roy Adams MR. ROY ADAMS: I was pleased to read your comment in last week’s issue relative to the passing of the “Review” department. I didn’t know that anyone had missed it. That reviews sometimes were used to make up readers for the newspapers hadn’t occurred to me. Now that you’ve raised the point, we’re going to index the “New Pictures” department. That department, as you know, gives all the information formerly given in reviews, plus much that was not. And it gives the information before it could be given in review form. With this index, it will be a simple matter to assemble the facts about a given attraction and make up a reader. And there will be no reviewer’s opinion to wade through to get the facts. Thanks for the suggestion. T. O. SERVICE. NOW WE CAN FORGET “SMILIN’ THROUGH” I know why Norma Talmadge won the “Herald Only” Club Favorite Star Contest. Exhibitors knew she was the actress she is in “The Lady.” I didn’t. Her last ten minutes in “The Lady” justifies everything else she ever did and all the money ever invested in her pictures. Exhibitor D. H. Dorchester wrote in last week’s Herald, “I would rather hear her say, ‘I have always loved you,’ than to see all the camels in the world in one film.” He had seen “Secrets.” I want to hear what he has to say about that portion of “The Lady” following the shooting. “The Lady” is a story about one who really was but technically wasn't. She is young in the beginning and old at the end. The place is London and the period covered ends about 1916. But these are unimportant details. The important facts about the picture are that Norma does her best work in it and that Eugene O’Brien is not among those present. When they have seen “The Lady” I think they’ll quit talking so much about “Smilin’ Through.” PARAMOUNT MAKES ANOTHER STORY ARAMOUNT is making stories. A while back everybody was saying “The story’s the thing” and Paramount is proving it, quietly. They’ve cut loose from the book of box office rules and it’s paying. “The Swan” is another story, produced with only a happy ending as concession to the so-called “movie fan.” I did not care a great deal for the picture, but two companions who had seen the stage play did. And I got my money’s worth in the workmanship. I particularly enjoyed the artifices that were omitted, the tricks that used to be in every picture and most producers would have put into this one. Just now the Paramount policy is more interesting than any Paramount picture. They’re making stories for what they are worth, trying to get and make the best ones, and if the box office proves the public ready, for that the Golden Age of motion pictures is at hand. To date the indications are favorable. Josef Hoffman On Technique “Technique is a means to an end, never an an end in itself,” said Josef Hoffman some years ago, concluding, “Technique is not perfected until it is forgotten.” He spoke of music, of course, but his words have ruined a lot of pictures for me. I recall them every time I see a director planting an element or skirting a natural ending. It isn’t exactly fair, I suppose, to make you fret with me, but it is possible a director may take from this brief a higher estimate of the continuity’s importance and that’s worth it. The happy ending to this story is: The picture that doesn’t make me think of Mr. Hoffman’s remarks gives me more pleasure than might a dozen if I had not hear them. DANA AND SILLS IN DRAMA OF INDIA lOLA DANA and Milton Sills in “As Man Desires” enact an interesting story of army life in India and the South Sea Islands, where pearl hunters live and fight. Sills impersonates an English officer. Major Craig, engaged to a beautiful girl, Ruth Clifford. He learns that she has an affair with his colonel, however, and when the colonel is found dead he flees India. He becomes owner of a pearl diving outfit and forswears all women. Pandora, a yellow girl, comes to his boat to escape another pearl fisherman. Craig falls in love with her and marries her. Then he is betrayed to the British, but a fellow officer arrives with a pardon and his name is cleared. Pandora throws herself between him and the villain and dies, thus allowing him to marry his first sweetheart. Viola Dana is cute and effective as the little dark girl of the island. The atmosphere of the picture is perfect. Irving Cummings directed and played a small role as well, that of Major Singh. Automatic Plots Out of Favor The plots are getting better. Apparently the attempt to work out a magic formula for getting the dimes into the drawer has been abandoned. The old directors are breaking away from their worn-out patterns and the new ones are upsetting the dope with new designs. Automatic plots are fewer in number and flop harder. My selfish interest in this development arises from the fact that I do not have to see the same thing done the same way by different people so many times in the same week. Nowadays when I go from seeing one picture to see another it is in fact another picture that I see. I am relieved and grateful. My larger interest is grounded in my belief that the public will share my relief and gratitude and go to the theatre more often. THRILLS UPON THRILLS IN “THE CLOUD RIDER” L WILSON, who performs the death defying stunts in “The Cloud Rider,” also wrote the story, and there is a foreword which states all the airplane scenes are authentic, that there was no resorting to double exposure or trick photography. It would have been just as good a picture without the foreword, or without the flowery titles, which tend to slow up the action. However, as airplane stories go this is one of the best, and with pretty Virginia Lee Corbin and Helen Ferguson lending their pretty support, it goes over with the proverbial bang. It’s the usual story of a secret service man who saves his sweetheart from certain death when the villain tampers with an airplane which she decides to drive through the clouds. Plenty of thrills in this one. WITH APOLOGIES TO WILL ROGERS T J_ HIS is about the way Will Rogers would describe this picture if he saw it: “I just saw a pretty good movie. It was called ‘The Cake Eater’ and it was written