Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

58 EXHIBITORS HERALD March 7, 1925 by a guy named Will Rogers. It’s about a lot of comedy cow boys on a ranch who pass the time away playing pranks on one another. They rope Will and a couple of old maids make love to him when he’s hog tied, feed him with cake and afterwards a lot of cod liver oil or something in a bottle over which he makes a wry face. Finally he gallops off to rescue a pretty girl, but it proves to be one of the old maids and it completely spoils his day. Some day Will says he’s going to make a picture showing cowboys working, but the public isn’t ready for it yet. The actions of this fellow Will Rogers aren’t as funny as what he says, so you’ll enjoy the reading matter much more than the pictures, perhaps.” (And they pay Will good money.) You Can’t Please Everybody When Canadians objected to the Americanized version of “Peter Pan" I chalked up an error against Paramount. I thought, of course, they’d use the English version in a British province. But now a London trade paper, while stating that the British version shown there is quite satisfactory, intimates that use of the American version in Canada was by choice of Canadians. Looks like just another case of trying to please everybody and getting the usual reward. You simply can’t please everybody, any time, and you miss it furthest when patriotic, religious and kindred elements are involved. That’s why there are so many mythical kingdom pictures and perhaps “Peter Pan" should have been done that way. That is, if there had to be flagwaving. WHY NOT PUBLISH REMAKE REPORTS? ONFIDENTIAL mail from New York brings the information that one of the big pictures now running there is being practically remade from day to day, sequences being shortened or extended, titles replaced or rewritten, as audience reactions observed warrant. But why is this done in secret? The occurrence is not precedental. It has been done to many pictures, always beneath the same shroud of secrecy. Apparently there is some sort of concern as to what the trade would think if it knew. If I know anything at all about the trade, it would be glad to know that a producer has the follow-through spirit to this extent. I am confident that exhibitors would be glad to hear that this or that picture had been edited to the limit of its sponsors’ ability. I do not believe anyone would misconstrue this post-premiere revision as admission of weakness. Why not publish remake reports? Why not state that a picture was fairly well received Monday night, gained through revision Tuesday night, went into the lockout class Saturday night with the last inch of dead footage removed and the sequences perfectly timed to the public pulse? Why not? RAYMOND GRIFFITH WALKS AWAY WITH “FORTY WINKS" O NE of the mysteries of photoplay producing is the titles. Take “Forty Winks” for instance. There’s no application. The last title of the picture asks you, “Why Forty Winks?” And I’m still wondering. (Why?) Aside from that, however, here’s a rollicking comedy-drama with Raymond Griffith, Viola Dana, Theodore Roberts and other well known Paramount players doing their best. It was adapted from that famous stage success “Lord Chumley” and Griffith fits into the part of Lord Chumley like a rubber glove. The story concerns lost papers, plans for defense, and the young officer who has then stolen from his room and is in disgrace. Lord Chumley turns detective and after many exciting adventures, recovers the papers and proves to the Admiral’s daughter he’s the best man for her. The business on a floating target while he nears slap-stick is quite hilarious. Roars of laughter greeted Griffith’s antics at the State-Lake theatre, Chicago, where your humble servant saw it. Bismarck Should Have Been a EHrector Last week the newspapers reported the finding of the only frivolous message Bismark is known to have written and this is it: “Life is earnest; art is gay." Bismark should have been a director. Life is earnest, whether we like it or not, and art should be gay. The digger in the ditch looks longingly at the man in the passing limousine. The man in the limousine is but another digger in another ditch looking longingly at another man in still another. No one is gay, save briefly at wide intervals, in life. That’s why Follies tickets sell for more than others. The show may not be gay, but the belief prevails that it will be. The chance is deemed worth the investment risked. Popular (profitable) fiction (screen) characters are those assuming obligations, seeking adventures, performing deeds threatening consequences which the earnest onlooker dares only in imagination. Between the limit of man’s daring and the limit of his imagination lies the most fertile field of fiction. What falls short of the first or beyond the second is mediocre. Bismarck’s “only frivolous message" is one of the most serious statements he ever made. WALTER HIERS IN SPOOK COMEDY NYBODY that can make me laugh at a spook comedy is a comedian. Everything funny about the ghost idea has been done to death. There simply is no new business. But Walter Hiers in “Good Spirits” at McVickers last week unconvinced me. This man Hiers is funny wherever they put him. Incidentally, he has reversed the usual order, making a name for himself in feature pictures and capitalizing it in the short subjects. I’ve always enjoyed him, but his work in the two Christies I have seen has been better. In this one he has much of the old stuff to work with but does it differently. It’s funny this time. “BAD COMPANY" FAIR ENTERTAINMENT IVIaDGE KENNEDY and Conway Tearle are the big names in “Bad (Company,” which is fair entertainment. You know the kind of story it is: Pretty actress protecting young brother from vamp seeking his money steals the will and gets in trouble. Young lawyer effects rescue, outwits vamp and eventually marries actress. Conway Tearle is the best portrayer of young lawyers I know of, and Madge Kennedy is probably the most faithful delineator of stage actresses. Goldburg On Subtitles Why will folks who write titles for pictures overdo it? Flowery titles have been a screen curse from the beginning. Just as the action is pepping along at a good pace, someone has a happy though about a wooded dell or glorious sunset and they write in a title to describe it. Here’s one of several which retard action in the latter part of “The Cloud Rider": “Then, as the purple haze of twilight kissed the distant peake .’’ Goldburg, H e a r st cartoonist, cracked the subject wide open recently with a screamingly funny picture incorporating this gem: “And so came the dawn of a new day when an infant peace settled over the fertile valley where our two children of fate were to work out their destiny as the distant waterfall echoed ifs approval. . . . And the sweet music of their great love was handed down to the ages throught the voice of a little child." (Now if I catch anybody using that in a new super 1!) MRS. BARTHELMESS RICHARD’S LEAD F^ACK in “What the Picture Did For Me” exhibitors have been objecting to Richard Barthelmess’ leading lady in “Classmates” and expressing hope that Mary Hay, Mrs. Barthelmess, his leading lady in “New Toys,” would be better. She is. I think she’s just about right. Comparisons must end there, however, for “New Toys” is comedy drama, the domestic kind, quite unlike “Classmates.” I’m not qualified to say it’s good, for I’ve liked all of Dick’s pictures, whereas the record shows that some of them weren’t so good. I can report, though, that “New Toys” is not another “Enchanted Cottage.”