Exhibitors Herald (1926)

54 EXHIBITORS HERALD June 19, 1926 THIS department contains news, information and gossip on current productions. It aims to supply service which will assist the exhibitor in keeping in touch with developments in connection with pictures and picture personalities — and what these are doing at the box office. No prophecies on the entertainment value of pictures are made. Opinions expressed are simply those of the author or of his contributors and the reader is requested to consider them only as such. — EDITOR’S NOTE. WILLIAM SISTROM, general manager of Metropolitan Pictures Corporation, announces a policy limiting features to six reels, actual footage running from 5,500 to 5,800 feet. “Six reels has been decided upon as the ideal length for all good feature productions,” says Mr. Sistrom, “and this limit will be adhered to with possibly a few exceptions during the coming season. It has been found through the efforts of John C. Flinn and ¥m. J. Morgan, sales manager of Producers Distributing Corporation, that the exhibitor would prefer to receive fine productions in 5,800 feet rather than in 7,000 feet of film, if they can be produced without sacrificing showmanship value, and this, Metropolitan is convinced, can be done.” The arguments in favor of such a policy as that adopted by Metropolitan are familiar to readers of this publication. Reasonable length central units permit building up on a program containing greater variety and number of short features. Each unit added, be it long or short, to the point where the entire performance becomes unwieldy, is additional advertising ammunition and additional box office intake. Too-long features have been an exhibitor problem in the solution of which not always the best results have been obtained. Perhaps the worst of the evils which footage exaggeration has brought is the cutting evil. In many of the larger cities, particularly in the DeLuxe theatres, it has become almost common practice to lift out whole sequences for the purpose of making the time schedule. Now and then a picture is actually benefited by such an operation, but in the majority of cases the cutting is done inexpertly and the effect is damaging to the picture. A short cut to the center of the proposition may be made by reading any considerable number of exhibitor reports in “What the Picture Did For Me.” “Too long” is a frequently recurrent complaint. “Too short” doesn’t appear. IT’S hardly fair to report a picture on the basis of its reception at the Oriental theatre, Chicago’s new downtown playhouse, but neither is it fair to ignore the reaction of the multitude which attends that place. The multitude comes to see Paul Ash’s jazz show on the stage. Its reaction to a motion picture may or may not be significant. With that introduction, it is fair to relate the news about “Paris,” a Metro-GoldwynMayer picture featuring Charles Ray, Joan This Week Metropolitan for Six-Reelers “Paris” Daily Newsreels “Fascinating Youth” B. & K. Trailer Logic “The Sporting Lover” “Mighty Like a Moose” “For Heaven’s Sake” “Miss Nobody” “The Big Retreat” “Rah, Rah Heidelberg” “Wild Beats of Borneo” “The Isle of Retribution” “Mile. Modiste” “Good and Naughty” Crawford and Douglas Gilmore, shown at the Oriental last week. The Oriental audience seemed to consider it a comic. That wasn’t the intention of the picture’s makers. The intention was to portray definitely the Parisian Apache, with especial emphasis upon the passion which is the subject of the song, “My Man” (“Mon Homme”). This intention is followed out with exceptional fidelity. Douglas Gilmore is the Apache; Joan Crawford is the girl who continues to love him after it’s all over; Charles Ray is the millionaire youth in Paris who attempts to win the girl away from her man. There is nothing wrong with the work of these three, or of the others in the picture with them. The narrative proceeds evenly and directly from beginning to end, registering its final point very distinctly. Such bloodshed as is involved looks very real and the necessary love-making is even more so. Mr. Ray’s part contains a good deal of comedy, but not burlesque. Nevertheless, at the high tension points, the points where the tale may turn this way or that and the destines of the principals are concerned, these folks who go to the Oriental laughed merrily. That’s the straight repertorial news about “Paris.” The picture is logically made; the aim is new; the acting is as prescribed; the settings are okay; nothing’s structurally wrong; the Oriental audience laughed in all the wrong places. There is a good deal of reason for believing that there is no other audience in the world like the Oriental audience. News of the picture’s reception elsewhere will be of at least dual significance. GOING from one theatre to another, as one does on such an assignment as this one or if one likes pictures, newsreels are encountered in duplicate, necessarily. If anything bears second watching it’s a newspicture, but for the best interest of total theatre intake it isn’t good to have the person who wants to see two or more good shows a week pick up the impression that he cannot do so without seeing the midshipmen graduate repeatedly. Some months ago the “Short Features” department of this paper advanced the suggestion that a daily newsreel be brought out, for the use of the metropolitan theatres at least, although the need is felt certainly no less keenly by the exhibitors in the smaller cities with more frequent change of feature. A daily newsreel could give in greater detail the lesser number of news events contained, carrying over the more important ones with “follow stories” adding new angles, in the same manner that newspapers carry over their stories from edition to edition and front day to day. There are several aspects of the suggestion which would come in for consideration by the newsreel people, but the most important aspect is, as it is in all cases, the effect upon theatre attendance. Study of this aspect gives only one answer. Famous players-lasky does things. Founding of the training school for screen players was a step out. Production of the picture, “Fascinating Youth,” with the first class of the school performing the various roles, was daring. The chances of ( Continued on page 58)