Exhibitors Herald (1926)

February 26, 1927 EXHIBITORS HERALD 65 “What the Picture Did for Me ” ( Continued from page 64) JANE’S PARTY: Wanda Wiley— These comedies used to be good until the star quit working in them. Two reels. — Bert Silver, Silver Family theatre, Greenville, Mich. — General patronage. KRISS KROSST: Krazy Kat and Felix attract in my town. — Mrs. R. A. Preuss, Arvada theatre, Arvada, Colo. — Small town patronage. LOVE’S HURDLE: Good and funny. Two reels. — Mrs. R. A. Preuss, Arvada theatre, Arvada, Colo. — Small town patronage. MOVIE MADNESS: Edna Marion — Quite a lot of laughs in this crazy thing. — Roy W. Adams, Pastime theatre. Mason, Mich. — General patronage. MUSTANG WESTERNS: The W. C. Tuttle Piperock stories with Pee Wee Holmes and Ben Corbett are good comedies, but the straight Westerns are too much alike. Same old ranch house, same old hero riding through the sagebrush about 125 miles an hour to save the girl, or pay the mortgage on the dear old farm, or buy a plug of tobacco or something. My pianist shuts her eyes when she sees one of these coming and plays it by guess and by gosh and never misses a hoofbeat. — Roy W. Adams, Pastime theatre. Mason, Mich. — General patronage. NEWLYWEDS BUILD: Snookums— Funny kid comedy. Two reels. — Bert Silver, Silver Family theatre, Greenville, Mich. — General patronage. OPRY HOUSE TONIGHT: Arthur Lake— Better than most of these one reelers. — Roy W. Adams, Pastime theatre, Mason, Mich. — General patronage. SHADY REST: Joe Murphy — Had a few thrills and several laughs. As a whole Gump comedies are a good bet. Two reels. — A. E. Sharer, Globe theatre, Savannah, Mo. — General patronage. SNOOKUMS QUARANTINED: This is a good one. We like Snookums more and more all the time. Played February 11-12. Two reels. — W. L. Rockwell, Odeon theatre. Cottonwood Falls, Kan. — Small town patronage. TWIN SISTERS: Wanda Wiley — A good comedy.— Roy W. Adams, Pastime theatre. Mason, Mich. — General patronage. WANTED, A BRIDE: Arthur Lake — A pleasing little comedy. One reel. — A. G. Witwer, Grand theatre. Rainier, Ore. — Genera! patronage. WHEN BONITA RODE: Curley Witzel— Used as a filler and seemed to satisfy. Some good comedy touches in it. Two reels. — A. G. Witwer, Grand theatre. Rainier, Ore. — General patronage. WILD BILL: Charles Puffy — Some laughs in this one. One reel. — A. G. Witwer, Grand theatre, Rainier, Ore. — General patronage. Letters From Readers ( Continued from page 51) the mouth, don’t you think? Relatively unimportant as it is. Picture players have many other things to think about, and I have found that they are most courteous in sending their pictures when asked individually by the showman. In a couple of cases I have sent a check to cover a particular photo that I wanted. Each time I received a very nice photo and letter from the star returning my check. Personally, I think this wholesale way of almost forcing a player to send a gratis photo is poor stuff. Human nature being what it is, if the star does not respond immediately the tendency of most men would be to have a bit of a grudge against the individual in question. Any such feeling will influence the report on that player’s production. So there we are. Of course, it’s just up to each Exhibitor to do as he wants, it won’t hurt very greatly one way or the other. But I do feel that the Herald should discontinue giving these requests the heavy type extra prominence that has been the recent practice. Best wishes to you all, you’ll hear from us as things get moving along. Cordially yours. — Henry Reeve, Star theatre, Menard, Texas. NOTE: Sorry about the disaster. “B. F.” Writing. Best of luck. — Ed. Service Talks On Pictures {Continued from page 49) posed lunatics. Leon Errol is the principal performer. When I tell you that the Oriental audience laughed at it quite a lot your interpretation of the report is governed by your knowledge and opinion of that gathering. I will add, however, that I was a member thereof. “WHITE GOLD ” T X HE mail picked up a bit last week, for which I’m duly grateful, and we’ll start with this letter from Ray Murray: Two years ago a young director on the Lasky lot made a picture called “The Thundering Herd.” It had no star, it came to us unheralded, but what a picture! The exhibitors began reporting “this director will be heard from.” And their predictions proved true. He has made several fine pictures since “The Thundering Herd” and now he comes forth with another that in many ways is a remarkable piece of work, “White Gold.” I saw it in a cold projection room, without any music except the hum of the projection machine, and I’m here to say, “It’s some picture.” The whole action of the story takes place in eighteen hours, on a hot, drought-infested, dusty ranch. There are only four characters, but what a lot of drama there is packed into those seven reels. It was a daring thing to try to put on the screen the drab existence of a man, his son, his wife and the stranger, on a sheep ranch far from any town, and make it interest-compelling, but Director Howard has done it. The story, briefly, tells of a young rancher who marries a dance hall entertainer and brings her back to the home of his father. The father (excellently played by George Nichols) hates the girl (Jetta Goudal) and upbraids his son for bringing her home. He is deeply in love with her, however, and swears he will always believe in her and protect her. The drought continues. One after another the herders leave. Then a stranger arrives. He is attracted by the beautiful girl in such dull surroundings. One night, while the young husband is away, he sneaks into her room, and is killed by the girl. The father says he shot the stranger when he discovered them together and the son believes his father. The wife leaves, dropping a revolver in a mud puddle as she passes down the road. George Bancroft plays the part of the stranger and makes the role stand out like a cameo. He puts so much realism into his work you forget he is acting. I have never seen him do anything quite so good. Kenneth Thompson as the young husband gave a convincing performance and at all times acted with restraint. Clyde Cook, as a ranch hand, added some excellent comedy touches. Jetta Goudal, as the wife, does the best work of her career. Apparently Howard knows how to direct this young lady, something several other directors have given up trying long ago. The titles contributed by John W. Kraff and John Farrow keep the picture in the proper atmosphere. The continuity was by Marion Orth and the splendid photography by Lucien Andriott. Anton Grof designed the sets, which carried out the author’s idea perfectly. There was not an exterior scene in the picture, the whole production, with hundreds of sheep, having been made inside on a stage at the DeMille studios. WILL ROGERS’ SERIES Y OU’LL be interested, also, in what Doug Hodges thought of Will Rogers’ new series of comics, which he saw in a projection roofn and which I plan to see within the next seven days. He says: “That thing you see spouting over there in the garden is a fountain If you saw something spouting in the United States it would be a Senator.” “The reason American art is better than French art is because Frenchmen have only two subjects. One is the lion — and the other is the nude And they even paint the lion in the nude.” Will Rogers is again in pictures. His return finds him saying humorous things on the screen and traveling through Europe. The first of the series of one reelers is of his trip to Ireland. The best of the first three is his trip to France, where the monologue above is only a portion of a great number of interesting “wisecracks.” All of the series is based upon the Saturday Evening Post articles which have appeared over a period of several weeks. The humor and the intelligence of the series has made them among the most successful articles the Post has printed, according to A. S. Putney, Jr., of the Curtis Publishing Company. One of reels shows Rogers in the Netherlands “where it is possible to be drowned any time crossing Main Street.” The important buildings and places of interest of each country are shown in the pictures. A beautiful view of the Tuilleries, Eiffel Tower, London Bridge and a countless number of others are shown. “HER MAN O’ WAR” \ ND then I’ll forward to you the following comment from C. E. Graff, Havensville, Kans., exhibitor: Viewed this at a neighbor’s house, Sunday night. I would have gone to church but the preacher didn’t come. I liked the picture fine and think it good enough to show anywhere. Crowd seemed to like it immensely. “THE BIG PARADE” ' HEN my old friend Bill Sinnott, for many years a neighbor in Chicago and now a faithful correspondent at San Antonio, has this to say of “The Big Parade”: Last evening I saw “The Big Parade” at the Empire, where it opened for a tenday run. This is a wow of a picture and you must see it. A great part of the filming was done in San Antonio, I understand, with the Second Division of the U. S. Army filling in for the battle scenes. This is the first of the war pictures filmed here to come back for presentation If you would see something to make you proud of the existence of motion pictures, by all means, view this one. John Gilbert gets the big honors. The roles of Karl Dane and Tom O’Brien as “Slim” and “Bull” are no less convincing. Dane goes over big. A knockout if ever I have seen one, the picture was shown here with its own traveling orchestra and its own staff of mechanicians to manipulate the elaborate effects.