Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1928)

22 EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD November 3, 1928 Silence Still Golden WALK into Joe Brandt's inner sanctum at Columbia Pictures, as I did one warm and rainy day last week, and you come smack up against a very refreshing viewpoint on sound. Gentlemen, I will go so far as to place both feet squarely on the ground, take a deep breath, and confess that I found myself in the presence of an idea. The keen-witted Mr. Brandt leaned back in his chair and told me briskly, without ado, that "Columbia is definitely committed to silent pictures." Did these old ears deceive? In this year of 1928, when the silent screen shouts at you, did someone calmly say he was committed to silent pictures? * * * Silence is still golden. The ratio of silent to sound pictures in this country is still approximately 22,000 to 1,500, says Mr. Brandt, juggling thousands back and forth without marking a single tablecloth. That's the ratio of theatres equipped for silent pictures and sound pictures, and therefore constitutes the market. So it behooves the producer — particularly the independent Columbia — to keep his eye on his market as he makes his pictures. The better he sees his target, the more apt he is to hit it. * * * Such perspicacity may represent an idea to the casual reader, but as that smiling god of the talkies, Al Jolson, would say, you ain't heard nuthin' yet. Columbia, committed to silent pictures, will make sound pictures. Columbia, and you have Alex Moss' word for it, has a number of pictures that seem to lend themselves to sound treatment: "The Donovan Affair," by Owen Davis, which enjoyed a real success in the New York drama, "The Younger Generation," and "The Quitter," by Mary Roberts Rinehart. And here is where the idea comes in. * * * "When we make a sound picture," says Mr. Brandt, "we are going to make a sound picture. We are not going to take a silent picture, made in the silent manner, grab out half a dozen sequences, and replace them with so much conversation. "Nor, on the other hand, are we going to make a talking picture and then, bighearted, let the fellow who hasn't got sound equipment have it without sound. That wouldn't be giving him a silent picture! That would be giving him a sound picture gone sour, speechless, flat as stale near beer. "Suppose we find that 'The Donovan Affair' will make a good sound picture, and we already know that it will make a good silent picture. We will then make two versions. We will make two pictures, one in a technique suited for dialogue and the other in the traditional silent manner. They may be quite different, but each will be as good a picture as we know how to make, and neither will be a hodge-podge." * • » Cost? Alex Moss knows the scheme of two pictures of the same story will add materially to costs, but he feels it will pay. Columbia is not going to have any hand in killing the goose that lays all those lovely golden eggs, some without a sound, and some with a very healthy, raucous cackle. PETER VISCHER. A Daughter of Unhappiness TTER father ruined, dependent on one who dislikes her, Letty can only struggle J J to bring meaning to her life. Even her beauty brings her into conflict with the very elements. Yet she keeps her heart open — and hope enters at last. So moves the story of "The Wind," an M G M production starring Lillian Gish and directed by Victor Seastrom. Miss Gish and Lars Hanson. Miss Gish and Montagu Love. ■ ' ' ■ The wind — threatening death on the desert. The wind — trying hearts in the town.