The Film Daily (1928)

I THE Sunday, August 12, 1928 ■<&!!l DAILY ^ PICTURES EDDY 4 'HOTOPHONE OUTPUT IS *! BEING SPEEDED BY RCA TIPS ON EQUIPMENT AND VARIOUS DEVICES NOW AVAILABLE Plans for installation of RCA-Phouphone equipment are being speeded )> that company, according to E. E. Sucher, vice president. Sets now are Installed at the Carthay Circle and iSiltomore, Los Angeles, and an in;tallation is under way at the Eightyiixth St. theater, New York. With the interchangeability issue egarded as settled, there is to be no et-up on production of Photophone quipnient, according to Bucher. SOUND SCM WALLOPS BUYING IN SOUTHWEST Dallas — "Just too bad for ex■ changes" sums up the situation in ihis territory, with exhibitors holdTig off on buying, due to the sound ')icture situation. L. L. Dent of Dent Theaters, who las gone to Europe will not buy )roduct for the new season until his eturn. H. B. Robb of the R. & R. circuit s marking time, and has not stated vhen he will start buying. Col. H. K. Cole, buyer for Federated, states hat Sept. 1 is early enough for him ,0 consider new product. A. B. Mo'nand of Momand Enterprises, has iiot done any buying as yet. 5ound Houses to Benefit By Synchronized "Wings" Houses wired for sounrl pictures will play "Wings" when the picture fS released by Paramount in Feptemj>er. The picture on Sunday will iound out a year's run at th*; Criterion, New York. Sound accompani. nent on a separate film is being < ihown with the picture. The Critcvion I un is expected to extend until the irst of the year. I I Getting Set at Cleveland I Cleveland— Tri-State M. P. Co., ' leaded by Jack Flanigan and Gilbert ilamilton, is getting complete Pho'hone equipment and in 30 days will 'C able to take sound pictures. This vill be the first sound picture equipment in Cleveland. Flanigan is local 'athe News cameraman. He also ; ,pecializes in commercial motion picjures. With the sound installation, Vi-State is also preparing to print nd develop all films in their own ^iboratories. Flanigan is in charge of amera work, and Hamilton directs. i New York Critics Rap Sound Sequence in ''Perfect Crime" Sound used in connection with "The Perfect Crime" (FBO) at the Rivoli came in for a severe rap by the majority of New York critics. The picture was originally a silent him, but a synchronized score and dialogue sequences were applied via the RCA Photophone method. Criticism was not leveled at the quality of the sound but at the manner in which it was applied. Excerpts from newspapers follow, straight newspaper opinions on the qualities of the picture appearing on page 4. AMERICAN—* * * Black veils and a black eye are worn by Ethel Wales, who does some sincere emoting when the film's synchronization doesn't do its best to make a comedian of her. * * * DA.ILY MIRROR—* * ' The synchronization is poor in too many spots and the whole thing has a jumbled, patched-together quality. ♦ ♦ * DAILY NEWS—* * * A serious flaw in this. The picture evidently was synchronized in the east, having been filmed at the coast. Consequently, voices which speak in the trial scene are not those actually belonging to their speakers. Many times the disc rmssea out. Voices are several words behind or before their lip movement. This disconcerts one considerably. * * * EVENING GRAPHIC—* * *has the box office advantage of synchronization and talkie sequences. * * ♦ "The Perfect Crime," while it has a good musical score which registers well, carries discrepancies in its sound dialogue. The voices are not carefully timed with the lip movement and the R. C. A. method shows much room for improvement. EVENING JOURNAL—* * * The talkie synchronization m the picture itself is bad. In the court room scene, where the district attorney is summing up the evidence for the jury, the words that emanate from the screen 11'' ve no connection with the words that the silent players are saying. * • * t,\Ei\jAU WOkLU — * * * it was proclaimed that the picture was endowed with KLA synchronization. Well, it wasn't. There wasn't any synchronization about it. First you'd see a character move his lips and then you'd hear a lot of words. They didn't jibe at all. * * * HERALD — * * * the talking bits are noi perfect, for the synchronization is bad. The dialogue does not always coincide with the movements of lips. * * * MOKiNlNG lELEGRAPH— * * * RCA Photophone has provided a musical syii chronization for the picture and has put dialogue into the courtroom scene. With ill chosen music, the device shows itself capable of good reproduction, and in the courtroom scene, where the dialogue has been inserted after the picture was shot, it shows people speaking distinctly with tight-pressed lips. 1,000 Extra Men Chiccgo — The Hawthorne plant of Western Electric is employing 1,000 additional workmen for manufacturing sound equipment. Officials of the company deny reports that Western Electric is to build a large plant in Hollywood, and state all equipment would continue to be manufactured here. Western Electric is not behind on equipment orders, the speeding up of production having placed the company far ahead of schedule. The sudden rush of orders is being met with surprising speed by the company, but despite this fact, orders received now call for delivery some several months hence. Photophone has also supplied a prologue and an epilogue, neither of which have anything to do with the picture, but which provide some amusement and a great deal of indirect propaganda for RCA. ♦ ♦ * POST — * * * the most important feature of the picture is that it is FBO's first effort at spoken dialogue. According to its results, it ought to be the last, too, until something like good synchronization is established. * * * SUN — * * * unfortunately the dialogue was added after the film was made, and as a result words float out occasionally which have little or nothing to do with the pantomimed lip action. Nevertheless, the spoken dialogue heightens the story which happens to be an ingenious one. * * * TELEGRAM—* * * The early sequences were paced a trifle too slow for complete interest. Mention must be made of the clear, cynical voice of the prosecuting attorney, the best argument to date for talking pictures. TIMES — * * * As an example of sound, the synchronization leaves much to be desired. The synchronization is faulty in many, many places, and several vocal selections are added in curious out-of-the-way scenes. * * * WORLD — This newcomer to the Rivoli at least proves that even if the synchronization of the record and the actors on the screen is not quite perfected yet, a spoken word or o noise such as the telephone, the Judge's gavel in court or the murmur of crowds is ten times more effective as the written captions used to be. * * * 'Carmen,' First Sound Film from Blattner in England London — Within ten weeks, the Louis Blattner Picture Corp. expect to have completed its first talking film, "Carmen." British Photophone will be used. Beery in Gotham "Talker" West Coast Bureau, THE FILM DAILy Hollywood — Noah Beery will sing as well as speak in "The Joyous Villain," an original by Harold Shumate, which Gotham will produce. SOUND IS ORDER OF DAY AT CINCINNATI Cincinnati — Sound is the order of the day at local first runs all of which are to be equipped for sound projection. The Capitol now is playing Vitaphone productions. Lethargy in buying films for the new season has followed on the wake of the sound "craze" throughout the territory. UNITED ARTISTS ORDER TWO BIG SOiD STAGES With a large recording building for the making of sound pictures practically completed. United Artists studio states construction will begin immediately on two sound stages. The cost of these three buildings and equipment will approximate $250,000. The recording building is 56 ft. .x 76 ft. and two stories in height. The stages will both be the same size, T shaped, 75 ft. x 100 ft. and 50 ft. x 60 ft. Work is being rushed on the new buildings. SAYS TALKERS NUST Talking motion pictures will have to maintain the high standard of the best silent product, if they are to meet with the same degrees of success in the opinion of William R. Fraser, general manager of the Harold Lloyd Corp. "For the present, talking and sound pictures are an extreme novelty and in the public's eagerness for something different, good and bad pictures are being patronized. But this novelty is going to wear off, before many months, and the same discrimination being shown by theater-goers in the selection of their silent drama entertainment today, will then be exercised as far as sound or talking pictures are concerned. "Producers who overlook the artistic and story values in their pictures in an effort to rush on the market with 'talkies' to profit by the publicity present lack of discrimination will do the industry as a whole a great injustice and irreparable harm," he continued. "Their lack of foresight will be reflected in the box office figures not of today perhaps but of some months hence. Aside from other contributing factors, poor pictures did more to bring about the apparent slutnp in motion picture box office returns during the past year than did anything else. Good pictures did excellent business in proportion, but they came so few and far between, that the slump in theater income naturally became noticeable. "Theater-going can become a habit, but a habit easily broken by a string of poor entertainment. Talking pictures undoubtedly are proving the greatest boon the industry has had for years. They have injected life blood into an industry that was literally suffering from hardening of the arteries through too rich living. The film doctors have provided a tonic, in talking and sound pictures that will restore the old time vigor of the industry provided the proper attention is devoted to "diet," which happens to mean nothing more than a continued output of pictures that have some backbone, human interest, general appeal. "Wise producers long since noted the way the industry was drifting and took full cognizance of the situation. These same producers will be leading the parade when the years' development in sound pictures is checked up." Sound for Salt Lake House Salt Lake City — Western Electric sound projection equipment is to be installed at the Pantages, which has bought the M-G-M product