Film Spectator (1927-1928)

July 23, 1927 THE FILM SPECTATOR Page Eleven it belongs does he permit his characters to indulge in histrionics. For the most part he rests content with tellg ing his story, and he tells it in a manner that never allows the attention of the audience to wander. His handling of a fight sequence in which Ray meets the champion is splendid. He makes the fight dramatic, without lessening its appeal as a sporting event. The picture • is free from interpolated comedy, a virtue which few program pictures possess. Any picture constructed intelligently has no place in it for “comedy relief”, but we have so few people who can construct them intelligently that when one comes along we are surprised. ♦ « * Laura La Plante’s Fine Performance Laura la PLANTE never before gave such a scintillating performance on the screen as she does in Silk Stockings, her next Universal release. The downright cleverness of it is a re'^lation of her powers as a comedienne. The story is a ^Jjthy little thing, but it is directed with consummate skill ^ Wesley Ruggles, making the picture the most engaging'^medy that has come from the Universal studio in a long ti^. It is delightful all the way through, principally on accoi^ of the splendid performance of the star, who keeps the ai/^^ce in a con■’ tinuous roar of laughter by her very intelli^ht portrayal of a young wife who has a great capacity for being jealous of her husband. In one long court room scene she is superb. Entirely in pantomime she tells the story of her husband’s courtship, and his addiction to gambling, drinking, and * personal cruelty, all of which the audience knows are figments of her brain. It is the longest sustained and cleverest pantomime that stands to the credit of any of our screen comedians of either sex, and will win Laura a host of new admirers. Burr McIntosh is the judge before whom she gives her testimony, and he makes a large contribution to the comedy values of the sequence. I had no idea that Burr had such a delicious sense of comedy. Every cut from Laura to him was followed by another burst of laughter, so admirably did the old trouper maintain the fun of the scenes. Silk Stockings is clean for its entire length, and so easily could have been otherwise, for it contains some scenes that, to say the least, are intimate. For instance, Laura goes to bed in William Austin’s room, and later hides in a clothes hamper at the end of a bathtub in which he prepares to take a bath; but Ruggles handles all such scenes with the best of taste that enhances, instead of detracting from, their mirth-provoking qualities. Less discriminating direction would have made Silk Stockings a farce so broad that it would have been vulgar, and no departure from the script would have been necessary to make it so. The more I see of Ruggles’s work the more I am impressed with his ability for handling light comedy. The picture is rich in production value and contains many striking shots. One feature worthy of emulation is the presence in a swimming pool sequence ^of some extras who are expert divers. They give an air of reality to the scenes. Johnnie Harron plays the male lead, a part rich in the comedy possibilities that he always demonstrates an ability to realize. I like to see Harron on the screen. He is a nice looking boy, but is a modifica.tion of the standard model of masculine pulchritude that we are so used to gazing upon. William Austin also is in this picture and he gives another of his silly-ass performances which always are provocative of much mirth. Otis Harlan is another member of the cast who also makes a considerable contribution to the hilarity of the affair, and Marcella Daly provides much heauty and some brains in a small part. The story was adapted by Beatrice Van, and Joseph Poland v/rote the continuity and was story supervisor for the production. Excellent titles were written by Albert de Monde. I have seen quite a number of Universal pictures of late that I have liked, and I think it is about time someone was speaking up and giving Henry Plennigson, general manager for Universal, some credit for the improvement in the company’s output. Under his regime Universal pictures are averaging higher than they ever did before. + * ♦ “Chang” Great Because it’s Real CHANG is engrossing for the same reason that Seventh Heaven is engrossing. Each gives the impression of being absolutely real. Chang accomplishes with the jungle and wild animals what motion picture producers rarely achieve with man-built sets and trained actors. Bimbo, the untrained white monkey, is the best comedian I ever saw on the screen. His acting is perfect, and there never yet has been on the screen a man who can act perfectly. There is a lesson in Chang for every man who makes a picture, and for every man and woman who appear in one. Screen acting got off to a wrong start. It aped the stage. The motion picture in one brief leap became a complete art, but it took to itself conventions that centuries of development had lent to a sister art, the stage. It ranted and struck poses, habits which it borrowed from the stage, with which it had little in common, although it still is held by many that it has much in common with the older art. The stage even in its highest development never was real. It never completely fooled us into forgetting that we were looking at actors roaming in painted forests. The actors were conscious that the forests were painted and became almost as artificial as their surroundings. They were not natural; they acted. They had to train their voices and their memories, and their physical acting became as much a mental effort as the reading of their lines. The screen borrowed its acting technic from the stage, and it has not outlived it. It still has an air of artificiality. The forests on the screen are real, but the actors are not. They reflect a painted forest environment. The development of screen acting will be towards complete natural 1 The “Pied Piper 9 . By Heisey i One of the many exquisite 9 designs shown in Holly p wood’s largest glassware = section i at the I Central Hardware Company | I 6673 Hollywood Blvd. Phone HE. 2186 | *>iniiiiiiiiiiiitiniiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiuiic]iiiiiiiiiiiic]iiiiiiiiiiii[]iiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiii[]iiiiiiiiiiiic]iiiiiiiiiiiic»>