Film Spectator (1927-1928)

Page Twelve THE FILM SPECTATOR July 23, 1927 ness. Pictures to-day are artistic successes only to the extent that they are natural. Chang is an overwhelming success because we know that it is natural. It takes us into a jungle that we know is not painted, and introduces us to people whom we know are not actors, and every foot of the film enthralls us. It is a wonderful motion picture because it is a motion picture, and not a movie. Its absolute lack of acting makes it the best acted picture we ever have seen. All our Hollywood-made pictures are over-acted. On the stage the actor has to strive to make us forget that the forest is painted; on the screen the forest is real, and the actor does not need to make us forget it. His only task is to be as natural as the forest, but only babies accomplish it. They are the only perfect human actors we have. The outstanding director of the future will be he who makes us believe that a butcher is a butcher, not an actor. Most of our pretty girls who have become famous on the screen and have millions of friends who proclaim them great, have gained reputations as actresses by virtue of the fact that they know nothing about acting, but are the fortunate possessors of the knack of being almost natural. They would be completely natural, and greater favorites, if they realized that they are not actresses and wasted none of their energy upon trying to convey a different impression. No one acts in Chang. All the human characters go about their daily occupations, but they live in an atmosphere of drama, and Chang, in recording faithfully this atmosphere, becomes one of the greatest dramas ever filmed. When we have more directors who can create atmosphere and make their characters part of it, we will have more motion pictures that will be almost great. * * * “When a Man Loves” Is Quite Impossible MANON LESCAUT, the principal character of When a Man Loves, is presented to us frankly as an attractive young woman who rates her love of jewelry above her love of virtue. First she lives with the man she loves; then she is inveigled into the arms of another man and apparently is content to remain there as he has more money than her lover. The second man drapes jewels all over her, and when she tires of him she goes back to her lover and unblushingly tells him that she can not give up the jewels of the man who bought her, thereby being untrue to that clause of the harlot’s code which says a bought woman should stay bought. The lover is presented as exactly the kind of poor sap who would love a woman of that sort. And it is in such char HAVE A SMALL, BUT VERY CHOICE, SELECTION OF LADIES’ HAND BAGS — the best that the market affords. You must see them to appreciate them. CHRYSON’S, Inc. 6926 Hollywood Blvd. Gladstone 3156 acterizations as this that Dolores Costello and John Barrymore make a bid for our sympathy in When a Man Loves. The story is as devoid of virtue as Manon Lescaut. It is planted in various conversations that Jack Barrymore most conveniently overhears. All that it accomplishes in the first half is to bring the man and woman together and then separate them, a series of uneventful reels being devoted to the purpose. When Barrymore goes searching, for Dolores they most conveniently appear in a low dive at the same time and almost, but not quite, discover one another. Griffith did the same thing in Orphans of the Storm, but he tugged at our heartstrings when he did it. In When a Man Loves Alan Crosland, or the scenarist, does it so ineffectively that we have no feeling of pity for the separated sweethearts. This is where the intermission came at the Forum, and I went out on the sidewalk and asked myself why I should not go home, for I was not interested in anything that could happen to the main characters. But when someone tooted his horn I went back to my seat inside and remained through some reels of production value until Dolores and Jack were carried off to jail. Then I did go home. I don’t know what eventually happened to them. I don’t care. I refuse to feel concern for such a girl or for a man w'no could love her. I missed the poignant love story of the book and the opera. In Camille Fred Niblo made me sympathize with the misfortunes of the girl until I condoned her* action in leaving her squalid home to become the mistress of a man of wealth. In When a Man Loves no such sympathy was created, and without it the story had no value. Barrymore is a really great actor, but he is not great enough, nor is there any other actor in the world greatenough, to make something out of nothing. As I watched him in this Warner Brothers picture I sighed for the Barrymore of Jekyll and Hyde or of The Sea Beast. I lamented that his great talents were wasted in such an inane part. Barrymore is regarded by the public as an actor and it wants to see him act. As a leading man with a classic profile he has paraded all his tricks and he should depart from such roles and confine himself to definite characterizations that give him opportunities to display some versatility. Some good, old-fashioned ranting would have been a relief in When a Man Loves. The Warners give the picture a picturesque production, although some of the great interiors are too mathematical in their lines. If no better story could have been secured it should have been done in color. Dolores Costello displays considerable acting ability, and Warner Gland and Sam de Grasse give their usual fine characterizations. But the picture is no credit to the screen and is a lamentable vehicle for an artist of the ability of John Barrymore. “After Midnight” Cheap and Vulgar A SERIES of close-ups of Norma Shearer is Monta Bell’s latest contribution to the screen. When the camera backs up far enough to give us some other glimpses of After Midnight we find that it is a picture for which there is no excuse whatever. We have close-ups of Norma in every stage of activity from having a bath to getting drunk. We have a lot of close-ups of Gwen Lee, too, showing her doing everything from gargling listerine to dying. I thought the former would tie-up later