Film Spectator (1927-1928)

August 6, 1927 THE FILM abilities. Walter Pidgeon is an imposing looking leading man who knows how to act. I like him better every time < I see him on the screen. ♦ ♦ * Forewords and the Close-up Curse '■ y^^CCASIONALLY we have a picture with a foreword ■ I to it. It puts us in the right mental condition to understand and enjoy the opening sequence, as well as to be interested intelligently in the way the theme, explained in the foreword, is developed. It is a sensible practice. That we see it so seldom is due to the fact that our production supervisors have so little picture intelligence. Too many of them think in terms of the stage, and the fact that our vocal plays have no obvious forewords persuades them that pictures should have none. The reason a stage has no explanatory foreword is because all the information that it would convey to the audience is given in the opening scenes. The first ten or twelve minutes of a stage drama are consumed with a lot of talk that virtually amounts to a foreword, for it plants the theme and acquaints the audience with the antecedents of the characters. A picture, dej|ried a voice, can accomplish the same thing, in as far as tJi^theme is concerned, in forty or fifty words. Mata-Han,"?^hat intelligently produced • German picture, starts off witlf^ foreword that illuminates its entire course. The Whirlw^j^l of Youth has a brief foreword which I approved when ^ead it, but the picture made me forget what it was, for aJLI could gather from the action is that if a young fellow K^ps on kissing girls 'long enough it is inevitable that sooner or later he will kiss the one and only. Rowland V. Lee directed it. It must have writhed the soul of the man who gave us Barbed Wire to transfer such a purposeless story to the screen. I can not estimate the merits of Lee’s direction of this Lois Moran vehicle, for it was hidden behind hundreds of the most absurd close-ups that probably ever were assembled in one picture. The intelligence that Lee displayed in handling Barbed Wire would seem to preclude the possibility that he can be blamed for the lack of intelligence in The Whirlwind. Ordinarily closeups are a director’s confession that he shot them because he lacked the ability to handle convincingly in one shot more than one character. Probably Lee close-uped everything for “protection” and Lloyd Sheldon, whom the screen presents as editor, used the close-ups instead of — THE CONNOISSEUR A Rare Book Shop of Distinction Rare Books Library Sets in First Editions Fine, Rich Bindings Autographs Collector’s Items on the Theatre Limited De Luxe Editions Manuscripts Special Offering for the Week “She Stoops to Conquer,” First Edition, ' By Oliver Goldsmith London, 1773, Printed for F. Xewbery. Very Scarce. The collation of this copy is similar to that of the copy in the British Museum. . 6080 Sunset Boulevard Phone HE. 4111 Hollywood SPECTATOR Page Thirteen action to tell the story. After watching the parade of close-ups for four or five reels it occurred to me to get some idea of just how many there were in the picture. I counted forty-nine while the minute hand of my watch was traveling from twenty-five after to half -past. That means that there were somewhere around six hundred in the entire picture. I know it is unbelievable, but there are the figures for you. Of the six hundred perhaps six were justifiable. It is one of the most stupid exhibitions of editing that ever made the screen ridiculous. But as our minds are occupied now more with economy in picturemaking than with the modicum of art which they display, reflect upon the great expense that Paramount w’ent to to ruin this particular production. I presume all the scenes were shot also in long and medium shots, as is the idiotic custom of directors. An enormous amount of film, which is time and money in celluloid form, was wasted to give room for the close-ups, which in themselves represented thousands of dollars sacrificed to the downright incompetence of those who made the picture. Lasky contends that the salaries of actors are too high. Yet he pays two of them for the time they spend locked in one another’s arms while individual close-ups of them are shot. Lois Moran and Donald Keith are clasped in a tight embrace, but not too tight to prevent the cameraman cleaving them into separate close-ups. And that is but one of the crimes against art and economy which this picture commits. I do not know how long it took to shoot the picture, but I am confident that it would have taken only half the time if the shots that ruined it had been eliminated. While the Biltmore conferences were discussing screen follies I hope they considered the close-up one of the greatest. ANTHONY COLDEWEY Adaptations — Continuities 1. “Dearie” . . . . . . Roxy’s Theatre 2. “The First Auto” . . . Colony Theatre 3. “Old San Francisco” . Warner’s Theatre One Week’s Record THREE PICTURES on DEMMY LAMSON, Mgr. Broadway New York Ruth Collier, Associate An established reputation for handling the greatest variety of the finest silks. BOLGER’S THREE STORES I 446-448 Beverly Drive 6510-6514 Hollywood Boulevard 7615 Sunset Boulevard