Motion Picture Classic (1923, 1924, 1926)

The RISE of the LITTLE CINEMA much t" make thai the) have to be teen bj a lot "i people somehow Like the Little Theater Movement ••\Y/ ng i" build up mi the frame woik oi the Little theaters thruout the country. In score! of cities thru are unall groups which are jerioush devoted to the stage anil good ilr.itn.i l'he> have theaters and fallowings We are intei esting them in the bettei films with the plan .it building them up mti) a distribul iuK system on a small scale Program! shown in our New Vork rheatei will be shipped around tins circuit. To pay the expenses there will be subscription showings. In tins way, instead of being seen by a few hundreds, our programs will be seen by thousand Symon Gould believes that the work of the Film Guild will eventually be of great value to motion pictures as a whole. Re rivals interfere in no way with "the work of the big producers and exhibitors. In fact, a new market is created for films which have been rolled up and forgotten. In a way he is simply taking advantage of an awakening interest in movies on the part of another section of the public. Small exhibitors with their tiny financial risks can try new ideas and experiments that big organizations dare not attempt. The very bigness of the film companies has been against their making rapid progress with new ideas. Once there is a small public of say ten thousand with a developed appetite for new ideas in pictures, or for tragic or "serious" film works, it is possible that new talent may be encouraged along more adventurous lines. Men like young von Sternberg, who turned out the "Salvation Hunters" for a few thousand dollars, might get their chance for a public showing much more readily. Would the "little films" and the "little cinemas" compete in any way with the field of the big companies? New Ideas for the Big Producers itfi'mwd from ptgt 35) i toe oi the moat enjo) able i uas a showing oi old pictures "t ■ dosen in fifteen yean bach antique*" the) had become bj now Nothing could have bet tei illuminated the big strides which in. ivies have taken urn the improvement in the taste oi the general publii iUeli I he directors were It is .mis thru looking at these old pictures and comparing them with what we have done since thai we will know Um ti ue nature "i the moi nig i"1 ture we know this, there will he lilnis that will nevei grow old Rhythmic Motion Esaential Bright young men then, but their little PjUDLlY Miki-hv thinks that the ..:.i ._ -i„.„„... I Tl.... ...... I—' _u... l.i. _ .1 tucks were ic elementary I l here were no "fadeOUtS." There were all sorts of funny skipv and jumps Titlei took the place "i action oi scenerj , everything Mo, it was pointed out. N'o more than the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York competes with the Shubert Theaters. The one is interested in the art of the drama ; the others in entertaining the public. The latter have a public tenthousand times greater. But when the little theater has an actor or an idea that the public take up, the Shuberts will buy them. So with the Little Cinemas. Their risks will cost little, and their discoveries of new ideas (which anyone who has the interest of the films at heart prays fervently for) will be common property for the motion picture industry and serve to liven up things. In the meantime the taste oi their highbrow public, if it may be called such, is very curious. Chaplin and Harold Lloyd slapsticks are mingled with German expressionist films, and are equally liked. Here is an impressionistic setting in the French film, "The New Enchantment," with Jacques Catelain standing on the steps. The picture was directed by Marcel L'Herbier and is sponsored by Film Associates charactei oi the film is motion, or the ili\tlini ..I things in motion. I r ami tell something about Dudln Murphy. Me is one ,,) the figUTCI m tin ait tilm movement I lis revolutii "Ballet "f the Machine" ! and hissed and laugh) A lanky young man, s,,it silken and risiOfUU") He is lii .me ta whii h has absorbed the ■ ■ about modern art that are current in Europe. But some he may come back from his wild exploit! and experiment^ to give a vision of the great American scene. "New York, in fact, the whole sweep of the American scene, fascinates me," he said. "Nobody realizes how strange the life that is going on right under our noses is. I am trying to get the fantastic speed and rythm oi this jazz age into a film." He is working now on a feature film of New York life. It has never been done yet, as Flaherty has done the Eskimos or the South Sea Islanders. Dudley Murphy, if he can work out his ideas, may be heard from in a big way. His opinions are worth noting : "One of the greatest films made here was James Cruze's 'Hollywood,' Cruze came closer to the very feeling of American life today than anybody I know. King Vidor is probably our greatest director right now. The first half of 'The Big Parade' had some of the -finest motion picture technique ever done. The 'business' between Gilbert and Renee Adoree was marvelously carried out and conceived. Vidor has a miraculous sense of timing." Worthy Revivals and New Ideas done in haste. A dummy instead of a man, is thrown from the train in "The Great Train Robbery" of fifteen years ago, and he is very much a dummy, altho the train is going at five miles an hour. It was delicious to see Mary Pickford and King Baggot, for instance, in "Going Straight" (1913). The pantomime was primitive. Mary Pickford very pretty, in one of those wide-sweeping skirts, or whenever you could see her face under a huge bonnet. King Baggot most touching as he claps his hand to his head or waves temptation away with his other hand in brisk gestures. That which was sad and tragic is all fun now ! If only some of these old thrillers could be revived with their titles touched up. They would be the most side-splitting farces. "The other "Little Cinema group," the Film Associates. is headed by a Mr. Montgomery Evans, 2nd. Also an outsider. A young man who likes to dabble with the arts, and finds more art in the films now than in anything else. The Film Associates do more in the way of introducing new pictures than revivals. On their programs have been some very curious French films, in fact, more French than German. The French have lots of ideas, and some great painters. Among the pictures shown here, "The New Enchantment." directed by l'Herbier, was a fake on a detective thriller and built along the crazy lines of "Dr. Caligari." It had the aid of one of France's greatest modern painters, Fernand Leger. in the making of the sets, which were often very jolly. It was received, however, with mixed feelings and its authors showed on the whole less natural genius for the film than the Ger (Continued on page 82) 69