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An Interview With Jesse L. Lasi<y
By FREDERICK JAMES SMITH
"Another trend is the extraordinary success of a fihn plav like 'Hucklelicrry Finn. Tlie jnilUic wants direct, human, close-to-the-.so'il stuff. Tlierc is no question of that. We arc so certain that «c liave delegated William de Mille tcj center u])iin this style of ])roduction."
Mr. Laskv turned to answer tlie telephone. In a two-minute conversation he practically engaged a new star. Then he returned to our interview.
■'The costume play of other days is still out of vogue and will n(Jt l)c popular for tlie next few years, if, indeed, it ever attains jiojudarity. This can be easily explained psychologically. When we view a silent plav wc unconsciously cast ourselves in the role of the heio or llie henjine. We live in a vital age— an age of the aeroplane, the automohile, the telegraph, the wireless, a ]ieriod of tremendous business battles. Wlieii wc see modern plays of our own lime ue tlirow our>eKe into the drama and draw inspiration from it. This i. unconscious, of course, but thi> exhilaration. thi> in-'piration, is naturally lacking in stories of dead and parsed times.''
Mr. l.a-ky paused. And, catching our breath, we turned the subject towards the actor.
Mr. Lasky discusses the popularity of the closeto-the-earth play, the comedy and the starless production, besides the happy ending and other things — as reflected by the theater box-office
"The trend there," he answered, "is clearly towards the dramatic man or woman and away from the becurled ingenue. The old-fashioned ingenue has passed. No one can ever make another Mary Pickford. Miss Pickford was the exception. She has an ability amounting to
genius, along with tremendous technical resources. She is, in fact, an emotional actress with the exterior of an ingenue. There will never be another Mary Pickford, and any one who attempts to produce another is doomed to failure."
The conversation switched back to the photoplay story. "The sex theme." went on Mr. Lasky, "is steadily receiving (Continued on page 64)
(Seventeen)