Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Jun 1929)

Jl SeconeL T/ILKIC Starring Sue Carol and Nick Stuart Fox Film Stars NICK ; " You know, lots of people think movie stars aren't as pretty in person as on the screen. But if they ever saw you, with your beautifuleyesandyournatural,rubylips..." SUE: "Very well said, Nick. You're as nice a lover off the screen as on My eyes are my own, thank you, but my lips are Tangee'd! Here — this ismy Tangeelipstick." NICK: "Innocent little thing, isn't it?" SUE : "/( is not ! I may sound like a press agent, but honestly, Tangee is wonderful. It's practically indelible, and while you put it on, it blends perfectly with your own natural coloring." NICK: 'Til say it does!" Demand Tangee Today ! One lipstick and rouge for all complexions. On sale everywhere. Tangee Lipstick $1. Tangee Rouge Compact 75f^. Tangee Creme Rouge $1. Also Tangee Face Powder, clinging, fragrant, $1. Tangee Night Cream $1. Tangee Day Cream $1. Twenty-five cents more in Canada. If the name Tangee does not appear on the package tt ts not Tangee. l^N^^^' Beauty ... for 20 Cents ! Twenty cents brings you the roiniaturo Tangee Beauty Set all six items and the "Art of Make-Up." Address Dept. M P.C 6, The George W. Luft Co., Inc.. 417 Fifth Ave., N. Y. Name . . Addrett . mm Shouting from the Bathtubs {Continued from page 2j) victory of the former. And if only ten per cent of those who view the picture are consciously aware of this, he will consider that he has done quite well; for he feels that even if all the others have tasted only the sugarcoat, the medicine will have done its work just the same. "My method is the same as that of my mother, who always gave us our medicine in soda-pop. 1 have followed this system with only one exception. Even 'The Ten Commandments' had itsquota. And though 'The Godless Girl' had no lavish sets nor gowns, the basic principle was the same: I simply substituted bootleg. 'The King of Kings' is the only exception; in it, 1 feel that I have given the medicine straight." " Even there, you threw in a little pop for good measure. And wasn't the rest of it straight only because, in the character of Jesus, you had a medicine pleasant in itself?" "Yes. There 1 was giving something that was agreeable, and it was unnecessary to disguise the taste. But — it's difficult to find many medicines like that." And that is the reason why he has made no attempt to duplicate "The King." When one can find a cathedral in which to preach, a ballroom is unnecessary. But many such cathedrals are not available — especially when they must be within easy walking distance of your congregation. "Then you won't make another picture like that until you find another medicine just as pleasant to take? In other words, you'd require some character such as Lincoln?" The Pop's the Thing AVERY good picture has already been made of Lincoln, but that illustrates the point quite well. Some great man such as he, who lived a great life. I can't think of anyone at the moment, though." "But no matter how great the man, you wouldn't tackle him unless his life were already known to your audience? You wouldn't tackle Lao-tse, for instance?" "No. They must want to hear about him before they go. They must already know he's great, and why. You mustn't have to tell them." "In considering whether or not you'll make a particular picture, are you more interested in the medicine or the pop?" "The pop, every time. The one thing of primary importance is to get a story that will hold the interest and slide down easily. It's always simple enough to take an eyedropper and put the medicine in afterward. And just so long as the medicine does its work, what does it matter how it's administered?" Yet it is just around this matter of the how that DeMille has received most of his kicks in the pants. For he has been kicked, and with enthusiasm, by many people. Which is reasonable enough. Such a Godawful legend has been built up around this man and his message that there was bound to be a reaction. Let's get down to cases. I, for instance, met him first a year or so ago on an interview for this magazine. But it was really the legend 1 met, and not the man. Before 1 was admitted to the august presence, I was taken aside and fully impressed with the awesomeness of the great phenomenon that was about to happen. I, poor little me, would actually be permitted to lunch with Cecil B. DeMille! But 1 was warned that 1 must treat him with kid gloves; that one misstep, one word spoken out of turn, would make him close up like a clam and cost me my story. In other words, I was told to make myself perfectly at home in a strait-jacket. Nice and Friendly THUS put completely at my ease, I was led in and presented. A man with great influence, a sort of god with the power to change the course of human fortunes, a star-maker, DeMille can meet few people who are not keenly aware of this and who do not therefor consciously try to promote his interest in them. Is it strange then, if one of his greatest delights is to play at cat and mouse with almost everyone he meets for the first time? Fair enough, I suppose. But hardly apt to breed a spirit of brotherly love in the heart of the strait-jacketed mouse. 1 came out gasping for air, sore as a boil, and consecrated to the holy cause of taking pot-shots at this baby. Can you blame me? Then this assignment came my way. Oh, honey, how long! The kid gloves went in the ash can; with a chip on my shoulder I fared me forth. But this time it was altogether different, and I liked the blighter! Tossing circumspection to the winds and rushing in where I had been told that angels fear to tread, I asked whatever questions I felt like asking without giving a tinker's dam whether they were discreet or not. And the heavens did not fall. He simply answered them or not as he felt like it, without trying to hedge in any way. 1 found that what had suffocated me before was not DeMille so much as a mist that has gathered about him. Cutting through the legend to the man, I found I liked him. And now — what about that far-famed message? The Unuttered Message PROBABLY nothing in all the annals of pictures has had more hokum written for and against it; but the simple fact is this: he has never yet put it in a single picture. He has preached his different sermons on different topics, surely; but as to that central core from which all his ideas spring, that has never been touched. "Yes, I have one. And I intend to put it in a picture when I feel the time is ripe. So far, in my last few pictures, 1 have been feeling my way — preparing the ground and testing the thing itself. I have slipped slight hints of it into several pictures, but always so disguised and hidden that no one could get more than a slight feel of it — nothing to lay the hands on. "I have studied the reaction to these hints very carefully, and they have been even more favorable than 1 had dared hope. In fact, 1 expect to be able to come out in the open with it in two or three years. "No, it's not a thought that no one has ever had before. It has been expressed by several writers — and by Abe Lincoln. But the vast screen audience made up of so many different races is slower to accept new thoughts than the hand-picked audience of books. This particular thought would never have been countenanced for a moment a few years ago, and they're not quite ready for it yet. But they will be! And then I'll give it to them — first with soda-pop, and then perhaps, without." All of which should confuse pretty thoroughly those who have for years been poking fun at the big preachment they thought was embodied in DeMille's pictures. For it appears that this has been read into the photoplays by critics eager to pounce on something, who, when they found no prey, invented a dummy hare to worry. So there you are— we've most of us been swinging our slapsticks where he ain't. 76