The Motion Picture Director (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

13 director Directing Harold Lloyd Hk By Sam Taylor STYLES in entertainment change as rapidly and as radically as any dress mode, a fact that has been amply demonstrated in every branch of entertainment : magazine fiction, novels, stage plays and especially, motion pictures. In no field of entertainment activity, however, has this been more strongly indicated than in the realm of comedy production. During the past few years has been evidenced a steady trend toward what we were wont to call in former days, “subtle comedy” — the comedy that builds its humor on a dramatic foundation, the comedy that is treated seriously and with infinite attention to structural details, the comedy that is actually built just as a contractor rears a limit height building rather than one which is just thrown together. Early exponents of this type of comedy were Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew and a decade ago the “know-it-alls” were loud in their affirmations that the subtle comedy of the Drews would never go over. But they put it over and were becoming thoroughly established as leaders in this particular type of comedy when Sidney Drew’s death intervened. Until Harold Lloyd stepped into the breach with the new distinct type of dramatic comedy which has placed him today in the front rank of box-office attractions, the trend toward dramatic comedy stag nated and received but little impetus. Such developments as were made in this direction were limited to the field of comedy dramas, rollicking dramatic stories with a strong undercurrent of humor — productions of the type that the late Wallace Reid did so effectively. Lloyd’s steady rise to the top has not only brought him the success which he so richly deserved, but has also amply demonstrated the fundamental truth of the premise upon which all of his pictures have been predicated : the treatment of comedy with the same seriousness as that accorded to dramatic productions, and the infusion of a strong vein of drama into comedy features of the story. There is a vast difference between comedv-drama and dramatic comedy of the Lloyd type. The first is fundamentally dramatic, as its name implies. Whatever comedy it has, is injected to provide relief between intensely dramatic sequences and to give the audience a rest from emotional strain. A dramatic comedy is, naturally, basically aimed to produce laughter. The drama which is infused into it, is placed there not alone to rest the audience’s risibilities— which is important enough from a physiological point of view — but also to knit together the comedy sequences in the network of a fundamentally dramatic story. Thus alone can we tell a logically-motivated comedy story and it is this practice which has made the Lloyd pictures what they are today and which is bringing about a revolution in all comedy producing. Motion pictures have found their most genuine expression in comedies rather than in dramas and, in the double race toward the goal of perfection, comedy has far outstripped any other type of picture. I can say this without being accused of prejudice or bias, since it is only a reiteration of what the sincerest students of the screen have already said. In the first place, the fundamental technique of motion pictures is pantomime and even a surface study reveals the supremacy of the comedians in the pantomimic field. And with the supremacy of this type of actor, there has been a corresponding improvement in story-telling and in the direction of comedies far beyond the heights reached in dramatic productions! True pictures should, of course, be told in action rather than in words, and the possibilities for such narration through pictures are far greater in the comedy field. COMEDIES have gone ahead through recognizing the artistic and intellectual development of motion picture audiences far more than the dramatic films have done. The screen public has not only improved in its ability to “read film;” it has