Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1919)

.MOTION piCTUBF >l I MAGAZINE . L Best news of the month : Marshall Neilan is again directing Mary Pickford. Best laugh of the month : Exhibitor up in Farmingdale, Vermont, says that he cant show big pictures like "Hearts of the World'' because the screen isn't large enough. Best joke of the month : Maxine Elliott sues Goldwyn for $50,000 salary she believes she earned as a movie actress. Now that Samuel Goldfish, president of the Goldwyn Company, has had his name lawfully changed to Samuel Goldwyn in order to derive personal benefit of the fame and publicity the company has gained thruout the world, we may expect a wholesale following of suit by other producers and presidents. Why not Adolph Paramount, Lewis J. Select, Carl Universal and Richard Metro? A well-known director, a Frenchman, says that screen acting and pantomime are the same. Screen expression and pantomime are about as much alike as horseshoeing and hand-painting. The pantomimist exaggerates and overacts. Everything he does is unlifelike. The screen actor seeks to repress outward signs of emotion and subdue his gestures and facial expressions. The failure of foreign producers and actors to realize this radical difference is largely responsible for the great loss in prestige their films have suffered in the past few years. Screen expression is moving forward, while pantomime is standing still. Envious Edward Now that we have been told by all the big men of the films "how the motion picture saved the world," it seems a pity that they didn't end the thing quicker by sending more films and less soldiers to the war zone. With loud complaints, Little Edward had been dragged From the Motion Picture theater, (After having seen the showThree times), To make a call upon His grandmother. When he asked after her health, She replied : "I'm pretty well, dear, Except my eyes, There is a constant film Before them." At which Edward exclaimed : "Gee, you're lucky!" Harvey Peake. The height of greatness: Organizing your own company and electing yourself president. The height of art : Close-up of hero and shero in last-minute embrace, setting sun in background, fade slo-owly out. Lost, S. or S. Jack Pickford's naval uniform Some of Clara Kimball Young's popularity. Some of Marguerite Clark's girlishness. Stuart Holmes' villainy. Henry Walthall's prestige. And a girl named June Caprice. For some reason or other many directors are always picking on the close-up. They believe it shouldn't be used, but advance no sensible argument. One director, last month, made the brilliant statement that the close-up bears the same relation in the photoplay that the opera-glass does in the theater. "The opera-glass," he says, "is used but rarely in the theater, and then only when the individual wishes to get a close glimpse of the players." We thought that Theatergoers liked to get as close to the players as possible and that opera-glasses were used, as a rule, only by persons who were seated so far from the footlights that they were unable to get a real, intimate glimpse of the players. If theatergoers dislike close-ups of the players, why do the seats nearest the footlights bring the most money? Why not do away with them? Do they ever come back ? See Blanche Sweet in "The Unpardonable Sin" and Anita Stewart in "Virtuous Wives," and settle it for yourselves. Motion Picture Director : You shouldn't have the principals kissing in the middle of the picture. New Scenario Writer (who is trying to learn the game) : Why not? Director : An audience would think that was the end and would /Tv walk out. 062 A6£ "Gaby Deslys is a wonderful bird in her latest picture," chirps Pathe publicity. Why not be more explicit about the species? She's a high-flyer, a 1 1 right, but no chicken. Perhaps she's a kingfisher. Movie Nonessentials Most re-issues. Most scenario departments. The sheriff with the flowing mustache. Advice by wouldbe stars. Narrow-escape press stories. If you see Mae Marsh in public with Arms about her, dont get excited. It's She has just mar all right. ried a gentleman by that name. Miss Democracy Triumphant Fade-out.