Motion Picture Mail (October 28, 1916)

Flash es Over make-up! An English screen expert protests about the painted lips, the obviously beaded eyelashes and the other illusion destroying things affected by the American film player. “Why is it,” he asked us after seeing a recent ingenue star drama, “that they attempt close-ups of these painted soubrettes? And the leading man’s lips! Can’t producers realize that over make-up destroys all atmosphere and demolishes any sustained dramatic interest?” Clara Kimball Young has just advanced the argument that the silent drama will not fullfil its mission until it is really silent — until all captions and subtitles are eliminated. She says — and truthfully — that too many captions are injected into photodramas these days. “We do not give our audiences credit for the intelli- gence that they possess,” she maintains. Can—or should—the subtitle be discarded? Only the other day a screen authority remarked to us that the perfect film drama of the future will eliminate practically every caption and that one scene will dissolve into another, thus getting away from the jerky quality of the drama of to-day. Prof. Hugo Munsterberg has discussed this point, declaring that producers are obliged to yield to the scheme simply because the scenario writers are still untrained and clumsy in using the technique of the new art. Continuing, he says, “The photoplay of the day after to-morrow will surely be freed from all elements which are not really pictures.” Prof. Munsterberg believes that certain leaders, such as “After Three Years,” or “The Next Morning,” will always be justified, just as the title of a painting is justified. The use of telegrams,' letters, etc., he holds to be a logical part of the play. “The next step,” says the professor, “toward the emancipation of the photoplay decidedly must be the creation of plays which speak the language of pictures only.” There is a decided trend on the screen just now toward the historical or costume play. “Intolerance” revitalizes old Babylon, Pans in the days of the Medici and Judaea at the time of Christ. Geraldine Farrar is soon to be seen in a screen drama based upon the character of Joan of Arc. Florence Reed is to do a story of the middle ages, “The Queen Mother.” Mary Garden is likely to be seen in a film version of “Thais.” Pauline Frederick has been announced in a motion picture story of Charlotte Corday. The films have been pursuing Shakespeare, too. Broadway this week has rival “Romeo and Juliet” productions. We are soon to see Frederick Warde in “King Lear.” The screen lends itself particularly to the romantic theme. (Personally we doubt the possibilities of Shakespeare in the films.) But where the spoken play is a thing of painted castles and the off-stage din of battle, the film drama can actually create this atmosphere of other days. And the romantic theme will be popular in the pictures—provided the characters are humanized and are not merely costumes strutting through melodramatic in- cidents. Frederick James Smith. 3 Hire Week’s Screen Higk Lights Annette Kellermann wearing a modish smile and sitting nonchalantly on sharp coral rocks in “A Daughter of the Cods.” Ann Pennington undulating naively through the hula-hula in “The Rainbow Princess.” The Theda Bara Juliet remarking, ”What man art thou, that thus bescreened in night so stumbleih on my counsel?” SUBSCRIPTION RATES Yearly $2.50 Six Mon’.hs.. 1.25 Three Months .65 Singe Copies .05 Motion Picture Mail T. E. OLIPHANT, Editor and Publisher C. A. KRACHT, Advertis ng Manager FREDERICK JAMES SMITH, Associate Editor MABEL CONDON, Pacific Coast Representative Published Wcc^ly on Saturday by the Mail and Express Company, at 203 Broadway , New Yorfr HENRY L. STODDARD, President EDWARD A. RUMELY, Vice-President and Secretary GEORGE H. LARKE, Treasurer . 203 Broadway UPTOWN OFFICE 1482 Broadway, at Forty-third Street (Fitzgerald Bldg.) Tel. 9070 Bryant Make checks payable to The Mail and Express Company, 203 Broadway, New York. VOLUME II. NEW YORK, OCTOBER 28, 1916. NUMBER VIII. Clune’s production of the Wright novel, ‘ ‘ The Eyes of the World,” is destined for the public in a month or so, accord- ing to reports from the coast. OKI nr The Astra Film Corporation has pre- sented little Helene Jose, the baby daughter of Director E'dward Jose, with a solid silver dinner service. Let’s see, what was the popu- lar old savins' about a child born with a silver spoon in its mouth ? The Le ns light Who’s Who What’s What erein No A ttention Paid to Unsigned Communications Francis X. Bush- man and Beverly Bayne have started work in a fourteen episode serial, with W. Christy Cabanne directing. Mary Piekford's first Artcraft re- lease, ‘ ‘ Less Than the Dust,” will be released on Novem- ber 6. Augustus Phillips will now be leading man for Viola Dana at the Metro studios. In the old Edison days Mr. Phillips frequently appeared with Miss Dana, so the engagement is really a reunion. Carl Laemmle states emphatically that the published report that he in- tended to head a company other than the Universal is absolutely untrue. The Selig company has completed ■* ‘ The Garden of Allah, ’ ’ and Director Colin Campbell is now in Chicago cut- ting and titling the production. A desert sand storm is to be featured in the visualization of Robert Ilichens’s exotic novel. Stanley Mastbaum, of Philadelphia, has purchased the rights to ‘ ‘ The Con- quest of Canaan,” for eastern Penn- sylvania, Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia, and Virginia. Jay Elmont, formerly with the Mi- nor Films, Inc., and Universal as tech- nical and art director, has joined the Triangle corporation. He left for the coast last week. After checking up his notebook, Car- lyle Blackwell discovered that his forthcoming appearance in the Inter- national offering, ‘ ‘ The Ocean Waif, ’ ’ marks his 375th characterization on the screen. The Lasky company, of California, has purchased the rights to the latest Frohman feature for California, Ne- vada, New Mexico and Arizona. Rhea Mitchell has left the American company and is likely to be again seen on the speaking stage in New York. Jack Warren Kerrigan declares that all these wild rumors about his future plans have no foundation in fact. Ker- rigan is leaving the Universal com- pany at the expiration of his contract, but he has closed with no other firm — as yet. Ralph W. Ince has retired from his post as producing director for the Vita- graph Company of America. He an- nounces his intention of forming at once a large company of his own to carry out ambitious plans he has long had under consideration. With Mr. Ince will go Lucille Lee Stewart and Huntley Gordon, who will head the new organization. The many motion picture press agents are planning to see Marguerite Clark in ‘ ‘ Miss George Washington. ’ ’ Miss Clark plays a resourceful little fibber in the Famous Players produc- tions, and the hard-working P. A. ’s hope to be able to pick up an idea here and there. The forthcoming appearances of Edith Storey, the Vitagraph actress, in outdoor stories of the West will be awaited with interest. It is really a return to the field of the star’s first successes. Do you recall her early dramas and her fine riding? No one can better express femininity in the primitive. Mr. Producer and Exhibitor: G. Sehirmer, Inc., is writing musical scores for such firms as the Para- mount, Fox, Triangle, World, Uni- versal, Frohman and others. ‘ ‘ The Daughter of the Gods” is embellished by an elaborate orchestration by Rob- ert Hood Bowers, while Edwin J. Howe is preparing a score for thij Piekford picture “Less Than the Dust” Vivian Rich is now with the Fox folk, playingoppositeWilliam Farnum. Her first picture is called ‘ ‘ The Price of Silence.” Helen Arnold, the little Louisville, Ky., girl who played an important part in “The Witching Hour.” suf- fered a nervous attack this week and was compelled to return to her home town for a few weeks in order to re- cuperate. Miss Arnold’s work in ‘‘The Witching Hour” was so satis- factory that she has already been en- raged by the Lasky company for work in one of their forthcoming features.