Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1923)

February i o , 19 671 to double and treble, in some instances. At the same time, it is almost impossible to obtain the desired players for these casts, since they are booked weeks and months in advance. Some producers express a fear of high salary days similar to those when the star system was at its height. This situation is partly due to the fact tliat independent state rights producers have been greatly strengthening and proving their casts. "TPILLERS of the Soil " is A another interesting picture. Abel Ganz — producer of " J' Accuse," made it and then someone unmade it and then Myron Stearns made it back again by good re-editing. And now it has people guessing, of course. One expert said it was fine, artistically, but — etc. ; whereupon an exhibitor who was present and who runs a chain of suburban houses said : " Give it to me; my roughneck audiences will eat it up." So there you are. Who does know? No one, of course, but the public. It would be nice if we had a small try-out theatre here in New York. Even if it didn't pay it would be less expensive than a school for distributors and other expert judges. * * * APPENDICITIS has stalked into the studios and taken three of our leading luminaries on location in hospitals. Viola Dana was stricken with the erstwhile fashionable ailment the other day and may be found in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. Margaret Courtot was successfully operated upon at a Newark hospital, while the latest bulletins from Roosevelt Hospital. New York, have it that Bebe Daniels is doing nicely. Bebe has been troubled for several months and although she has had no serious attacks she decided to pari company with her appendix. Over in Lausanne. Switzerland, is Max Linder. who is in a hospital recovering from a fractured arm. * # • LTAROLD B. FRANKLIN, en route to the Coast, where In 11 was one of the guests nl tin opening of Sid Qrauman's latest picture palace, remembers us with u pictun postal from Colorado Springs. Harold is going to buy a Los Angi h s-N< a,York commuter's ticket. He makes flu trip twice a week nowa-days. * # * TT has taken two scenario writers to furnish the New York A stage with two of its biggest hits this season. Which proves if anything that stories for stage and screen need not be treated so differently as some authors would have us believe. It seems to us that what any scenarist or playwright needs first of all is a STORY. The mechanics follow. The plot, the characterization, the situation and the climax must be interwoven into a fabric which sustains itself and the interest of the spectator. Thomas Fallon dramatized " The Last Warning" from a magazine story and brought forth an exciting mystery melodrama. John Colton, who wrote " The Woman Who Walked Alone " for Dorothy Dalton, is co-author with Clemence Randolph of " Rain," the outstanding hit of the season > — a play based upon a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. Try and get seats to it. All about a missionary of the South Seas who lost communion with the spiritual light in his contact with the flesh. The playwrights have fashioned a gripping document of human frailties. Index to Departments Editorial 669 Pictures and People 670-671 General News and Special Features 672-688 Chicago and Mid-West 689 Comedies, Short-Subjects and Serials 712-713 Construction and Equipment 737-746 Exhibitors' Service Bureau 690-702 Feature Release Chart 749-752 Pre-Release Reviews of Features 703-706 Production Distribution Activities 714-720 Regional News from Correspondents 707-711 Reviews of Latest Short-Subjects 748 Studio Notes and Player Brevities 747 What the Big Houses Say 784 With the First-Run Houses 785-798 Special Incandescent Lamp Section 721-736 GOLD^YYX has corralled Victor Seastrom — which is a good thing for Goldwyn and Seastrom. The producers are fortunate in getting this gifted director whose Swedish Biograph pictures will be remembered as the last word in artistic expression^even though they weren't made for the box-office. Seastrom is fortunate in associating himself with an American company, where his ideas can be properly exploited — where he can put them over in studios equipped with every modern device. He doesn't need to take lessons from anyone when it comes to exploiting the human heart throb. Furthermore, he can act. rpHE snap-shot of Tom Mei* ghan taken by Hal Wardlaw, manager of the Cecilia theatre, Panama City, is sure enough indication that the Paramount star's popularity is not confined within the borders of the l7nited States. Tom is shoivn promenading along Cathedral Plaza, between shots of " The Ne'er Do Well," and native sojis and daughters are parked in the background paying him the homage that is accorded a conquering hero. # * # AMONG those prominently present in " The Dangerous Age " enjoying first runs, is Cleo Madison, one of those screen celebrities who became a star when it was customary to earn the distinction by merit of histrionic ability, amplified by hard work, and supported by good looks. Cleo delivers her usual splendid performance with the same poise and presence that identified her long ago as a Universal star, and an actress with a capital " A." * # # THE long awaited Einstein Theory of Relativity, which has been publicized on Hugo Riesenfeld's Rialto and Rivoli screens in the shape of a trailer, will be presented at a private showing this Saturday morning at the Rivoli. New York. The film was produced in Frankfort, (iermany, under the supervision of Dr. Albert Einstein's associates and the American adaptation was made by Prof. Garrett P. Serviss and Max (Out of the Inkwell) Fleischer! • # * DAT UK Cinenurindio, the oldest film house in India, has sent us a copy of tin " Times of India Annual," a large magazine, publish fd annually, which deals extensively with film new*, productions, studios, theatres and people identified with pictures in India. The magazine is profusely illustrated and its composition merits praise for its publishers. # ' # * THE screen camera is making history again. Princeton University tradition and campus life will be recorded in motion picture film. The student body voted Tuesday in authorizing appointment of a committee to take 7,700 feet of film a year as a pictorial history of the activities and interests of every class. Each class will have a four-year reel record. A total of 1,475 feet of film already has been " shot," including pictures of the Yale-Princeton football game. * * * TpRED NIBLO and Enid Bennett, who breakfast tenpther A' over the sum, fable in their roles of husband and wife, are now enjoying a belated honei/meton. The director of " Blood and Sand " and the Doug Fairbanks' leading woman in " Robin Hood " wen married four years ago, but studio routine has prevented tlxm from making a get-away before.