Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

March i o, 1923 1191 Read iniiil j, I what theNewYorklPUP i H 9mM * DALLY NEWS slid about *<Hp DRIVEN 60,000 Visit At UnitedStudios Public Takes Advantage of Invitation To See Pictures In Production MORE than sixty thousand persons, mostly visitors to Southern California, are interested in the current production of Associated First National for that many were entertained one day during First National week at the United Studios where all the independent producers are at work on forthcoming Associated Hrst National releases. John McCormick, western representative of Associated First National, conceived the idea of giving the public a view of picturemaking and Joseph M. Schenck who recently bought controlling interest in the United Studios and Alike Levee set the date. The huge crowd that gathered had a glimpse of Norma and Constance Talmadge, Katherine MacDonald, Colleen Moore, Jackie Coogan, Dorothy Phillips, Noah Beery, Jack Mulhall, Barbara Tennant, William V. Mong, Marguerite de la Motte, Virginia Brown Faire, Harold Goodwin, Walt Whitman and many other players. They also had an opportunity of watching Frank Borzage making tests of players for his initial First National production, " Sands of Time," adapted from the story of " Terwilliger ;" and Allen Holu bar who was finishing " Slander the Woman," with Dorothy Dalton. Noah Berry, screen villain, staged a fight with Barbara Tennant on a special stage for this \ ast crowd which watched Jack Mulhall come to Barbara's assistance. They saw also the big sets that remained from "Oliver Twist" and heard Jackie explaining some of them. They walked through the beautiful garden sets of "Within the Law," and saw the streets of " China " used in Constance Talmadge's " East is West." James Young gave a talk on picture making. Mr. Schenck, Maurice Tourneur, Sol Lesser, Sam E. Rork and M. C. Lever helped make the visit enjoyable. Maurice Tourneur's sets for the " Isle of Lost Ships," which is to be released soon was an especial point of interest to the visitors. Dorothy Dalton brought 20,000 autographed photographs and in half an hour they were "grabbed" by the visitors. Hundreds of feet of film were " shot " of the visitors and it is said this will be distributed to the theatres throughout the country. Warners Plan Art Competition Invite Institutions To Submit Original Poster Ideas On Productions AX OPEN poster art competitition which will involve every art institution in America is to be launched by the Warner 'Brothers for the coming series of eighteen productions which are to be produced and publicized at an approximate expenditure of S5,000,000, according to an announcement this week by Harry M. Warner. The twofold purpose of the plan is to seek original poster ideas for lithographs and to stimulate interest in the art of motion picture billboard advertising. A series of prizes will be offered for the best ideas submitted for each production. While the many posters that arc being issued with the current series of Warner classics, namely, " Rags to Riches," " Heroes of the Street," " The Beautiful and Damned," " Little Church Around the Corner," " Brass," and those being drawn for "Main Street," combine both artistic and commercial value, it is Mr. Warner's conviction that there is still room for improvement. He says : " We will endeavor within the very near future to infuse into the making of posters some new and totally different ideas. We want ideas that are original, ideas that will help exhibitors and create favorable comment for their theatres. And it is this comment which will make institutions out of unknown and unrecognized theatres. " Now in order to create this new interest, and in order to secure fresh ideas for our posters, we will enlist the aid of every known artist and art institution in America, offering prizes, of course, to the best posters submitted and accepted." Details of the plan outlined by Mr. Warner have not as yet been completed, but it is stated that following the completion of " Main Street," which is being made at the coast studios under the direction of Harry Beaumont, letter-* explaining the idea will be sent to every art institution in America. "Vanity Fair" Press Book Is Ready One of the most beautiful and artistic of the exhibitors' press and service books which Goldwyn's advertising and publicity department has been preparing for the firm's twenty big specials for the year is that just off the presses for the Hugo Ballin production of " Vanity Fair," starring Mabel Ballin. The front cover is in black and red and shows Miss Ballin as Becky Sharp, holding a mask in her hand. Her figure is reflected in a mirror. This poster is also used as the window card for the production. The posters, pictured on the back cover, are of an unusually artistic and appealing quality. The 24-sheet is a lettered poster in which the letters of the title are printed in red, each letter being about four feet high, against a black background. The three sheet shows Beck Sharp in the likeness of Mabel Ballin, rising from the book's pages Burr Mcintosh "DRIVEN" REACHES HEIGHTS OF BEST AMERICAN FILMS By P. W. GALLICO. Title of picture, "DRIVEN." Produced and directed by CHARLES BRABIN. Released by UNIVERSAL. Presented at the CRITERION THEATRE. "Driven," to us, stands out as one of the bgst photoplays we have ever seen from an American producer. This is a tall statement, but we stick to it. It is powerfully dramatic, brilliantly acted and directed, and makes no concessions. The producer set out to tell a story of the kind of people who inhabit the mountain regions of the South, and he did it unflinchingly. It is not a pretty picture, but it Ms an honest" picture. The story is, so simple it can be told in a few words. A drab, miserable mother of a vicious mountain brood sells information which leads to its being wiped out in order to assure happiness to her youngest son. We can recall, perhaps, only two other photoplays in which the inevitability of circumstances has been as powerfully rendered in a series of pictures as it is in "Driven." There is more real despair and heartbreak in this short film than in all the rest of the so-called "heart" and "mother" pictures put together. Acting honors belong to Emily Fitaroy, whose portrayal of the woman of the mountains whose family have crushed everything but life out of her is a marvelous bit of acting. Charles Emmet Mack h seen as her youngest son, who is different from the others. With Elinor Fair, he shares next honors in this remarkable picture. Miss Fair plays Essie, the girl, thrown in with the brutal family of Tollivers when one of tnem murdersTier father. George Ban,eroft and Burr Mcintosh have he other two telling parts, Bancroft, as Lem the killer, who desires Essie, and Mcintosh as Paw, the head of an unholy family of. moonshiners. We haven't the space to be as We suggest that yoir Elinor Fair and Charles Emmet Jflack enthusiastic about this film as we would like to see it. The photography is excellent, because it does just what it should. It helps tiO tell the story. The love element between Tommy ?nd Essie is handled as charmingly as we have ever seen it done. It is a picture, of life. It is.. . .oh well, see for yourself. A CHARLES BRABIN Production UNIVERSAL JEWEL iyCoxI Laemmle .