Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

March 17, 1923 1255 Talbot Mundy, the British novelist, has lent himself to this experiment. He is completing a new novel, "The Devil's Own," and Bradley King will not only make the adaptation of this story but also is collaborating with the author in working out the tale. A second Mundy novel, already in synopsis form, has been purchased by Ince and will be written in collaboration with Miss King. Fiction publishers have long been complaining that writers are working with screen rewards in view and are sacrificing literary style to camera requirements. "Serving two masters" they call this sort of composition, and they are frank to say that they don't like the result. Looking at it from this angle the Ince "entirely original Index to Departments Editorial 1253 Pictures and People 1254-1255 General News and Special Features 1256-1269 Chicago and Mid-West 1274 Comedies, Short-Subjects and Serials 1305-1306 Construction and Equipment 1315-1324 Exhibitors' Box-Office Reports 1275 Exhibitors' Service Bureau 1276-1284 Feature Release Chart 1325-1328 Pre-Release Reviews of Features 1291-1294 Production-Distribution Activities 1307-1314 Regional News from Correspondents 1297-1304 Reviews of Latest Short-Subjects 1296 Studio Notes and Player Brevities 1290 With the First-Run Houses 1270-1273 Bancroft Productions, Inc.. Section 1285-1289 so scheme doesn't look even though it registers frankness. Nevertheless the director's experiment is interesting and its outcome will be watched by writers. AMONG the arrivals on the Majestic in New York on Friday of this week was C. S. Trowbridge, general manager of Allied Artists, the English branch of the United Artists corporation, who will remain in New York for a short while in connection with the British release of that company's product. # # # &ICIIARD ROWLAND, general manager of Associated "V First National, went to Los Angeles this week, where he will take part in a series of conferences on that organization's expanding production activities. # # * STARS of the stage and screen did their share in attracting some two thousand persons to the ball given at the RitzCarlton Hotel last week by the Newspaper Women's Association of New York. Among the players noted in the throng were Marion Davies, Eleanor Fair, Hope Hampton, Lew Cody, Juanita Hansen, Anne Luther, Will Rogers (who was on the program, of course), and a host of others. * * * ROBERT G. VIGNOLA, writing to " Artie " Brilant, his personal representative, speaks enthusiastically of his trip around the world, from which he will return about May first. He reports that American-made pictures are in great favor in the Far East, especially comedies, which cause them to fairly double up with laughter. The Japanese theatre, with its excellent acting and sets, and its revolving stage, have made a great impression on him. He has been received warmly everywhere, and has been made much of by newspapers and the public at the various points at which he has touched. In conclusion, he says : " The trip so far has proved a great success. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and in spite of having only a short time in each port it has been long enough for me to gather plenty of good material, and my camera has been quite busy shooting characters and scenes that will be of use to me in my future productions." * * * FOLLOWING a brief stay in New York, M. C. Levee, president of the United Studios, has returned to the West Coast. It is understood that he closed arrangements for a number of productions to be made at United. "PXTENSIVE comment has ' been aroused among the so-called intelligentsia concerning the purchase by Goldwyn of " R. TJ. R.", the Theatre Guild stage production which has been one of the highlights of the current theatrical season. Written by Carel Capek, the Czecho-Slovakian dramatist, it deals with the invention of Rossum's Universal Robots, mechanical men, made in a factory, to do the menial work of the world and with the ultimate destruction of man by these Robots which finally reach a point where they learn to think for themselves. This play has the makings of a screen drama that — ■ would be distinctly different, 1 , . rightly handled, and the fart that the script will be under the supervision of June Mathis is excellent assurance of that. It is understood that a num ber„lofffs hav« bee" made for " The World We Live In " °\u£* uStu Comfy'' written by Capek in collaboration with his brother, and presented on the New York stage by William A Brady, and that it is likely that this will be hlmed. This, too, is unusual in theme and treatment dramatizing, as it does, the problems of society, the middle classes and the masses in terms of the insect world. * * * A/f ARY ANDERSON , after a busy year's work in New York on independent productions is back in Los Anodes * * * J ' TTUTCHINSON'S novel, "If Winter Comes," is some±x thing the reader can turn to any time and find great spiritual comfort. As a screen drama it succeeds in retaining its spiritual quality. Many have said and many will continue to say that this exceptionally gifted stylist cannot be translated into celluloid— that the import of his message must be absorbed through page after page to realize its significance. This is true in a sense. Yet Harry Millarde has done a very creditable work by the story. True the tale carries nothing of physical conflict— rather is it a tale of the reactions of life upon a highly sensitized character, Mark Sabre — one of the most lovable characters which ever found its way to the printed page. The director has caught the Hutchinson idealism in a manner which makes the picture an inspiration. Could he do any more than that? We defy anyone to make the author's introductory chapters — sketchy as they are — anything but episodic. It takes words deftly put together — as Hutchinson weaves them — to make the pattern complete and coherent. Yet the staunch foundation is there always — the great humanity, the noble integrity of the man, Sabre, caught as he is in a maelstrom of unaccountable events. Never once does Millarde lose contact with the idealization of this character. He brings forth the humanness and whimsical humor of the man ; he emphasizes the sharp discords in his life ; he, in fact, catches the true psychology of the figure The picture has been staged in the exact locale of the story and its characters for the most part live. Particularly does Sabre live as humanized by Percy Marmont who catches the quaint whimsy, the noble simplicity, the brooding torment of soul when he is perplexed by people and problems, the charming humaneness, the trusting conscience — qualities which he emphasizes through a highly sensitive face which records every impression — just as Hutchinson would have it.