Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1925)

ONT BROADWAY By William A. Joh nston In the past of this business we had directors and few producers. Certain directors were really producers. So we gave all production credit to directors — even after prominent authors came into the picture. Today we have producers, authors, directors, technical directors, camera men; all are important. Here and there one, decidedly, is of the most importance. But always, it seems to us, the most important is the man who hatched the idea of the picture. * * * ABOUT the most enjoyable, certainly the most novel film luncheon to date was the one given on Tuesday last by Will H. Hays to Mrs. Ruth Griffith Burnett, winner of the first prize in the Greater Movie Season essay contest. In her charming little speech Mrs. Burnett said that she had often been asked what, of all motion pictures, had impressed her most. There was no one picture, she said. Her enduring impressions of pictures were those of certain characterizations and scenes. Here is your true appeal of the pictures; and here, simply, is the reason for stars. The fiction editor of a magazine of large circulation once told me that over ninety percent of his women readers told him that they lived, as they read, the lives of the characters in the story, that this was their supreme test of a story; authors' names, titles, illustrations and so forth were minor considerations. Did their characters live, did they enter the lives of the readers? Here was the story interest. And so it is with pictures — the world over. T HOUGH of comparatively recent origin the Short Feature Advertising Association is making tangible progress in promoting the interests of the one and two reel productions. And what promises to be one of the most important national movements connected with the industry, National Laugh Month which will be celebrated during January, is making rapid strides under the intelligent and energetic direction of the organization. , Once more within the ranks of the industry we have a striking illustration of what can be accomplished when a group of men with common interests adopt the cooperative spirit and present a united front in advancing their cause. The standard of production and the box office names which the producers of short features are employing at present has resulted in a supply of pictures, the quality of which entitles them to the special distinction which Laugh Month is bound to accomplish in their behalf. It is to be hoped, earnestly hoped, that the movement will receive the support that will carry it to a great success. On their merits the short features have earned their right to a place in the sun of popularity and prestige. * * * IT strikes us that Carl Laemmle's deal with Ufa is one of the greatest and wisest ever made in an industry whose history is filled with spectacular business moves. We are compelled to fall back upon newspaper parlance and call it a scoop. A historical one. While we have been discussing International film relations the fact has been accomplished. That is the broadest aspect of the matter. We may now expect an interchange of pictures and picture stars between this country and not merely Germany, but a large part of Continental Europe, for the distribution power of Ufa is a very broad one. But also: Universal leaps with one jump right over the wall of a Kontingent, securing the release in Germany of as many feature pictures as Ufa sees fit to produce for its own broad market; Universal secures the valuable outlet for American pictures in a chain of approximately one hundred and fifty theatres including the choicest in Germany ; and, knowing as we do in this country just what a theatre chain of such magnitude means to a producer-distributor, the word "exclusive" carries a world of meaning. Yes, indeed. Universal has always been a leading concern in the foreign field. Today the foreign field means a great deal to any American concern, and in the future it will mean much more. So, by all rules of simple arithmetic, one is compelled to conclude that this one stroke of business puts Universal in a position of power throughout the film trade world today that any company can well be envious of, and undoubtedly is. At the same time, the assured release of a certain number of its productions in America will mean a great deal to Ufa. Its recent pictures have been produced with a lavish hand and such pictures must have a world wide market to show a profit. At the same time, through the co-operation which it will have from Universal on future productions, Ufa should be able to hit the mark squarely in producing for this field.