Motion Picture News (Sep-Oct 1923)

September 15. 1923 1295 entirely. " W e of the films have not gone ahead as our public has. The public is not tired of old faces. It is tired of the old face in the old material. It would have an even greater apathy for new faces in the old material. " Most of the people who make pictures, it seems to me, make the mistake of wanting too much plot. The scenario writer and director build and rebuild, criss-cross and dovetail and lay so many pipes in preparation for the plot or a situation that when the time for it arrives there is an anticlimax. " In my own work I have found that an elaborate plot is not necessary — just a slim structure or a sequence of scenes that will enable me to create a great deal of action and business that will entertain the audience apart from the story that is to be developed. A plot is of no importance to me unless it does suggest these opportunities. " Many people think that the film comedies are better than the dramas. If they are right it is unquestionably due to the fact that the comedies have paid less attention to plot and trite moralizing than the dramas. The comedy has had more invention and it has had more theatrical business. It has also known from the beginning that speed and quick movement of objects is essential to the motion picture. The film demands speed, not necessarily in the terms of quick movement but in a combination of circumstances, one happening directly after another." Chaplin is at the top because he knows the secret of real motion picture technique and dynamics. * * * WATTEKSON R. ROTHACKER, who holds commutation tickets (and uses 'em) between Chicago and London and Chicago and the Coast, returned from Europe and left for Chicago this week. The mountain breezes say that an interesting announcement will be forthcoming shortly regarding a laboratory in London to further swell the chain of Rothackcr laboratories, which will soon encircle the globe at the present rate. Index to Departments Editorial 1291 Pictures and People 1294-5 General News and Special Features 1296-1304 Comedies, Short Subjects and Serials 1328-31 Current Opinion on Short Subjects 1363 Construction and Equipment.... • 1355-62 Exhibitors' Box-Office Reports 1311 Exhibitors' Service Bureau 1319-27 Feature Release Chart 1364-6 First-Run Theatres 1312-14 Pre-Release Reviews of Features 1332-5 Production-Distribution Activities 1343-53 Regional News from Correspondents 1336-42 and part of the huge canyon set, constructed for the picture, were carried away also. Word was immediately given to shut off the current, but before this could be done, the damage had been accomplished. "The next time the machines were turned on they were started one at a time, so that no more unnecessary expense would be incurred in an already extravagant production." As we intimated in the beginning, this is a darned good story, even if nobody will believe it, as proved by the fact that we have awarded it this coveted space, and the Asbestos Typewriter Ribbon for the week is duly awarded to Ed Hurley, Demon Publicity Purveyor in Nat Rothstein's department. C. L. (BILL) YEARSLEY returned to Associated First National this week. IN this so-called business, the merit of a story does not depend entirely upon its veracity — and it would be a dull trade if we all stuck to the truth. Once in a while a story comes along that is so good that it doesn't matter whether it is truthful or not. All of which has nothing to do with what follows: " A cyclone so real that it caused $5,000 worth of damage within the hundred foot circle in which it was manufactured, was what the F.B.O. art director executed for a recent Powers production, ' Born of the Cyclone.' " The story called for a destructive cyclone — the kind that carried houses away. In an effort to supply what he was asked for, Art Director Heywood lined up a battery of wind machines, and waited for the word to turn them on. " When the time came, the switch was turned and a loud whirr of motors arose. Papers, dust, sticks and gravel spurted suddenly out from under the racing propellers. But that was not all. " A garage across the way where studio cars were kept, GEORGE BREWSTER GALLUP, who has headed the advertising department of Hodkinson for a considerable period, will take up new duties on Monday at Associated First National, under " Bob " Dexter, preparing ad copy on First National pictures. George W. Harvey, who has been acting as assistant to Gallup at Hodkinson will take up his duties with that organization. * # # OOL LESSER, accompanied by Mrs. Lesser, sailed on Hie k Leviathan for Europe this week, to he abroad two months. # # # DAT DOW LING, publicity director of Christie, left New York this week for a trip through several Southern cities en route to the Coast. # * # EDWARD S. CURTIS of the Cecil B. DeMille photographic department has left camera locations to take up voluntary exile among the American Indians. He will be gone for three months gathering data for Volume 16 of a twenty-volume work on the Indian made possible by a foundation of $250,000 established by the late J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Curtis is responsible for "The Vanishing Race," said to be one of the most popular still pictures ever made. Over a quarter-million copies have been sold. The new investigations will be among the fast-dying mountain Indians of Northern California and desert tribes of Arizona and New Mexico. CLARA BERANGER has earned a well-deserved rest after six months of preparing continuities for William deMille and has booked passage for Europe on a steamer which sails September 4th. She will remain abroad about two months and intends to visit France, England, Germany, Switzerland and other countries. On her return to New York she will meet Mr. deMille and aid him in cutting and titling the negative of "Everyday Love," which he will make in Los Angeles. * * * 71/T AUDE FULTON'S erstwhile stage success, "The Humming Bird," is being adapted to the screen by E. Lloyd Sheldon and Julian Johnson. It ivill serve as Gloria Swanson's next picture. A QUARTETTE of asterisks have been donated by the National Board of Review, the little black mark of distinction appearing opposite "The Fighting Blade," "The Green Goddess," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "Potash and Perlmutter."