Motion Picture News (Jan-Mar 1918)

February 27,, 1918 1165 Goldwin's Whim Girl, Mae Marsh, Is Said to Add Even Another Enigmatical Twist to Her Personality In "The Beloved Traitor" Lowry Film Claims Good Record The Goldwyn Distributing Corporation announces that up to the close of the first week in February, Ira M. Lowry's production of " For the Freedom of the World," which is released by Goldwyn as a special, had been played to capacity business by more than a thousand exhibitors in the United States and Canada. Moreover, according to Goldwyn, new . contracts are coming in at the rate of more than 100 a day, many exhibitors who played to capacity business calling for repeat dates. Goldwyn also states that " The Manxman " has set new records for special production bookings, and that business in the smaller towns is correspondingly as great as that recorded in the larger centers. Song of Songs " February Artcraft The initial offering for February under the Artcraft banner is Elsie Ferguson's newest screen production, " The Song of Songs." The screen adaptation was made by Charles Maigne, and the production was directed by Joseph Kaufman. The cast includes Cecil Fletcher, Craufurd Kent, Frank Losee, Robert Cummings, Corinne Uzell, Gertrude Berkeley and Henry Leone. The release date is February 11. Underworld Seen in New Triangle Drama In " The Shoes That Danced," the Triangle drama scheduled for the week of March 3, many angles of life on the fringe of New York's underworld are presented. The play has been adapted from the magazine story by John A. Morose. Pictures of gang killings, views of corners on the East Side and gambling and cabaret scenes have been reproduced. Wallace McDonald and Pauline Stark are the featured players, and the supporting cast includes Dick Rosson, Anna Dodge, Lydia Yeamans Titus, Anne Kromon, Edward Brady and William Dyer. Frank Borzage has the direction. Four New Goldwyns Announced News That a Second Mary Garden Production Is Completed, Expected To Be a Surprise for Goldwyn Exhibitors GOLDWYN PICTURES CORPORATION, making public the names of four new productions for immediate release, will no doubt take exhibitors by surprise with the announcement that it has a second Mary Garden production fully completed and includes this among its regular releases at the same price that Goldwyn exhibitors pay for all other Goldwyn Pictures. The title of Miss Garden's second picture is " The Splendid Sinner," from an original story by Kate Jordan — a melodramatic society story. The next four Goldwyn releases following Madge Kennedy in " Our Little Wife," which has just been released throughout the world, are : February 24, Mae Marsh in " The Beloved Traitor," from the successful novel of the same name by Frank L. Packard; March 10, Mabel Normand in " The Floor Below," by Elaine Sterne ; March 24, Madge Kennedy in " A Dangerous Game," by Roy Somerville ; April 7, Mary Garden in " The Splendid Sinner," by Kate Jordan. " The Beloved Traitor," Mae Marsh's next production, is claimed to rank with " Polly of the Circus " and " Cinderella Man " in the opportunities it gives this star. It is exploited by Goldwyn as being " the story of the good girl who whipped a vampire." " The Floor Below," Mabel Normand's second Goldwyn Picture, is also a mystery story of a different type, and besides being packed with dramatic action and incident, it is said to contain a tremendous amount of fun, laughter and pathos, with a corking love story thrown in for good measure. To date Madge Kennedy's screen productions have been farce comedies, but "A Dangerous Game" is an entirely different tj-pe of dramatic picture — a type of role that Miss Kennedy has never had before, either on the stage or screen. Last Fall, while " Thais " was still being assembled and arranged for showing, Mary Garden plunged into the making of her second Goldwyn picture. Not more than one hundred persons in the entire industry— and most of those were on the Goldwyn pay-roll — knew that Miss Garden was to make a second Goldwyn production so quickly. This second picture was completed even in advance of the release of " Thais," and has been held back as a surprise for Goldwyn customers. The production was directed by Edwin Carewe. In addition to having these next four pictures complete and ready for shipment to all of its branches throughout the world, Goldwyn also has completed three more releases, these being the release for the third Sunday in April and the two releases for the month of May. Buffalo Theatre Hits High Mark Mutual Film Corporation this week an. nounced that Keith's theatre in Buffalo has hit a high mark with the series of twelve Mutual-Chaplin comedies. The entire series, it is said, has been repeated eight times in the Buffalo house, a total of ninetj-six runs from twelve releases. Figures from one territory, Mutual says, show that fourteen theatres have run the whole series of Mutual-Chaplins an average of thirty-four times, nearly three times for each release. MacLane Picture Opens in the Loop Mary MacLane's " ]\Ien Who Have Made Love to Me," opened Sunday, February 3, for an indefinite run in The Band Box, Chicago. Since the picture's premiere in the Orchestra Hall, this George K. Spoor Ultra feature has been widely advertised and commented on, and early reports from the Band Box indicate that the picture is dcawing splendid patronage.