Motion Picture News (Aug-Oct 1920)

1694 Motion Picture News Skinner in "Kismet" on IlScreen Film to Mark Final Appearance of Star in Famous Role OTIS SKINNER, America's celebrated romantic actor, will never again be seen in the leading role of " Kismet " after his appearance as Hajj, the beggar of Bagdad, in the screen version of the play, now being filmed at the Robertson-Cole studios in California under the personal direction of Louis J. Gasnier. Mr. Skinner himself has made declaration to this effect. This authentic statement by Mr. Skinner should be pregnant with meaning to the up-to-date exhibitor who is always on the lookout for important developments in the motion picture world, says RobertsonCole. Mr. Skinner's assertion means that the screen version of the noted play, will be the last and only opportunity the American public will have of seeing the actor in the greatest success of his career. Robertson-Cole, knowing these things,, and fully sensing the importance of Mr. Skinner's decision and its undoubted influence on increasing the box office attraction of " Kismet " in pictures claims that it is leaving no stone unturned to make the screen version of the play a performance worthy of America's leading romantic actor and one that will justly immortalize both the player and the play. Elinor Fair as " Marsinah " and Otis Skinner as " Hajj " in " Kismet," a forthcoming Robertson-Cole special As on the stage, the action in the screen version of " Kismet " covers but a single day. But a day in which there is crowded a series of incidents that cover the whole range of human emotions and which is as rich and diversified in color as the Magic Carpet itself. Mr. Skinner, as Hajj, the beggar, who asks for alms in the name of Allah at the door of the Mosque of Carpenters, in that day, between sunrise and snnset, rises from poverty to affluence and travels a distance on the road of adventure rarely achieved by some in an entire lifetime. And all of this action takes place wilhin the city gates of Bagdad While there are many interior scenes most of the gripping action takes place in the streets and squares of the city and this entailed the building of a new Bagdad on the slopes of Hollywood. A big order, the exhibitor will say, but Robertson-Cole, determined to do justice to the production, saw to it that the city was fully reproduced, and today the towers and minarets of the Oriental city rear their crests against the blue of the California skyline. More than one thousand carpenters, electricians, plasterers and decorators were used in the construction of the town, from plans and drawings dug up out of old books and manuscripts and from a close study of the ancient architectural landmarks of the modern city. The city proper has been constructed on the lot of the new Robertson-Cole studio ; the interiors of the sumptuous palaces and harems are being built in the Haworth studios. Regarding the enormous cost of the lavish settings used in " Kisnret," Mr. Gasnier, the director, said : " It would be far more economical to take the entire cast to the Orient to film any of the big scenes, but for the nigger in the woodpile — the Bagdad of today is not the Bagdad of Edward Knoblock's story, hence the strange anomaly of getting greater realism with specially constructed sets." Farrar Picture Is Strong Drama GERALDINE FARRAR'S latest picture, " The Riddle : Woman," the first Associated Exhibitors production scheduled for release through Pathe on October 3, is said to present to the public in picture form one of the strongest and strangest triangular dramas ever written. It is the story of three women who have fallen one by one_ into the artful toils of a professional " handsome man ; " how the second woman saved the first, and how the first woman saves the third from the machinations of this blackguard makes a three-ply plot of unusual interest. In the stage play, long an attraction on Broadway, Madama Bertha Kalisch scored a great success. Miss Farrar in the screen version is described as touching in her early disillusionment and despair, glorious under the sun of happy wedded life, and magnificent in her anger when the shadow of her youth falls across her threshhold. Montagu Love , as a broad-minded, greathearted young man ; and William Carleton as Count Helsingor, the attractive and unscrupulous villain, are both strong masculine types. Adele Blood, as the common-sensible young lad}', who was not so sensible after all, is well cast for fhe tragic figure of Kristine. And flower-like Madge Bellamy, as Marie, is said to be a delight to the eye. Albert Payson Terhune, author of " Stories of Super-Women," and a student of all things feminine, has emphasized the fact that one must • 'The Riddle: Woman" Is Strong Triangle Play not go to see " The Riddle : Woman" in the childlike belief that the riddle : woman is solved by the author. "He does not attempt to vivisect his three lovable and logical feminine souls. Only a very presumptuous or a very inexperienced man enters into that labyrinth called the Mind of Woman. A few have tried it, and have stumbled out again more bewildered than when they went in. They .tell of conventional, landscaped vistas; of stretches of wild, natural loveliness ; of barren wastes ; of fastnesses which they could not penetrate; of sacred gardens which they dared not enter; of sweet and poison flowers ; of dumb and singing birds ; of creatures blinding, beautiful and horribly repellant." Edward Jose, director of " The Riddle: Woman," gave the subject an intensive, researchful study. He has introduced a little prologue — an artist's studio about the year A. D. 1515. In it a venerable man, gives the last delicate touch to a portrait which has been under his b,rush for years. He stands off and regards the work, as puzzled as though he had never seen it before ; then drops on a sofa, as though he were baffled by his own creation. That artist was Leonardo da Vinci ; his subject was La Gioconda, the wife of Francesco del Gioconda ; and the finished portrait, considered his masterpiece, is known as the Mona Lisa. It has had many viscissitudes, but the canvas is still intact, and the mysterious-looking lady now hangs again in the Louvre, in Paris. Many persons are fascinated, many are repelled by her peculiar, ambiguous smile. Some claim that it is the potential Madonna that looks out of her eyes ; others that it is the eternal Eve which lurks somewhere in every woman. Probably it is supposed to reveal that both are inherent in the species, and come uppermost by turns. In " The Riddle : Woman " there is a suggestion that the Soul of Woman, like the Mona Lisa of Pater's fancy, " has been a diver in deep seas and keeps their fallen day about her ; " that although the lips smile, " the eyelids are a little weary." Cutting and Titling of Fox Feature Finished Cutting and titling of " The Face at Your Window " have been completed at the William Fox New York studio. This picture is scheduled for release early in the coming season. The story written by Max Marcin, author of " Eyes of Youth," " Cheating Cheaters " and " The House of Glass." It is not an adaptation, but an original work written especially for the screen. Richard Stanton, directed the production. Bacon-Packer Studios Bought by Levey ANNOUNCE MENT comes this week that the Harry Levey Service Corporation of New York has bought outright the Bacon-Backer studios at No. 230-232 West Thirty-eighth street, which, it was announced two weeks ago, that the company had merely leased. The change in Mr. Levey's plans, and the decision of the company to own this property, comes as a result of his belief that with property that actually belongs to the company, he can make the most effective and extensive alterations for the purpose of producing the best in the way of industrial educational motion pictures, in which the company specializes. Added to this is the fact that the new $4,000,000 post office, for which the deal was put through by A. E. Lefcourt, president of the Pioneer Film Corp., is to be directly opposite the Levey studios, increasing production and shipping facilities to a great extent Flynn Will StarttFox Picture Soon Emmet J. Flynn has completed the casting of "A Yankee In King' Arthur's Court " and the photoplay version of Mark Twain's classic satire on mediaeval times will shortly be put into production at the Fox Hollywood studios. Walsh Strives to Finish Fox Picture George Walsh is working at top speed on " Dynamite Allen," which will probably be his last production lor Fox. Walsh's contract expires the first week in September, so the time limit within which the picture must be completed is decidedlv short. Henry M. Bernxan, general manager . of Universal Exchanges.