Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1920)

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November 2 7 , 1920 4119 Nobody Too Great for Screen This is Gladys Walton, who is to star in Universal's " Risky Business " Striking Contrast Seen in Holmes Scenic The Paramount-Burton Holmes Travel Picture for October 31st is promised to be one of surpassing scenic beauty, contrasting as it does the fairy-like purity and whiteness of typical New England winter scenes in all their snowy loveliness with the tropical luxuriance of foliage and warmth of landscape to be found in the early summer months in the rural districts of Cuba. Elsie Ferguson Returns from Foreign Trip Elsie Ferguson, who has been making a .tour of the world during the past six months, is expected home from London this week on the White Star liner Adriatic. After a brief stay in New York Miss Ferguson will go to Hollywood where she will have the leading role in the Paramount production of " Sacred and Profane Love," the Arnold Bennett stage play in which she appeared in New York last Winter. Alfred Walker Is Made Director General Alfred Walker, who has been appointed director general of production for World Motion Picture Corporation, has been connected with the production end of the industry for the past fourteen years. I 4 Genome : <J Special I* In the Jhadow of the Dome* RUPERT HUGHES, popular novelist and author of " The Cup of Fury " and " Scratch Back," released by the Goldwyn Distributing Corporation as Eminent Authors' Productions, was interviewed by representatives of the trade press at the Goldwyn headquarters in New York on Friday, November 12. The high-lights of Mr. Hughes's talk were his statement that the motion picture, " the first genuine universal language," is one of the most powerful factors for good on earth and that nobody, no matter how prominent or successful, was too great to be classed as its patron ; his prediction that the time is fast approaching when pictures, like stage plays, will be made to appeal to different classes and not attempt, as is usually the case now, to embody an appeal for all classes; an expression of his conviction that the short story, rather than the full-length novel, is generall more adaptable for a six-reel feature ; and a declaration of the rise of a distinctly screen-author, schooled and equipped to write from the viewpoint of the motion-picture rather than from the angle of the printed-page. Mr. Hughes characterized the motion-picture as " the only universal language," compared with which Esperanto falls into insignificance. He likened the author or playwright who refuses to use this wonderful medium of expression to an So Says Rupert Hughes in Interview Given to Trade Press unprogressive business man who would neglect to utilize the telephone or any other modern facility in transacting his business. He cited the entry of Barrie and Kipling into the scenario field of the motion-picture industry as evidence that great men have come to realize the power of this " new and wonderful language." Mr. Hughes traced, with numerous references to his own personal experiences, the rise of the author's influence in turning out a motipnpicture from the days when a writer was looked upon as a nusiance to be excluded from the " lot " or studio to the present time when he is considered as a vital adjunct of the producing forces, called upon to furnish advice to the director and permitted to take charge of the cuttine and editing of the finished film product. " One of the great handicaps that all picture producers are working under at the present time," said Mr. Hughes, " is that every picture is intended to be universal in its appeal. Yet something aimed to appeal to everyone is most likely to appeal to no one. Whereas the stage has been developing through the last 2,000 years, motion pictures have grown to their present remarkable state in approximately fifteen years. And with the increasing development that is inevitable, they will approximate the stage in the rather important respect, namely, that each production will be made to appeal to a certain class rather than to everybody." Mr. Hughes is of the opinion that short stories are almost invariably better material for adaptation into six-reel pictures than full length novels. He declared emphatically, that it is a mistake to think that a short story does not contain enough material for a photoplay of the feature length. His experience, he said, has been that the average novel must be curtailed so materially to meet the limitations of six thousand feet of film that essential points of the story are sacrificed. " Authors are now writing original stories," continued Mr. Hughes. " and in the future when we speak of a screen author, we must be exclusive and mean not those authors who are writing novels which subsequently become photoplays but those authors who are writing in photoplay language in photoplay studios and with the camera definitely in mind." Rupert Hughes left on Sunday for the Coast where he will write directly for the screen and take an active part in the production of his stories. Decade of Pathe News' Reels A David G. Fischer Production A RESUME of the high-spots touched by the Pathe News during the past decade is given in a statement just received from the New York headquarters of the Pathe organization. This statement was issued in connection with the celebration on November 15 of the tenth anniversary of the topical reel's career in this country. That such a resume is of paramount significance in recording realistically the marvelous progress made in various departments of activity during the last ten years, is the contention of the Pathe statement : " For example, the aeroplane. In viewing some of the recent aviation stunts shown in the news reels of to-day it seldom occurs that it was but a comparatively brief space back when the airplane was an experiment quite crude and very dangerous. Recently the Pathe News showed scenes of the return to Mineola of the fleet of nlanes which flew to Alaska and back. It was in 1911 that Pathe News -.-howed scenes of Glenn Curtis's aero flight from Albany to New York, a feat bringing a prize of $10,000, and the applause of a people filled with amazement and wonder at a marvelous accomplishment. " Nineteen hundred and eleven was a year fruitful of big news events over the entire world. In addition to the Curtis flight, Pathe News presented pictures of scenes in London at the death of King Edward VII, of Great Britain. Cap Resume Shows High Spots Touched in Last Ten Years tain Scott, whose dramatic death in the Antarctic regions stirred the world for weeks, was shown in Pathe News setting out from London with his South Polar Expedition. Also there were pictures of Portugal's dethronement of King Manuel and the declaration of a republic. Among the other epochal events presented in Pathe News in 1911 were scenes of the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary. " The Mexican revolution against Madero was an event of 1912 which Pathe News showed in a group of such epoch-making incidents as: The Titanic disaster; Amundsen announcing the discovery of the South Pole ; the attempts against the life of Theodore Roosevelt while he was making a campaign speech in Milwaukee ; Woodrow Wilson elected President; the assassination of President Madero of Mexico ; and the opening of the Panama Canal. " In 1913 Pathe News showed the U. S. Marines landing at Vera Cruz, and in 1914 scene? from all parts of Europe at the declaration of the World War. Nineteen hundred and fifteen brought rorth disaster, and was marked for such terrible occurrences as the great Italian earthquake in which 20,000 lives were lost; the Eastland disaster at Chicago in which 1,100 perished, and the sinking of the Lusitania, all of which were shown in all possible phases in the Pathe News. " Among the events of 1916 were the Black Tom explosion, the Pershing expedition into Mexico, Villa's bandit raid on Columbus, N. M., and the arrival of the German merchant submarine, Deutschland. The high lights in Pathe News for 1917 were: The Russian revolution, the entry of the United States into the World War, and Pershing's arrival in France. " The Halifax explosion, President Wilson's departure for France, the signing of the Armistice and the first trip of an aero postal service are among the big things in the news-reels for 1918. In 1919 there were pictures of the flight of the N. C. 4, the flight of the R 34, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Pershing's return and D'Annunzio's coup of Fiume. " The list of Pathe News pictures for 1920 includes : First pictures of the Wall Street explosion; the Olympic Games; Villa's surrender; the SovietPole front; the Rome-Tokyo flight; the Mexican revolution ; exclusive pictures of the Supreme Conference of the Allies at San Remo ; the entry of the French into Frankfort, and the activities of the German Reds in the Ruhr district and the German Revolution."