Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1921)

October 15, i i 2025 Arrow Feature to be Sensation Buys ^" Supreme Passion" in South ; L. M. Ash, Creole Enterprises, ew Orleans, has bought the state ghts to " The Supreme Passion " om Robert W. Priest, for Louis.na and Mississippi. , Creole Enterprises has purchased :veral special productions for disibution in the New Orleans terri)r> and it is understood that Alensive bookings have been aringed through the Saenger I musement Company. Paglin-Davidson Add to Organization j David E. Weshner and C. Ver)n Farrow has been added to the aff of the P a g 1 i n Davidson .gency. Mr. Weshner was formerconnected with the Motion Picre Post as their Eastern district anager. He was also the treasurof the Tanney Printing and Pubhing Company. Mr. Farrow was formerly owner i the Beaufort studios in Baltiore. Jules J. Paglin and Sid Carrol avidson are now busily engaged completing the exploitation of e H. C. Witwer Comedies for disbution by the Fidelity Pictures )mpany. A national advertising mpaign is now being launched in the trade papers and special excitation is being completed. ARROW FILM CORPORATION, in making its prelimin a r y announcements of "'Ten Nights in a Bar Room," finds an astonishingly wide volume of interest excited thereby. Old showmen, experienced theatregoers, literary men, prohibition advocates, temperance reformers, exchangemen, exhibitors, as well as a large number of the public have sent in innumerable communications to the Arrow offices approving of the action of the corporation in undertaking the distribution of the picture. The feeling in the Arrow offices is unanimous on the point that one of the most popular motion picture productions of all time is about to be offered to the public. The reputation of " Ten Nights in a Bar Room " is as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. Dr. W. E. Shallenberger, president of Arrow, points out that " Ten Nights in a Bar Room " is a great human interest drama now made into a motion picture production. As novel and play it has a world-wide reputation. For fifty years it has been known to the public, many millions have read the book ; many millions have seen the plaj-, " Ten Nights in a Barroom " is Arousing Wide Interest " Perfectly produced and well acted by an all star cast," states Arrow, " there is no doubt that 'Ten Nights in a Bar Room' is capable of making a deep impression in people's mind wherever it is shown. Neither time nor rhoney, and no effort was spared by all concerned in the making of the picture to ensure the presentation of an imdeniably great attraction to the public. " 'Ten Nights in a Bar Room ' is a literary and dramatic classic, and takes rank as one of the most startling triumphs ever shown on the screen. " Sensation vies with human interest in unfolding a wonderfully powerful story, in which all who follow it cannot fail to be profoundly interested. " The Sheaf and Sickle Inn is opened at Cedarville with literally a great fiourish of trumpets by Simon Slade. It is not long before Joe Morgan, of the Cedarville mill falls a victim to the allurements of the saloon, and his downward progress is hastened by Slade and his fellow conspirator, Harvey Green, who between them rob Morgan of his mill. In a quarrel between Morgan and Slade, Morgan's little daughter is killed. Morgan ultimately reforms and there is a probability of happiness between him and his much-suffering wife. "The Sheaf and Sickle is burned and stern justice is meted out to Slade and Green. Slade loses his life on the rapids and Green is disposed of in the fire. " There are what are technically known as many mob scenes in the production and these crowds are handled with great skill and dramatic effect. The individual members of the cast do splendid work. " Summing up these qualities," concludes Dr. Shallenberger, " we feel that in ' Ten Nights in a Bar Room ' we have the greatest winner in our history. It is one of those Arrows that will go straight to the mark. ''Beggar Maid" Launches Series IT is not often that a two-reel subject awakens more than passing comment in the Broadway motion picture house, but the exception arri\ ed at the Rivoli last week and was carried over for another week at the R i a 1 1 o — " The Beggar M a i d," a picturization of the Burne Jones masterpiece n o w hanging in the Tait Gallery, London. " The Beggar Maid " reaches the screen through the Hodkinson Corporation. It was produced by Triart Films, headed by Isaac Welper, who gave us " The Miracle Man," and was taken under the direction of Herbert Blanche and Lejaren A. Hiller. The title part is played by Mary Astor, who, although not yet sixteen years of age, gives promise of mounting to stellar heights with almost meteoric speed. So impressed was Hugo Reisenfeld with this short subject that he put on a special prologue for it, consisting of a duet in an old garden, followed by the recital of Tennyson's poem of the same name, on which Sir Edward BurneJones based his famous painting. This is the first instance of a tworeel picture being accorded the honor of a prologue at a Broadway theatre. Back of "The Beggar Maid" is the most ambitious plan thus far attempted to humanize the great paintings of all ages and at the same time preserve to the utmost the entertainment values so necessary to a successful presentation on the screen. Twelve paintings in all will be picturized and they are to be chosen by an advisory board, made up of the leading art patrons and authorities of the day. This board has thus far chosen "The Bashful Suitor," by Israels; " The Young Painter," by Rembrandt, and " Mona Lisa," by Leon Picturization of Masterpiece Opens in N. Y. Theatre ardo da Vinci to follow "The Beggar Maid." " Subjects of this kind," said Mr. Hodkinson, " will do more to answer the insistent demand for better pictures on the part of both press and public alike, than all the promises producers can make. Until this series came along, the masses had to look to indifferently done reproductions for their conception of the masterpieces of art. Here, on the screen, they witness the actual moving impulses back of the painting. They see the artist at work on it, and follow every stroke of the brush in a vivid picturization of his subject. Whether or not the public likes this sort of picture received a decisive answer in its pre-release showings in New York." Before " The Beggar Maid " was filmed, a careful scenario was prepared, constructed upon the story of King Cophetua and the legend on which Tennyson based his poern. Burne-Jones is shown in a reverie over a volume of verse, and when his neighbor, a young English earl, bursts into praise of the matchless beauty of the daughter of one of his tenants, the idea of the painting unfolds in the painter's imagination. He seeks out the beautiful peasant girl, and, having obtained her consent to pose as the Beggar Maid promptly enlists the services of the Earl as King Cophetua. The picture was made on the beautiful Long Island estate of Mr. Tiffany, a member of the advisory board, and so infinitely carefully were the details worked out that it is said 20,000 feet of films were used to get the final 1,600 feet comprising the subject. Immediate Release for "Parted Curtains" Warner Brothers announce for immediate release their latest feature production, " Parted Curtains," starring Henry B. Walthall and Mary Alden, the portrayer of the mother love role in " The Old Nest." This production follows in the wake of " Why Girls Leave Home," featuring Anna Q. Nilsson, also distributed by the Warner organization. The cast supporting Mr. Walthall and Miss Alden includes Margaret Landis, Edward Cecil, Mickey Moore and William Clifford. Rialto Productions Has One Reel Comedies Rialto Productions, Inc., have secured the world's rights to twelve one reel sensational comedies. The first of these "Holy Smoke" was screened and immediately booked to be shown at the Rivoli Theatre, starting Sunday, October 2d for an extended run. There are twelve in all and three others were screened without even being titled and on the strength of their novel ingenuity, an agreement was entered into for the showing of them for the three theatres, namely Criterion, Rivoli and Rialto. Hopp Hadley Moves . B'way Office In new offices in the Knickerbocker Theatre Building, New York, where he installed the Producers Service Company on October 1. Hopp Hadley celebrated the twentieth consecutive year he has spent in the Times Square neighborhood identified with the theatrical and motion picture business.