Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

THE phenomenal success of the, recent production of “ Ten Nights in a Barroom,” judged by its first few showings, opens up a very large subject. And one extremely, and immediately, important. * * * The subject is simply this: what kind of picture does the present-day public want? Other pictures and other signs in general point to a new demand upon the part of the picture-going public, or at least a demand which production and distribution are not, apparently, fully prepared to meet. But we take this one picture to point the business moral. It has no star; no expensive copyrighted play, book or story; no sensationalism; no lavishness in production ; Yet the people want it; and there’s no mistake about it. # * * We won’t attempt to state here what the picture contains in the way of box-office values. But we hazard, broadly, a guess that the public welcomes such a picture because the public has been surfeited with too many pictures it doesn’t welcome. And since a large part of our output of pictures for the past several years and still remains — star series pictures, we are inclined to believe that the public is protesting against an overdoing of this kind of production. * * * The star picture discussion is a ticklish one to tackle. Non-star programs have been launched in the past and haven’t been startling successes. The star in the picture is a big drawing card; there is no question about that. But any good value can be overdone. # * * First we must eliminate from the discussion those very prominent stars — it isn’t necessary to name them — whose values are thoroughly established. Most of them are producers today and as producers they are broadly and seriously minded enough to realize that they’ve got to put out big and well-rounded pictures in order to make both ends of the ledger meet. We are referring particularly to the lesser degree star from whom only a certain vehicle can be selected and for whose sake all other acting must be subordinated. That is the type of picture which the public today is protesting against in no uncertain terms. * # # There is another and very important side to this star question and that is the stars’ salary. The salary scale has grown by leaps and bounds till it has become the wonder of the world. It has always seemed a logical thing to us — in other words a question of supply and demand. The star acquires a public following; the exhibitor therefore wanted the star picture; the producers competed to get the stars. But there comes, naturally, a salary point at which the producer loses money on the star, or the exhibitor, or both. * * * We look to see a considerable revolution in the star business this year. If a star is worth a big salary there’s one good way to prove it and that is for the star to become a producer and take the salary out of the pictures’ reasonable profits. No one will quarrel with that arrangement. If a star appears in a good picture well and good. A good picture is better off if it has a star or stars. But the star has got to realize — and the handwriting is at last plainly on the wall — that the star alone won’t pull the picture along. The play’s the thing; and that means a story that will stand on its own feet with a cast and composition that will adequately interpret it. * * # To sum up : The public is protesting against the purely star picture, the picture made vapid by star subjugation. The industry is protesting against the stars’ super salary. We submit the situation to the star, with the warning that something is going to break. VOL. XXV JANUARY 21, 1922 No. 5