Motion Picture News (Sep-Oct 1922)

2055 c t o b e r 21, 192 iight Productions from Thomas H. Ince Stud 10s Each Story Entirely D Negatives Alone in ~ > IGHT special productions by Thomas H. Ince have been comH pleted and will be released shortly through the Associated First — ^ National Pictures, Inc. These eight new Ince pictures, it is said, constitute probably the rgest individual unit of }3roductions scheduled for the coming season, liey represent an estimated investment for negatives alone of 1,500,000. Each story is totally different in construction and treatment and ic-h contains some unusual feature of appealing novelty. The locales lift from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but the Ince punch ” always is in evidence. The list of releases includes “ Skin Deep,” Ten Ton Love,” “ What a Wife Learned,” The Hottentot,” “ A Man of Action,” “ Belljy Thirteen,” “ Scars of Jealousy ” and ” The unshine Trail. “ Ten Ton Love ” is an unusual story of a ulorn circus waif and her elephant, “ Oscar.” /hen a storm blows over the circus tent one ig-ht, they run away into the Canadian baekoods, where they meet many strange advenires. An elephant is used as a star for the rst time in this picture, with Madge Bellamy laying the part of the quaint little “ elephant irl.” An entire circus was used to get shots t’ the sawdust ring which are shown in the rst reel of the picture. John Griffith Wray irected. “ Skin Deep ” is an out-and-out melodrama ased on the theme of the change wrought 1 a man’s character when he gets in an iroplane smash-up and plastic surgery reloulds an ugly face that has stamped him all is life as a crook. A railroad train and an iroplane have been combined in an interestLg prison “ break.” Milton Sills plays the art of the gangster who finds himself, with lorence Vidor in the role of a hospital nurse hose influence combines with that of surgery 1 make a new man of the ex-convict. In “ The Hottentot,” Mr. Ince presents his Teen version of William Collier's big Broaday success, a play that rocked the entire mntry for two seasons. 1 he picture, besides Gaining the witty lines and absurd situations the play, incorporates a big steeplechase, hots of the horses in action were made from its dug beneath the jumps; from an aerolane and from a hillside to get novel race fects. Douglas MacLean plays the part of Sam Harrington,” the yachtsman who, Trifled of horses, is mistaken for a famous rider and ashamed to own up even when he finds himself forced to ride in ,. a dangerous race. Madge Bellamy appears in the role of “ Peggy Fairfax,” with Raymond Hatton as the eccentric butler who makes endless trouble for poor Sam. “ What a Wife Learned ” tells the love story of an ultra-modern w o m a n and a primitive man. A twentieth century romance is presented from a new angle with a western country flood scene as a big photographic feature. Marguerite de la __ _ , , , , . , . Motte, John Bowers Thomas H. Ince, head of the large producing or , , ganization which bears his name. and Milton Sills, head ifferent : Investment Totals $2,500,000 a big cast. The story is an original by Bradley King with John Griffith V ray directing. A Man of Action ” is another story from the pen of Bradley King. It is a mystery comedy built around situations that keep one guessing until the final unexpected denouement. Doug Thomas Ince Celebrates Fourteenth Anniversary THE fourteenth anniversary of his entrance into the motion picture field will be celebrated by Thomas H. Ince this fall. With one hundred and fifty successful productions to his credit, Mr. Ince states that the eight productions just completed for the coming season are the best of his career. Ince first won recognition in the days of Biograph when he directed onereelers. He was one of the first, if not the first, to make a two-reel picture. He blazed the trail of motion picture production westward, producing some of his early successes in the foothills outside Santa Monica, where “Inceville” soon attained fame. Since his earliest days he has been known as a maker of stars for he brought out and developed such screen stars as Charles Ray, William S. Hart, Dorothy Dalton, Enid Bennett, Bessie Barriscale, Hobart Bosworth, Sessue Hayakawa, and Frank Keenan. Those who have followed his career attribute his success to the “Ince” punch, the showman’s touch which always seems to put his productions over with a bang. Trying to analyze a “punch” is something like attempting to dissect lightning. The men and women who work about Ince at his studios explain it by saying that the man is dynamic. It’s the personality that he injects into all his work; the time he devotes to personal supervision. Every story which goes into production in his studios gets his O. K. before the first wheel is turned. When a scenario is completed, it needs the same O. K. before it is ready for the director. As a result the film is in such condition when it reaches the cutting room that before the picture is completed, the producer himself, as is his habit, can run through it with practiced eye and deft hand, making quick alterations until the polishing off is completed — and the “Ince” punch is there with its wallop. las MacLean aud Raymond Hatton put on some mirthful team work with Marguerite de la Motte in the leading feminine role and James W. Horne directing. A real forest fire has been screened in “ Sears of Jealousy,” a drama of a proud family of the old South and a strange hill people. A lynching scene and a novel escape from the forest flames by means of a flume are features of the production in which Frank Keenan, Lloyd Hughes and Marguerite de la Motte appear under direction of Lambert Hillyer. Douglas MacLean is the laugh-maker in two sparkling comedies, “ The Sunshine Trail,” and “ Bellboy Thirteen.” In the former he has the part of a guileless young rancher who is robbed by strangers whom he tries to befriend in accordance with his motto about “ scattering sunshine on the way.” In “ Belboy Thirteen ” he gums things up as an absentminded young chap, just out of college, who dons a strange uniform because he disagrees with his uncle on the subject of a suitable wife. A vigorous action study of Thomas H. Ince. Elephant Starred in Ince Special A dog, a horse and a walrus have been starred in motion pictures but the newest animal star of all is “ Oscar,” the elephant, which gives a remarkable performance in Thomas H. Ince’s “ Ten Ton Love.” “ Oscar ” tips the scales at a figure which subdues all argument in animal circles as to who is the “ biggest star of all.” Other animals have been content to follow directions but “ Oscar,” to prove that he has a mind and a will of his own, improvised some of his own “ stuff ” in the Ince picture. The elephant’s trainer was distinctly nervous the first time that “ Oscar ” faced a battery of cameras and bright lights, for when one of the big chaps is overcome by a fit of temperament a studio lot is crowded quarters for comfort. The elephant, however, posed as calmly as if there had been a movie camera behind every bush and tree of his native African jungle. He developed a distinct case on Madge Bellamy, with whom he was working, and would follow her about like a dog. In two scenes, however, when he thought she was getting too much attention, he improvised some “ bits ” that would keep him in the limelight. The first time he did this was in a scene outside a circus tent when he steals the clown’s cap, and the elephant girl, snatching it away, scolds him for being naughty. Oscar was supposed to look contrite, but instead he reached down and caught hold of the cap Miss Bellamy was wearing, lifting cap and girl and all from the ground.