Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

November 1 . 1930 Motion P i c t u r e N e w s 49 that MR. HAYS must not be around the office much these days. For the second time in one week a satirical piece slipped under the wire. It is called, for no reason at all, "The Way of All Men." Sloppy direction lets it fall to pieces but it has, for a movie, a new basic idea. It is, simply, that men faced with one hour to live may rise to noble heights, but if released at the end of their sentence naturally will return to their easy cut-throating ways. Naturally the producers could not allow the hero to regain his senses after he has been cooped in a Hooded saloon with his show-girl sweeties and leave her for the attractive, intelligent and young daughter of his employer. He rushes the girl to the city hall as soon as the doors open, but. despite the blunt writing and direction and the mediocre work of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., you have an uneasy feeling after all the snouting is over that the author was taking a sideswipe at religion and that, in the movies, Mr. Hays, is heresy. — Judge Mrs. Ernst Lubitsch took a poke at Ernst the other day by way of enlivening Hollywood, but we won't really know what her prospects are until she meets Jim Tullv in at least a ten-round bottt.—N. Y. Post Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is faced with the danger that threatens every movie actor in Hollywood who suddenly achieves prominence. "The Dawn Patrol" * * * saw young Doug leap to fame by a magnificent performance with which he completely stole the show from Richard Barthelmess and a fine cast, and as soon as the Warner Brothers realized that they had a new star on their hands they set about to stuff him into as many films as possible while the fickle public were all hopped up over the youngster. — Evans*in Life Discussing a certain Hollywood celebrity whose rapid rise has gone to her head rather conspicuously, Eddie Quillan said to his director, Russell Mack: "Yeah, she's so swellheaded she needs Grandeur film for her close-ups." — Screenland Studio Secrets The last scene of "The Royal Family" was about to be shot at the Paramount New York studio when the make-up woman, thinking that Ina Claire was finished with the tray, started to leave. "Come back here with that tray," ordered Miss Claire. "I'm not finished yet." "Oh, I'm so sorry," apologized the woman. "I thought you were through." Whereupon the actress snapped: "You mustn't think; you're very, very apt to be wrong." A Pipe Dream? There is the one that a returned song writer tells that happened in the lobbv of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on the evening of one of those Hollywood super-openings. A young lad. a celebrity seeker, aporoached movie stars with pen and book to collect their autographs. The first star the boy went up to was Will Rogers. While Mr. Rogers was signing his name, the kid, his eyes pooping, exclaimed : "Gee, it must be treat to be a famous star like you. How do you feel?" Rogers merely signed his name and smiled at the youngster. The question was too inane to warrant an answer. The next star the kid apnroached was John Barrymore. While Mr. Barrvmore was signing, the kid asked him the same foolish question. Barrymore also ignored it. The third movie star the youngster went up to was Buddy Rogers. While Buddy was carefullv scrawling his name into the book, the kid said: "Gee, it must be great to be a famous star like you. How do you feel?" Rogers looked at the youngster, and with much sincerity, replied: "Sometimes I think it must be a dream." — N. Y. News. THE talkies and the stage are now so nearly alike in their requirements that actors and actresses move rapidly in both directions. Former screen favorites planning to act on the stage this fall are Mary Pickford, Colleen Moore, Lya de Putti, Vilma Banky and Rod La Rocque. As salaries in the talkies are so much higher, it is safe to assume that most of those returning to the legitimate drama have been obliged to take the step because of waning screen popularity. A few are foreign actors and actresses imported during the era of the silent pictures, and now suddenly obliged to try to cure themselves of their foreign accent. Perhaps this emphasizes the element of truth in George Bernard Shaw's recent lament that __ __ __ "the poor old theatre is done for" and may survive only "as a place where people are taught to act." That the poor old theatre is completely done for we cannot believe; the reports of its death have been exaggerated too often. But it is at least clear by now that the threat of the talkies is both a real and a growing one. A year or more ago those critics who maintained that the talking pictures were even more puerile on the average than their silent predecessors could show a good deal of plausible evidence to support their contention, but since that time there has been remarkable improvement both in technical resources and in the use of those resources by directors. It is true that the stage still has advantages (that of the direct contact of the actor with his audience is one which the talkies will never capture), but the talkies, on their side, already have great technical superiorities over the stage. They have, to begin with, nearly every advantage the silent pictures had — of unlimited outdoor action, real galloping horses, speeding locomotives, automobiles, airplanes, ships, mob and battle scenes, natural scenery instantaneously shif table, unusual "angles," enlargement and selection of physical detail — plus not only the voice and natural sounds as on the stage, but the free manipulation of sounds — to portray, for example, the mental state of a character. As the public can see the talkies for approximately one-fifth of what it pays for orchestra seats on Broadway, the future of the ordyiary commercial theatre does not seem particularly bright. THE biggest surprise to us in this talkie era is the way million-dollar productions have been living up to advance notices. "All Quiet on the Western Front" turned out to be, as advertised, uncompromising, unforgettable— on an epic scale. "The King of Jazz" was dazzling, even though it may have been short on spontaneity and humor. "Hell's Angels," the talkies' first great spectacle, looks like four million dollars. And now comes "Whoopee," which has real pace and constant humor, against a magnificent background — the first talkie musical comedy in which the producers have several things to show for their money. — Motion Picture * * * Greta Garbo, the aloof, zvho never goes or is seen anywhere, zvas not so Jona ago one of the qreatest hounds for "publeecitee" in Hollyzvood. ez'cn to the extent of appearing in track suit and boxing gloves. — Modern Screen Magazine * * * A certain movie star in Hollywood owns the controlling interest in one of our smartest dress-making establishments— but she insists on keeping her business venture a secret. "Why not?" she shrugs. "My divorced husband's new sweethearts are my best customers. I can't take any chances with all that trade." — Motion Picture Classic Two factors, it is true, seriously limit the competition of the talkies with the stage, as they limited that of the silent screen. The first of these is the commercial need to reach the lowest common intellectual denominator of a great mass audience ; the second is a drastic and stupid censorship. Yet the recent appearance of "All Quiet," "Journey's End," "The Love Parade," "The Man from Blankley's" and "Holiday" shows that it is possible for intelligent or sophisticated pictures to emerge even under these conditions. And the intellectual level of the average stage play, it should not be forgotten, is not distressingly high. If the legitimate stage is to survive (as we think it will), it will have to appeal to a more intelligent audience than the talkies and it will have to take much greater commercial risks. In brief, it will have to become "experimental," to bear much the same relation to the talkies as such an institution as the Theatre Guild was originally intended to bear to the ordinary commercial theatre on Broadway. — The Xation. As far as the great American public is concerned — and by that I mean taking into full consideration the small towns and suburbs, not merely the first runs in big cities — neither Greta Garbo or Clara Bow are entitled to leadership honors in the race for premiere feminine screen honors. It will surprise the film colony to know that this honor is now about equally divided between Norma Shearer and Janet Gaynor. — Film Mercury, Hollywood.