Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

/ THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 14 The Motion Picture News MOVING PICTTTRE NEWS EXHIBITORS' TIMES Published Every Week by EXHIBITORS' TIMES, Inc. 220 West 42nd Street, New York City Telephone Bryant 76S0 Chicago Office 604 Schiller Building Subscription $2.00 per year, postpaid in the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. Canada and Foreign 9S.60 per year. ADVERTISING RATES on application. Copy for next issue must reach us by Wednesday 11 a. m. Entered as Second-Class matter in the New York Post-Office. Cuts and copy are received subject to the approval of the publishers, and advertisements are inserted absolutely without condition expressed or implied as to what appears in the text portion of the paper. Address Exhibitors' Times, Inc., Advertising Dept. Vol. VIII November 8, 1913 No. 18 This publication is owned and published by Exhibitors' Times, incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. The offices and principal place of business are at 220 West 42nd Street, New York City. President, Wm. A. Johnston; Vice-President, Henry F. Sewall; Sec'y, E. Kendall Gillette; Treas., Wentworth Tucker. The address of the officers is the office of the publication. PICTURES OR BOOKS? NO one has ever accused Thomas A. Edison, the wizard of East Orange, of being mentally deficient. 'Twere rankest folly to speak thus of the world's greatest inventor, and one whose glimpses into the future are being realized in a way that is wellnigh terrifying. So when he predicts that some day motion pictures will replace, at least, partially, text books in schools, it behooves the world to listen respectfully. His leading argument is that pictures illustrate many subjects far more graphically than text books ever can. Pictures can never teach logarithms or Greek declensions, but as a vehicle for history or geography the strip of celluloid can not be surpassed. Travel has been called the greatest broadener of the mind. Through the medium of motion pictures one may be mentally transported to Jersey City, Hong Kong, London, and Cape Town, within ten minutes. The people walking on the streets, their dress, manners and customs, may be seen. Books can not do that. The scholar gets a much more vivid impression of Burma by seeing a Burmese scene on the screen than by reading "the Burmese are a peculiar people who wear their hair in outlandish styles." To the dull or indifferent scholar a text book is a bug-a-boo. Motion pictures are not. Films may never replace school books, but Mr. Edison is surely right in saying that they will prove an invaluable supplement. SOURCES OF INSPIRATION /^V NE of the recent successes of the art world in Europe was a problem picture, if we may so call it, entitled "The Fallen Idol." This picture was by the Honorable John Collier, a well-known painter who has made a specialty of problem pictures — pictures that in the cant phrase take a note of interrogation as the motive. These problem pictures are easily identifiable— because they excite curiosity. When you are looking at them you are conscious of having a case presented to you. You say to yourself, Well, what is he or she likely to do next ? What is likely to happen? What will be the outcome of it? The majority of great paintings, display incidents : historical, dramatic, and so forth. Modern art, however, is turning more and more to the problematical. As in the play, so in the picture. You are left guessing. Writers and painters of advanced methods of thought think it the right thing to leave you guessing. Now, in this picture (there were reproductions of it in the New York Times and other papers in this country last summer) we see a man seated, as it were, at his study table with a troubled expression on his face. At his feet kneels in suppliant attitude a beautiful girl, presumably his wife. The interior where the figures are placed by the painter shows culture, refinement, if not wealth. The man might have been, in the mind of the painter, a successful professional man — lawyer, engineer, surgeon, or architect. Thousands of guesses were hazarded by those who viewed the picture as to what it meant. Had the girl fallen from grace? Been found out by the man? Rebuked? Was she asking forgiveness? Would he relent or not? When we saw this reproduction in the newspaper we realized its dramatic value. In fact, we cut it out of the paper and preserved it as a text for an article which we knew we would one day write. Now we see that a film maker in Europe has taken this picture as the kernel of a film story. He has dramatized it. He has led up to it. He has made the picture motive the principal motive of his film play. He has had it written up and round about. He has taken this simple incident and made a film play of it. To the best of our recollection, this is the first instance in which a single picture has formed the inspiration of a film play. This film of a "Fallen Idol" seems, by what we read, to be making a success. Have we not here a valuable hint to film makers who are constantly complaining of the dearth of original plots. You have all the great pictures of the world to give you inspiration. Nothing can be simpler than to turn a hack scenario writer adrift in a great picture gallery, tell him to select some of the incidents shown on the canvas and write film plays around them. The painful monotony of theme so evident in these motion pictures would possibly be mitigated by the importation of a little picture gallery variety. Motion pictures FROM pictures seems to us rather a good "stunt." What say you, Messrs. Film Makers?