Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 19 IMPORTANT MOVE BY GENERAL FILM Will Book Long Productions Through New Department Which Will Displace the Exclusive Service — First Picture Will Be Five-Part Lubin Production of Charles Klein's "Third Degree" A COMING move by the General Film Company which will set an important precedent in the motion picture art was made public Friday. Several weeks ago this concern started its Exclusive Service department. This department furnished exhibitors with a twelve-reel service protecting them from direct competition in that films on the Exclusive Service program could not be shown by an opposition house until ninety days after the release date. At the time this was heralded as the solution to the problem confronting a man with a highclass theatre who wished to prevent direct competition. Now the General Film Company plans to go still further and inaugurate a service, to be known as Special Feature Photoplay Masterpieces, which will set a new mark in the marketing of feature productions. This service will furnish, at the rate of one a week, when practicable, features long .enough to furnish an evening's entertainment. The won»T-"feature" and the phrase "big featufSt' have been used often of late and thereby have lost strength, but in this>5ase the word "feature" is used advisedly. An idea of .the character of the' proposed service may be gleaned 'rora the fact that the first picture to be released on it will be a five-part version of Charles Klein's success on the speaking stage, "The Third Degree." The forces of theLubin plant at Philadelphia have been concentrated for some time on the production of this picture. Following features have not yet been announced. The General Film Company, however, will make this service one entirely composed of subjects good enough to play in direct opposition to the speaking stage. It is rumored that overtures have been made for the Cines production of "Antony and Cleopatra," a feature which has already received the approval of Europe, as it is considered an equal of "Quo Vadis" and 'The Last Days of Pompeii," and for the production of Zola's "Germinal." Just what plays will be released on this service can not yet be announced, as the decision to launch the new service was only made on Wednesday. It is the plan, however, to give a service composed only of impressive features. These will be booked as theatrical attractions are now booked. An important feature of this service is that it will give the theatre devoted to motion pictures a chance to show productions of a class which hitherto have been shown for the most part in theatres intended to house legitimate attractions. With the advent of this service, which will be started as soon as possible, probably some time in January, the present Exclusive Service will be discontinued. This service will probably be dropped December 20, it is said. Its discontinuance means that the regular program of the General Film Company will be strengthened. Eight features are now furnished weekly by the General Film. Two more will be added. The Kalem will drop its Monday single reel picture and release a feature every Tuesday. Edison will drop its single-reeler and release a feature every Friday. This will make a total of ten features a week on the General Film program. The new move, the Special Feature Photoplay Masterpieces, is a natural evolution from the Exclusive Service. It will be started in the belief that the day of the pretentious production which furnishes an evening's entertainment is here. It will furnish such productions regularly and to motion picture theatres. It will furnish only productions of merit. To get them it may, if necessary, go. outside of the licensed manufacturers, and buy pictures of sufficient merit wherever they are found. It is an important step and will mean much to everyone interested in motion pictures. STANLY H. TWIST OFF TO AUSTRALIA Will Superintend Producing End of Newly Formed Australasian Films, Ltd., Which Is a Coalition of Several Concerns STANLY H. TWIST, who was with the Selig Polyscope Company for several years, and who more recently has been associated with E. Mandelbaum and Phil Gleichman in the World Special Films Corporation, left New York on Thursday bound for Australia via Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu. Me is going to the Antipodes to become general manager and director of the purchasing and producing departments of the newly formed Australasian Films, Ltd., a $3,000,000 concern. The Australasian Films, Ltd., is a combination of the interests of C. Spencer, Tate West, J. D. Williams, the Amalgamated Pictures, and Johnson and Gibson. At the present time it owns five hundred theatres in Australia, New Zealand, and the smaller islands, and has the sole rights in the Antipodes to the Pathe, Gaumont, Kalem. Lubin, Thanhouser and American pictures. The company also owns a chain of exchanges. Now it will enter the producing end of the business in earnest. A large studio has been erected at Rushcutter's Bay, Sydney, as a cost of $50,000. Motion pictures will be produced and prominent English, American and Australian players will be secured. Millard Johnson, who represents the new concern in this country, secured Mr Twist to take charge of things in the Southern continent. Mr. Twist, who has already left New York, will sail from San Francisco December 16 on the Ventura, eat his Christmas dinner on the equator, and reach Sydney January 5, 1914, according to schedule. To do business in this country, Mr. Twist and his associates have incorporated the Inter-Ocean Sales Company, a fifty-thousand-dollar concern, which will have offices in the World's Tower building, 110 West Fortieth street, with Ernest Shipman at the helm. Mr. Twist has resigned his connections with the World Special Films Company, and the Pompeii Film Company. His new concern plans to open offices later in Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Sydney. 1