Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

80 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIX, No. 2. Film Play Offers Psychology Study "The Auction Block" from Rex Beach's Story Presents Stirring Narrative with Undercurrent of Crookedness IN Rex Beach's great picture, "The Auction Block," released throughout North America December 2 as a Goldwyn subject, students of the psychology of crookedness ought to find living illustrations of examples customarily expatiated upon in dry text by authorities on the subject. The gentle art of the "frame-up" and the "double-cross" as practiced in some strata of society is exemplified in realistic action in the course of the story, which has been described as embodying an undercurrent narrative of "blackmail" piped with "thuggery." Lilas Lynn is a beautiful young adventuress with what might be said to be a legitimate purpose — revenging the death of her father, whose life had been sacrificed years before to the greed of Jarvis Hammon, once the superintendent of a steel mill but now a millionaire man-about-town. Lilas ingratiates herself in Hammon's affections for the sole purpose of ruining him in the eyes of the world. Working with a band of blackmailers, Lilas entices Hammon to a lonely country roadhouse, where, with the aid of a flashlight powder previously "planted" by the crooks, the millionaire is photographed with the adventuress in his arms. Eventually this band of crooks turns upon Lilas in the hope of profiting by revealing her hand in the affair. This move involves innocent persons and eventually results in the intervention of a man whose power over a crooked police inspector enables him to demand that the gambling house conducted by the leader of the gang be raided. Here another "frame-up" is enacted, this time by the police. Working on instructions, the inspector "plants" a revolver in the pocket of young Jimmy Knight, wayward brother of Lorelei Knight, heroine of the story, and he is hustled off to court to face a long term in prison. These incidents are but color for a story delightful in its essentials — a story of true love born of trials and temptation. Jane Cowl Gets Military Atmosphere Jane Cowl, since the making of her first Goldwyn starring vehicle, "The Spreading Dawn," lately gave a performance for Uncle Sam's student officers at Plattsburg, N. Y. While there she found an opportunity to get some special scenes of an authentic military character that would fit in with splendid effect in "The Spreading Dawn." She telephoned from Plattsburg to the Goldwyn studio at Fort Lee, N. J., to have a cameraman sent at once. When that functionary arrived, he found that Miss Cowl had everything in readiness for the taking of the pictures. The results were splendid, and were incorporated in the many prints that are now doing service over the country through the Goldwyn distributing offices. I Am the Motion Picture! BY JULIAN JOHNSON I AM the Motion Picture. My feet flounder in the clay, but my head is above the clouds, and my eyes are the stars. I am the friend of the humble, the servant of the scholar, the jester of the wise. I am youth to the aged, a gateway to the imprisoned; adventure to the indolent, love to the lonely, forgetfulness to the sorrowing, calm to the im-. patient, rest to the weary. I am the commonest of common things. I am art for the artless, buffoonery for buffoons, braggadocia for cowards. I revel in backstairs romance. I am the coarse snuggling friend of kitchen mechanics, perfumed and unbathed. My delight is a silly hero of clammy virtue and patent-leather hair. I teach cheap yawps that the fade-out hug solves every problem in the universe. I am a cog-wheeled idol whose temples are redolent of chewing gum and poisonous candy. My services demand music; I have none of my own; I steal everyone's music; and blend it in a horrible mess. I am the matinee idol of slatternly wives, the dime novel of defective boys. I am opium to ambition. T am the drama's illegitimate child. I am literature's idiot brother. I am the profoundest possibility of modern times. I am one day old — and on my brow the sages have already found the seal of immortality. My eyes are so strong that I see over the rim of the world. I am the only creature who has made Time turn his hourglass over. I am the imagination of the surgeon and the chart of the doctor. I am the uncomparable salesman and the ultimate newspaper. I am magic ink for the shy poet. I am breathing beauty and living virility for the romances who has known only the pale puppets of words. I an? a flash of lightning above the gloomy forest of history. I am the awful mask of war. I am the alchemist of invention. I am the magic carpet and Aladdin's lamp. I am the supreme teacher of the child. My future is bounded by infinity. My feet flounder in the clay, but my eyes are with the stars. I am The Motion Picture. Adams Novel Is Blue Ribbon Feature Another famous work of fiction is brought to the screen by Greater Vitagraph in the Blue Ribbon feature, "When Men Are Tempted," which is announced by President Albert E. Smith for the week of December 24. This play, which is an adaptation from the widely read novel, "John Burt," by Frederick Upham Adams, has Mary Anderson and Alfred Whitman for its featured players. It was produced under the direction of William Wolbert, who also directed "Aladdin from Broadway," "The Flaming Omen" and other fine Vitagraph features. Lockwood Cast Is Notable Camera Misses Accident Thrill A superb cast has been engaged to support Harold Lockwood in his forthcoming Metro production, "The Avenging Trail," an adaptation by Fred J. Balshofer and Mary Murillo of Henry Owen's novel of the North woods, "Gaston Olaf," now in course of being screened under the direction of Francis Ford. Mr. Lockwood plays "Gaston Olaf" and in this he has the most powerful role of his eight years before the camera. Gaston Olaf is a man of the woods, a fine specimen of physical manhood, with a well developed sense of justice and of undaunted courage when pitted against wrong-doers. The part offers wide scope for the star. Mr. Lockwood's leading woman is Sally Crute, whose six years' experience both as leading woman with Lubin, Edison and other companies and as a player prominent in Metro wonderplays, notably "A Wife by Proxy," with Mabel Taliaferro and "Blue Jeans" with Viola Dana, have made her name familiar with picture followers throughout the country. Miss Crute plays Rose Havens. Joe Dailey, Walter Lewis, Warren Cook, William Clifford, and Tom Blake are other members of the cast. A tiny motor speed boat, churned in the wake of a big, fast steamer, sucked into the propellor whirl, all but swamped, and the lives of its occupants endangered, was not in the script of Henry B. Walthall's second Paralta play, "Humdrum Brown" which is now in the making. Nor could it be filmed at the time, unfortunately. Scenes were to be taken on the fast steamer Hermosa, off the coast of southern California, and of motor boats pursuing the steamer. Director Ingram, his cameramen and Mr. Walthall occupied the boat which was drawn into the wake of the ship they had been filming. They were whirled, buffeted and threatened with swamping. All worked at bailing the boat and threw themselves to the high side to keep from overturning. U. City Gives Its Tithe Responding to Uncle Sam's call for men to serve as parts of his war machine, nearly ten per cent of the men of Universal City are now either in cantonment, en route to strife-ridden Europe or actually on the firing line. Ad Campaign Backs Spoor Film Backed by a stupendous advertising campaign, including the bill-boarding of the entire country, George K. Spoor will offer, early in Januarv, Taylor Holmes in "Uneasy Money" as the first of a series of ultra features to be released at various times regardless of any fixed program. The story is from the pen of P. G. Wodehouse and ran as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post. It gives Mr. Holmes unusual opportunities and undoubtedly is his best screen production. In the cast with Mr. Holmes are: Miss Virginia Valli. Arthur Bates, Virginia Bowker, Fred Tiden, Lillian Drew, James F. Fulton and Rod LaRocque.