Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

April 6, 1918. M O T O G R A P H Y 673' Goldwyn's Spring Drive in Full Swing Mabel Normand and Mae Marsh Start New,. Productions as Mary Garden Play Enters Distribution I GOLDWYN'S spring drive is in full operation at the Fort Lee studios and the big glass top shelters a host of busy workers. With Mary Garden's "The Splendid Sinner" in distribution, workers in every department are breathing easier. Exhibitors and public alike are evincing more eagerness to see "The Splendid Sinner" than "Thais." They are curious to see the star as she is known to her friends, and clad in creations of her favorite modistes. No small part of Goldwyn's activities are attributable to Mabel Normand. Hardly had she become acclimated to the chill of Fort Lee after her sojourn in Tampa than she plunged into another production. George Loane Tucker directed the scenes made in Florida to replace those eliminated from "Joan of Plattsburg" at the request of the government. The reconstructed picture will be released early in May. Miss Normand's new production, the title of which has not yet been announced, affords unusual scope for her maturing abilities as an actress who is equally herself in moments of pathos or tears. Clarence G. Badger is directing the play, an adaptation of a Broadway success by a famous playwright. Mae Marsh, not to be daunted by Mabel Normand's work-filled life, saw to it long before she finished Irvin S. Cobb's "The Face in the Dark" that there would be no cessation in her labors once the last scene was taken of the secret service drama in which she has a distinctly different, yet very congenial, role. Accordingly, she began the first scene of the new production on the afternoon of the day she finished "The Face in The Dark." Whimsical charm and exciting conditions are woven into the new production, directed, as was "The Face in the Dark," by Hobart Henley. The story is by Edith Barnard Delano. In the whirl of studio life Madge Kennedy is thoroughly at home, for she is responsible for much of Goldwyn's spring rush. Hailed as "the find of the season," Miss Kennedy discovers that she must live up to her screen name by letting exhibitors see as much of her as possible. She is reaching the close of "The Danger Game," under the direction of Harry Pollard, and is more enthusiastic over it than an j' production yet made for her. Extras Work for $2.50 a Day As a drug on the money market, the Mexican peso has nothing on the Russian ruble, judging by the eagerness evinced by the Mexican to get his hands on the American dollar and what he will do to earn it. Proof of that is found in the expense report of Frank Powell, director of "Heart* .of the. Sunset," Rex B-each's greatest production, to be distributed through Goldwyn. Mr. Powell, who recently returned from Southwestern Texas, where many ■ scenes in the picture were taken, brings back Word tha^all he paid 300 extras was. $1.50 a day and $1 daily for living expenses. That he could have had 3,000. Mexican men and women at that price had he needed them was evidenced, he says, by the number that flocked around the makeshift studio he had erected near Eagle Pass when word that ^extras were wanted was passed around. "So eager were these Mexicans to get into the picture that some of them offered to bring their familias for the same. $1.50," Mr. Powell said. "Most of them do a whole lot better than many on the coast who get five times as much." Goldwyn Actor Mistaken for Spy So imbued with the thought of war and enemy aliens and spies is the ayerage American nowadays that many amusing instances of extreme precaution come to light on all sides. In the making of motion pictures this is constantly noticed. Quite the most pronounced evidence of this attitude occurred during the filming by Goldwyn of Mary Garden's "The Splendid Sinner." Hamilton Revelle, in one episode, plays a Canadian soldier entrusted with dispatches which he concealsi in the heel of his boot. As a mat • ter of course, Revelle sent the boot to a cobbler with instructions to remove the. heel and hollow it out before replacing. ■■. That detail attended to, the leading man went on with his work. But when he called for the boot on his way to the studio he found that the Italian had not touched it. Furthermore, the man was surly and suspicious, expressing a curt refusal to have anything to do with the job. Puzzled, Revelle addressed him in Italian and the mystery cleared itself. The man suspected the actor of nefarious schemes to hoodwink the government, the hollow boot-heel meaning but one thing — what, in fact, it was to be used for in "The Splendid Sinner." Once Revelle made clear his legitimate purpose the cobbler quickly did the work. thrilling scene in Rex Beach's production, "Heart of the Sunset," produced for Goldzvvn. "Snakevilles" All New Film Intensive treatment has been given the ten Snakevillc comedies issued by Essanay through General Film with the expectation that they wUl duplicate thcir former popularity. New 'film, new titles, new tints and careful editing has made these single reel subjects with Western settings most acceptable as program adjuncts in any sort of theatre.