Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

June 1, 1918 MOTOGRAPHY 1045 tmam Theda Bara as she appears in two William Fox productions. The first^ picture is from "Salome.' "Under the Yoke." The second and third are from Theda Bara Completes "Under the Yoke' Fox Advertises Feature as "The Picture of the Fight for Love of a Woman of No Regrets" THEDA BARA'S super-production, "Under the Yoke," described as a fighting drama of the Philippines, which William Fox will release in June, has just been completed at Hollywood, according to a wire received at the Fox offices in New York. In "Under the Yoke," which tells a Story of an incident in the early days of American occupation of the islands, Miss Bara portrays a character which is said to combine all the salient qualities of Carmen, and of Cigarette in "Under Two Flags." W. R. Sheehan, general manager of the Fox Film Corporation, reminding exhibitors of the triumph which Miss Bara scored in "Carmen" and "Under Two Flags," declares that in "Under the Yoke" the star again appears in a sympathetic role, this time depicting the romance of a young Spanish girl who is in love with an American army captain. The picture is based on a story by George Scarborough, author of several stage and screen successes, and was scenarioized by Adrian Johnson, who wrote the scenarios for "Cleopatra," "Salome," "Romeo and Juliet" and most of the other Theda Bara successes. The picture was directed by J. Gordon Edwards. This was the twenty-sixth picture he has directed for William Fox. The story of "Under the Yoke," which is declared to depict a situation utterly new to the screen, is being described in advertising and publicity matter, including lithographs issued by Fox, as "the picture of the fight for love of a woman of no regrets." In love with an American army officer, Maria, the daughter of a wealthy Spanish grandee, rejects the suit of the overseer of her father's plantation. The rejected suitor foments a revolt, captures the girl and her sweetheart, and is about to put them to death when they are rescued by a force of American troops. Innovations are said to have been introduced in the photography, which, besides depicting the beauty of the tropics, contains many stirring battle scenes between American troops and forces of insurrectos. Duncan Speeds Up Serial A report from the Vitagraph western studio received last week by Albert E. Smith, president of the company, declares that William Duncan, star and director of "A Fight for Millions," is working on so many different parts of the serial that only he and W. S. Smith, studio manager, know definitely where he stands. However, Duncan is more than holding up to the schedule he set himself when he started out. One of the big scenes last week was in a stockade in which Duncan used several hundred actors as mounted police, Indians and cowboys. From the distributing organization of Vitagraph comes the information that inquiries are arriving from all parts of the country on the serial, which is scheduled to follow "The Woman in the Web." Puts Picture Plan Up to U. S. Frederick Burlingham, an American cinematographer who returned recently from Switzerland, said in New York last week that he had laid before the American government a plan of combating the propaganda Germany is carrying on in neutral countries by means of motion pictures. Mr. Burlingham said that as soon as American or Allied films enter Switzerland they come under the control, in one way or another, of the German motion picture trust backed by that government. "Sometimes the films are bought outright through dummies," he said. "If there is any pro-Ally matter in them it is censored out or twisted to make it favorable to Germany. When the play, 'The Invasion of the United States,' was sent abroad, the Germans bought it and changed it to portray an invasion of Berlin. "The British war film, 'The Battle of the Somme,' was exhibited in Switzerland, but the theatres, mostly controlled by Germany, charged 10 francs to see it and only 2 francs to see a German film. The Germans made a bad mistake, however, when they showed a film of the exploits of the raider Moewe. The Swiss had lost food boats to German torpedoes, they resented the film. "The only way in which the Allies can get films with a democratic meaning into the neutral countries is \o organize an inter-Allied corporation that will control the film from the time it is produced until its final showing. The films could be exhibited on a license system providing that the exhibitor must not permit the film to get into German hands.