Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1922)

MOVING PICTURE WORLD 431 December 2, 1922 Star Comedies Essential for Complete Program; Add Relish to Entertainment Fox Announces New Series of Fun Films, Starring Lane, St. John and Cook AL ST. JOHN IN ONE OF HIS LATEST FOX COMEDIES. By VIVIAN M. MOSES Whether a moving picture theatre seats three hundred or three thousand spectators, the well balanced and zestful salad of the theatre’s bill-of-fare is the Star Comedies. No screen mixed program is complete without them. They add a relish to the entire entertainment. The first motion picture that attempted to tell a connected story was of a comedy nature, and this class of films has imimproved steadily in scope and entertaining qualities ever since. We read a great deal about the iremarkable advance made by the motion picture in the last twenty years; these words of praise apply to the one and two-reel comedies quite as aptly as they do to the drama of serious purpose. In screen comedy the comedians can appeal only to the eyes of the spectators. As a consequence, they are obliged to follow one piece of business with another in rapid succession. Each phase of their pantomime must be pointed with the keenest sense of humor and constructive skill. No series of comedies ever has succeeded in maintaining its grip on the motion picture public that did not offer a quick and generous stream of humorous incidents that appealed to a wide range of taste and intelligence. Of all classes of screen comedies the series of one and two reelers of a humorous nature that can boast of a star at the head of its cast takes first place. In practically every instance the star performers in these short subjects possess that combination of surprising physical agility and grasp of the art of comic pantomime that make the spectator hold his breath with apprehension and wrinkle his face with smiles at one and the same time. To watch a ludicrous looking young gentleman climb the sides of a building with the ease of a monkey, balance himself in an extremely perilous position or take a fall that threatens to dislocate all his bones without losing his air of calm confidence or look of comic surprise, and to have these antics occur in a “rapid-fire” comedy in which the fun is clean and clever, is to share in a species of mental realization that is a priceless tonic to the average man and woman in this bustling world. Fo.x Film Corporation, pioneers in this branch of picture production, can boast of three series of Star Camedies that are constantly growing in favor with the screen public. The trio of laugh makers starring in these pictures consists of Lupino Lane, Clyde Cook and A1 St. John. All three are distinctly different in their method of fun making, and exactly alike in their ability to “put over” the comic incidents in each one of their respective releases. Representing, as they do, long and thorough training in the several branches of dancing, pantomime and acrobatic skill, the three started their careers at widely separated points of the compass. Lupino Lane is a product of the London stage and has played all over the world. Clyde Cook is an Australian, and was a leading performer at the Hippodrome, New York, when engaged by William Fox. A1 St. John is a true son of the land that has developed the motion picture to its present high standing, and received his training under the stars and stripes. “The Reporter,” the first of the Lupino Lane comedies, demonstrated the wisdom of William Fox in prevailing upon this astonishingly agile and always humorous comedian to join the ranks of comic entertainers of the screen. Lupino has taken to his new branch of entertainment with the greatest enthusiasm and the happiest results. Other pictures to follow “The Reporter” are “The Pirate” and “My Hero.” Clyde Cook, whose comedy, “The Eskimo,” revealed humorous possibilities within the Arctic Circle never dreamed of before, and whose previous releases have attested to his steadily increasing reputation as a comic actor of the first rank, is to follow his adventures among the bears and seals and two-legged inhabitants of the frozen North with “Lazy Bones” and “The Cyclist,” two Fox comedies for which a hearty welcome is promised. A1 St. John, whose last two releases, “All Wet” and “The City Chap,” guarantee the quality of his brand of Star Comedies, will be succeeded by “Out of Place” and “The Alarm.” With such a list of Star Comedies and Star Comedians, Fox Film Corporation need have no fear of not holding its present enviable position in this particular branch of motion picture production. Elsewhere In This Issue Is Given an Eight-page Insert on Fox Educational Entertainments. Be Sure to Read Every Word of It.