Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)

vT/Brl The Pep of The Program News and reviews op Short Subjects and serials This Is Going to Be the Biggest Comedy Y ear in History of Screen This is going to be a big year for comedy, and the laughmakers will come into their own more than ever before in the history of the motion picture business. The tide of long and boresome features has been turned and exhibitors everywhere have demanded in certain tones their desire for pure entertainment, whether it comes in large or small packages. What will our part in this be? Our entire organization has been concentrating these last few months on new ideas, new situations, new gags, building up a type of comedy for laughing purposes only, without detracting one particle from the standard we have set for quality production. We are starting on our fourth By AL CHRISTIE year of distribution through Educational Film Exchanges, Inc., our eighth year as independent producers, and my own thirteenth year of directing behind a camera, and I want to say that I fully believe there is nothing unlucky about the latter number. It has always spelled good fortune before, and this should be our most successful period. We are encouraged everywhere by exhibitors who believe in the two-reel comedy as a regular diet on all programs. The comedy has been likened to the funny page and the daily funny strip in the successful newspapers. Publishers have long realized that the cartoon strip is the biggest single circulation builder in the paper. Likewise real motion picture exhibitors know that the building of a steady clientele is dependent to a large degree on the showing of comedies which put their patrons in good humor, which give them good fun for their money. They know that running a picture theatre without highclass comedy is like printing a newspaper which is all editorials and reading matter concerning the business, the crime, the grief and the strife of the world. And there's enough grief in the world without going to a theatre to get more. The whole world loves a laugh, and the most successful theatre men are taking advantage of this universal demand by making the comedy part ot their program one of the biggest advertising assets. Two Two-Reelers and “Jamestown” on Pathe’s List for November 4 Variety marks the Pathe schedule for November 4 which includes an unusually large number of subjects. Heading this program is “Jamestown,” the second of the “Chronicles of America” series. Like the first “Columbus” it is in four reels. Ruth Roland’s serial, “Ruth of the Range,” reaches its fourth episode which is titled “The Terror Trail.” The third of the “Spat Family” series is titled “Roughing It” and shows the discordant family out West staking a mining claim and meeting with many ludicrous mishaps. On this schedule is also a Mack Sennett two-reeler “One Cylinder Love.” Built around a story of a broken engagement are aeroplane thrills and clever acting. Stan Laurel is featured in “The Whole Truth,” a single reel Hal Roach comedy, presenting an amusing version of the recent scientific discovery of a serum which is an antidote against lying and makes the patient tell the truth. The Aesop Film Fable, Cartoonist Paul Terry’s laughable creation, is titled “A Barnyard Rodeo,” and shows the familiar animals in a typical Western rodeo. Pathe Review No. 44 contains the following subjects: “The Pleasure Boat,” a pictorial interpretation of Richard Henry Dana’s poem ; striking views of Durango, Mexico, under the caption “The City of Sorrows,” and a Pathecolor presentation of a day in Volemdam, Holland, under the title “Dutch Doings.” In addition there is an industrial American history dealing with the section that will interest the ma Indian Princess Pocahontas and jority of spectators. the English Colonist John Rolfe : “Jamestown” deals with the early also the struggle between the struggles of the Colonists and in English and Spanish Colonists for troduces the colorful chapter of supremacy. Amusement end Knowledge Provided in Tolhurst’s Pictures Educational Exchanges, Inc., are of the opinion that the distribution of the series of Tolhurst microscopic pictures produced by Principal Pictures Corporation, of which Sol Lesser is president, marks a forward and significant step in the development of the screen, that of providing entertainment and instruction in a manner that will be as welcome to the public as the works of Maeterlinck and Fabre on insects have been to th.e world of literature. “Once the public accepts scientific demonstrations on the screen the general education of humanity may fairly be said to have begun,” says Louis H. Tolhurst, the California scientist who perfected the process by which these pictures are taken. “The exhibitor has learned that the public is not over-zealous to increase its stock of knowledge, but is very eager to be amused. Accordingly, in attempting to present the intimate lives of familiar insects I have sought to keep this element of for Educational entertainment uppermost. I believe no scientist or educator familiar with Maeterlinck’s “The Life of the Bee,” or better still Fabre’s charming books, will quarrel with me or my methods when I say that without a doubt more people have learned of the habits of the bee from these romantic works than through scientific text-books. Maeterlinck has brought the subject well within the scope of “human interest.” Fabre has done even more with his careful and scientific “stories” of insects. To achieve in pictures what these celebrities have done with their literary style, is my ambition. Properly titled, the lives of insects are capable of an infinite variety of treatment. Tragedy, comedv. epic struggle, satire, humor and sensational action can be found, while the social relations of “colonies” are so complex and interesting as to supply a never failing field of investigation and exploitation. Century Working on “Buster Brown ” Julius Stern, who some time ago acquired the film r'ights to R. F. Outcault’s celebrated Buster Brown cartoon strip, announces that the story for the first of this series which will be filmed as Century Comedies, is now near'ing completion and numerous players are being considered in order to select a suitable Buster Brown and Mary Jane and a perfect Tige for their* respective roles. The number of comedies to be made has not yet been decided. Competent gag men are busy on the material and the name of the director will be announced soon. Century Announces Fifth Unit Noel Smith, formerly with Century and then with Fox, has returned to Century Comedies and will direct a series of two-reelers. Work on the first one featuring Harry Sweet, who was also formerly a Century star and then went to Fox, will be started within a few davs as Sweet is again in the Century fold. Smith makes the fifth director to head a unit making Century Comedies, the others being A1 Herman, Bob Kerr, Harry McCoy and Arvid Gillstrom. All units are wording under the supervision of Julius Stern and Sig Neufeld. Casts of well-known comedians have been selected for all of these units. Books Semon Film The Modern and Beacon theafres in Boston booked “The Gown Shop," the first Larry Semon comedy for the season of 1923-24. There are to be four Larrv Semon comedies released by Vitagraph which include “The Gown Shop,” “Lightning Love,” “Horseshoes” and one for which a title has not yet been selected. “Peggy” Bookings Heavy bookings continue to pour in on the Baby Peggy series of Century Comedies. Among the most recent are the Missouri in St. Louis, Majestic in Columbus, Strand in Wichita Falls, Broadway in Richmond, Rialto in Butte, Liberty in Spokane and California in San Pedro. Signs for Series Pathe announces that the Strand theatres in New York and Brooklyn have booked the entire series y>f “Spat Family” and “Our Gang” f^-to-reel comedies.