Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)

November 24, IS 23 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 413 Vidor Directing Laurette Taylor Enthusiastic Reception Given “The Hunchback” Work on the Metro picturization of “Happiness,” J. Hartley Manner’s great play, was begun last week with the arrival in New York of King Vidor, who was selected to direct Laurette Taylor, noted stage star, in the same role which won her such fame on the stage. It will take several weeks before Mr. Vidor and his staff, which arrived here with him from the coast, have completed the filming of several very important exterior scenes, after which, according to present plans, Miss Taylor, Mr. Manners, Mr. Vidor and the staff will return to the Metro studios in Hollywood to complete “Happiness.” “Happiness” marks the second of Mr. Manner's stage successes which Metro has picturized with Miss Taylor in her original stage role. The first was “Peg ’O My Heart,” also directed by Mr. Vidor, which still is accounted a great screen play. After the filming of “Happiness” Miss Taylor will make for Metro another of Mr. Manner’s plays, "One Night in Rome.” It will take several months before “Happiness” is completed. Miss Taylor will probably remain in Hollywood until after this and “One Night in Rome” has been picturized. A beautiful home in the Santa Monica hills near Hollywood has already been secured for the noted star and for Mr. Manners, her husband. House Records Broken by “The Virginian” Owen Wister’s novel and play, “The Virginian,” which has been filmed by B. P. Schulberg for Preferred Pictures, broke all house records at opening engagements in Denver and Detroit this week. A. G. Talbot, manager of the Colorado Theatre, Denver, reports, in a congratulatory telegram to Preferred Pictures Corporation, that the amount grossed the first day of the picture’s run surpassed all Sunday records. According to Phil Gleichman, president of the Broadway-Strand, where the picture is now playing an extended engagement in Detroit, “The Virginian” is doing tremendous business, surpassing any picture booked by that house in three years. The Detroit critics, who are among the first newspaper reviewers to render a verdict on the screen “Under the for Early The Cosmopolitan Corporation announces that it will shortly present at the Cosmopolitan Theatre the greatest achievement in its history to date — a sumptuous screen version of “Under the Red Robe,” from Stanley Weyman’s famous romance bearing the same title. The leading characters in this drama visualize the most vivid period in the reign of Louis XIII of France. The statement is made that “Under the Red Robe” represents the most careful regard for historical accuracy in all of the important features of settings and costuming. The picture was nine months in the making, .and the total cost is upwards of $1,500,000. All of the famous examples of the architecture of the period represented in the sets used are faithfully reproduced, it is said. The Palace Royal at Paris, formerly the palace of the great production, say : Detroit Times : “ ‘The Virginian’ is a picture no Detroiter can afford to miss. It is what we call a beautiful production, pictorially and dramatically.” Detroit Journal : “The story of ‘The Virginian’ is just that thrilling type of material made to order for the movies.” Detroit Free Press : “One of the finest westerns the screen has ever given us.” A November Drive During the month of November, the W. W. Hodkinson Corporation will hold its sixth anniversary drive for sales and collections. Hodkinson sales managers are making direct appeals to exhibitors for co-operation in putting their territory ahead. Red Robe” Presentation Cardinal under Louis XIII, is an instance, also the interior of the Louvre. The cast is headed by Robert B. Mantell, John Charles Thomas and Alma Rubens. Davies’s Film Back Again After an absence of only three weeks, Marion Davies and “Little Old New York” will be back on Broadway. It had a run of nearly three months at the Cosmopolitan Theatre on Broadway and Columbus Circle and will be shown at the Capitol Theatre, beginning Sunday, November 11. It is announced that its engagement was terminated at the Cosmopolitan only because of the fact that it was necessary to make way for other completed Cosmopolitan productions. “The Chicago premier of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at the Harris Theatre last week eclipsed even the world premier at the Astor Theatre, New York City,” Universal announces. This marks another step in the phenomenal advance across the continent of Universal’s masterful version of the Victor Hugo classic. “Carl Laemmle started his career in the Windy City just seventeen years ago,” comes the story of the Chicago opening as told by Universal representatives present, “and it appeared as though the entire city had combined to make the premier of Universal’s greatest effort a gala event.” The reception accorded “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” was not merely one of sentiment, however, for newspaper reviews sang plenty of praise, surpassing in enthusiasm even the eulogies published by the critics of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, and other cities where the Victor Hugo classic is now playing to delighted audiences. The advance sales are the largest in the history of pictures in legiti mate houses, reports state. By Saturday at four o'clock every seat was sold for the Sunday matinee, and by two o’clock Sunday afternoon the house was gone for the night performance. Thousands were turned away both afternoon and evening. Mr. Laemmle and his secretary, Harry H. Zehner, arrived in Chicago from the coast Sunday morning, and E. H. Goldstein, treasurer of Universal, came in from New York to attend the opening. Both were in the audience, together with a host of notables representing society, the theatrical and political world. At the conclusion of the performance the audience stood and cheered Mr. Laemmle and the picture. It was impossible to clear the house for forty minutes as his many friends insisted on offering their personal congratulations. Judging by the advance sale of the Chicago run Lhiiversal executives predict the Windy City showing will equal that of New York, w'here “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” is about to enter its fourth month of continual sell-outs. Campaign Launched for Special Pathe Series Pathe has launched a special campaign for its current “Chronicles of America” releases in connection with the celebration of National Education Week from November 18 to 24 inclusive. This nation-wide movement, sponsored and conducted by the United States Bureau of Education in co-operation with local school authorities all over the country, has already been widely publicized in the nation’s newspapers. “Columbus,” which was released by Pathe on October 7, depicts the high lights of the color ful and adventurous career of the discoverer of America. The second number of the series, which is also in four reels, is titled “Jamestown,” and is concerned with that eventful period of American history in which the English and Spanish colonists struggled for supremacy. These two subjects are the forerunners of additional thirtyone monthly releases being made by the Yale University Press for distribution by Pathe and picturizing the dramatic high lights of over 400 years of America’s romantic development. Cast Selected for New Mary Pickford Picture The cast for Mary Pickford’s next forthcoming production for United Artists Corporation release, “Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall,” has been completed, and, according to an announcement from Miss Pickford’s studio, consists of even a greater assemblage of stage and screen stars than that which supported her in her current film success, “Rosita.” Miss PicWord in the role of Dorothy Vernon is again the grown young woman. The character, however, is wholly different from that of the little Spanish street singer so exquisitely portrayed in the attraction United Artists is now selling. In the cast are Allan Forrest, Anders Randolph, Marc McDermott, Claire Eames, Estelle Tay lor, Mme. Carrie Daumery, Eric Mayne, Lottie Pickford Forrest, sister of the star, and Malcolm Waite. Billy Wehle Lauds Hodkinson Film Billv Wehle, managing director of The Isis Theatre. Grand Rapids, Michigan, in a communication to the W. W. Hodkinson Corporation said, relative to his showing of “The Drivin’ Fool:” “We wish to take this method of thanking you for not only a good picture but a real business getter. For the first time in this theatre, since the showing of “The Birth of a Nation,” a picture was applauded.