Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

MOVING PICTURE WORLD 201 Julius Singer Outlines Schedule For Universal’s Serial Plans New Chapter Plays to Be Made on Jewel Basis, With Stories From Famous Authors; Other “Shorts” Reviewed IN THE SERIAL FIELD, Universal Pictures Corporation has undertaken a schedule far outdistancing all past efforts Julius Singer, sales manager of short product for Universal, has this to say: “Our new serials are being made on a Jewel basis; that is, each one of them will cost as much as the average Jewel production. You can’t do better than that for the serial public. January 15, 1927 Johnny Hines Is Completing “AH Aboard” From Hollywood comes the dispatch that camera work on Johnny Hines’ forthcoming First National picture, “All Aboard,’’ is more than half complete, with four reels cut and edited, and the filming of the remaining comedy sequences humming rapidly down the home stretch. The production is being made under the personal supervision of C. C. Burr, with Charles Hines directing and Tenny Wright assisting. According to reports, the comedian has surrounded himself with the greatest aggregation of fun-makers available on the Pacific Coast. Among recent additions to the cast are Bull Montana, Fred Kelsey and Henry Barrows. Edna Murphy plays the leading feminine role in the picture and the roster of players boasts of such names an Anna May Wong, Dot Farley, Babe London, Sojin, Frank Hagney, James Leonard and George Reed. Sally O’Neil to Do Title Role in Big Special Sally O’Neil will play the title role in the Cosmopolitan production of “Becky,” Rayner Seelig’s newspaper serial story, to be filmed at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, according to an annuncement made yesterday by Hunt Stromberg, associate producer. As Becky, Miss O’Neil will play the part of a little shop girl who nurses the secret ambition to become an opera singer. It will be her first appearance in a Cosmopolitan production. The picture will be directed by John P. McCarthy, from a scenario written by Marion Blackton. " The Mona Lisa” In the Paramount “The Mona Lisa,” third Romance Production to be released by Educational Film Exchanges, Inc., has been booked to play the new Paramount Theatre, New York City, the week of February 5. This short feature, which is in two reels, is finished in technicolor and, in telling the romance of Mona Lisa’s life, gives a plausible explanation for the famous smile in the immortal masterpiece, “Mona Lisa,” by Leonardo da Vinci. “The Peaceful City,” a Life Cartoon Comedy, just released, will play the Paramount Theatre, the week of January 8. Olive Borden She’s playing in F. W. Murnan’s picture, “The Monkey Talks,” by Fox. Announce Cast of Rayart Feature W. Ray Johnston, executive head of Rayart Pictures Corporation, is in receipt of a telegram from Trem Carr, one of Rayart’s West Coast producers, to the effect that the cast of “The Midnight Watch,” a forthcoming Trem Carr Production for Rayart release, includes Roy Stewart, David Torrence, Mary McAllister, Ernest Hilliard and Marcella Arnold. Miss McAllister, by the way, has just been selected by the “Wampas” as a baby star, while Miss Arnold emerged triumphantly from a recent beauty contest. Schildkraut Cast Rudolph Schildkraut has been selected to play one of the leading roles in “Turkish Delight,” the Irvin S. Cobb story that Paul Sloane will direct at the De Mille studio. “The new year’s supply of serials will consist of one twelvechapter serial and four ten-chapter serials. The twelve-chapter serial will be the lead-off picture. It will be ‘Keith of Scotland Yard,’ from a popular detective story written by George Bronson Howard, and will be the best screen crook and detective drama ever made. “The other four will be ‘The Trail of the Tiger,’ a circus serial from the pen of Courtney Ryley Cooper, which was published in the Short Story Magazine; ‘The Vanishing Rider,’ from an original by William Lord Wright, a writer and executive without a peer in the serial production field; ‘The Scarlet Rider’ from an original by Frank H. Clark, and ‘The Phantom Raider,’ from the story ‘Pleasure Island,’ by Frank R. Adams, published in the Blue Book Magazine. “This line-up gives us fifty-two weeks of serial product of a quality unsurpassed in past or current moving picture history. The fact that William Lord Wright, in addition to supervising other Universal short product, will devote the greatest possible amount of time to the serials, assures a quintet of unbeatable chapter-plays. “Novelties are being introduced in our two-reel western release schedule which promise to make that weekly release one of the most sought for short subjects on the market. The line-up now includes thirteen Northwest Mounted Police dramas, thirteen Texas Ranger dramas, thirteen stunt westerns made by the flashiest and most daring cowboys in the West, and thirteen variety dramas featuring a boy and Indian and a dog. These last will strike a very responsive chord. “In the one-reel comedy field Universal is planning several innovations of proved worth. In addition to a series of 26 Bluebird Comedies made with popular comedies, there will be a series of thirteen one-reel cartoon comedies, and a series of thirteen one-reel novelties, the exact nature of which Universal is not yet ready to make public. Newsreel Planned “Added to all this array of super short product, Universal will release 104 issues (two a week) of the popular International Newsreel, a newsreel without Deer, backed by the great newsgathering organization of William Randolph Hearst, and exploited to the advantage of all International Newsreel users, in every Hearst newspaper throughout the country. The International organization has just moved into new big quarters where its many activities are concentrated under one roof, making for far greater efficiency in the assembling, editing and distribution of the newsreel and consequently in speedier service to exhibitors. “There is no question but that Universal will dominate the short product field next year. The making of good short product requires experience and coordination as well as expenditure. Universal has the experience and a co-ordination of effort without equal in the industry and now Mr. Laemmle is putting big money behind the product. If any exhibitor is worried about next year’s short product situation, he can forget it right now and enjoy Laugh Month. Universal will produce the goods.” William Beaudine and family. He is under contract with M-G-M and his first direction will be “Frisco Sally Levy.”