Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

"TOM WALLECt WE FT COAJT REPRE^EPITAi IVEI W EAD OUARTEDv? TELEPHONE" 318 "TAFT. BLDG^ GLADJ°TOriE OIOS “Long Pants” Promises to Be Harry Langdon’s Greatest Film “Something Stirringly Different” Is the Way Hollywood Considers the Latest Production by First National Comedian — Picture to Have Debut February 20 THE old sun is going to shine its brightest on Harry Langdon when “Long Pants” makes its debut on February 20. We base this not on hearsay or accounts glowing up from well-intended literature. We base it upon hours that we have spent on the Langdon set in the First National Studio. Watching Langdon, Alma Bennett, Priscilla Bonner, Gladys Brockwell and Alan Roscoe pass before the camera. We base it mainly upon having been able to view a few of the “rushes.” If all that we have seen can be incorporated in the eight reels which will be the release length of “Long Pants,” then “Long Pants” will not only be unquestionably the most unusual picture in which Langdon has appeared but also one of the few pictures which can be expressed out Hollywood truthfully labeled “something stirringly different.” Mary Pickford Writes Her Own Story for Film Apparently writers in Hollywood are suffering from a dearth of ideas so far as Mary Pickford is concerned. We described at length in a recent issue of the World how Mary Pickford had discarded the “thief” story which she had planned to get into production early in January. It now developes, however, that Miss Pickford has a story idea of her own. This theme, it would seem, would include the experiences of a shop girl and life in her family. We learned that Miss Pickford who loaned her director, Sam Taylor, to Metro-GoldwynMayer plans to have her story in script form by the first of April. That will mean that Sam Taylor will have to complete his directing of William Haines in “Spring Fever” by the latter part of March. The Metro-GoldwynMayer picture is scheduled to start February 1. First National Is Launching Three Three pictures go into production at the First National Studios in Burbank next week. One will be George Fitzmaurice’s first production under the First National banner. It is titled “The Tender Hour” and features Billie Dove and Ben Lyon. Lyon incidentally, arrived on the Coast this week after an absence from Hollywood of about a year and a half. “The Sunset Derby” will start production on another set under direction of A1 Rogell, with Mary Astor and Wm. Collier, Jr., featured. Cranking will then also start on Richard Barthelmess’s first picture for First National, “The Patent Leather Kid.” The Fair Skipper Ann Rork at the wheel of a river boat in “The Notorious Lady” for First National. Lon Chaney Now Planning for His Next Production Lon Chaney who has just completed “Mr. Wu” is already making preparations for his next production titled “The Unknown.” This will be the picture version of “Alonzo the Armless.” by Tod Browning. In this production which Mr. Browning will direct, Chaney’s make-up will require him to be minus an arm. Joan Crawford has been selected to play opposite Chaney in “The Unknown.” Interviewing a star in the Hotel Astor and having him say about something three thousand miles away which no one has yet seen : “Yes, it is my greatest”— doesn't mean so much so far. Watching that same star in the grease paint cavort before the lense ; seeing some of these actions projected on the screen and then asking him the question, gets the answer then means everything or nothing. Just the other day after Langdon’s chief cameraman had clicked out his three hundred thousandth foot of film and Alma Bennett was drooping over a couch and Langdon was standing in the middle of an old fashioned sitting room set, scratching his head by means of diversion during this brief intermission, we stepped upon the set sufficiently illuminated to blind non-actorish eyes. Through the blaze of sun arcs we made out Langdon with his brown derby tilted at an angle allowing plenty of ground for his pawing index finger. There wasn’t any “greatest” about it. And while he said it the expression that doesn’t have to change when “camera!” is shouted was still there. “Yes, I like it,” said Langdon. We waited to hear something more — straining our ears for something superlative. There was just, an awkward silence which even the weather topic refused to break. “Do you like it better than ‘The Strong Man?’” A nod of the head followed. “Do you like it better than anything you have ever done?” we hacked out. “Yes” — and there was more silence. Determined to hit the bottom and break for once the belief of many typists out here that Langdon is a tough bird to interview, we changed our tack and boomed : “Technically and otherwise (Continued on page 266) Langdon9 s Masterpiece To Be “Long Pa n t s