Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

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332 January 29r 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD rs of ctures A FourteenKeel Compilation of Events Is Shown At the Third Annual Better Films Conference of the National Board of Review S one of the features of the Third Annual Better Films Conference of the National Board of Review, held at the WaldorfAstoria commencing January 25, there was presented a fourteen reel compilation under the general title of “Thirty years of Motion Pictures” that formed one of the most comprehensive and educational collection ever assembled. The actual work of assembly was done by the National Cash Register Company, which in itself throws an interesting sidelight on the widespread use of the picture, but contributions were made by many agencies including the U. S. Air Service. In point of historical information the picture was wTeak in that it derived much of the data from Terry Ramsaye’s book and the same time gives undue stress to the work of C. Francis Jenkins and none at all to Armat, Latham, Le Roy, Lumiere, Paul and the others who really had more to do with the invention of the projected cinema than Edison and Jenkins, who are the only ones credited. But the film on the Jenkins collection was available, the others were not. It would be impracticable to make a special film for this single showing, and the series is to be disassembled at once. Opening with the display of the early models, as shown in the Jenkins collection, the first picture shown was that of the inauguration of McKinley. The oldest picture shown was the John C. Rice-May Irwin Kiss; often described as the original closeup. The inaugurations of Roosevelt, Harding, Wilson and Coolidge also were shown not only to mark the change in timing, but the change in styles. The special reel commemorative of the fifteenth anniversary of the Pathe News formed the second section of the picture and covered half the period in the news highlights. The Government service supplied a full reel of aerial pictures most of which have been seen in the news weeklies, but which took on new interest when made a special feature, and the Williamson underwater pictures made by Carl Louis Gregory led off a reel on mechanics which included pictures at speeds ranging from four to 3,200 ex posures a second. There were also some interesting surgical and clinical films, diagramatic dissections and actual operations. They were by no means the best examples of surgical films we have seen, but they were of decided interest. Vitagraph imported the first surgical films from France, including the Caesarian section, trepaning and the removal of an ulcer. Done back in the early days of the century, they were fairly distant shots. It might be of interest to recall that the first American efforts were made by Sigmund Lubin, around 1908. The first endeavor resulted in the cameraman fainting at the first incision. Later Lubin, working with a Philadelphia physician, produced a study of the characteristic gaits of locomotor ataxia in the various stages of the progress of the disease. It would be interesting could these be located today. Microscopic pictures were represented by a contribution from Urban showing cheese and fig mites most unappetizingly, and in this section were included animated cartoons and the animation of models as represented by “The Lost World.” There was no mention of “The Ghost of Thunder Mountain” in which a pair of these models were first used and which contained the idea elaborated for “The Lost World.” Natural color was illustrated by the Eastman, Technicolor and Kelley processes with no reference to Friess Greene Kinemacolour, which would have required a special projector, had any of the positives been available. Visual Education was represented by selected shots from the Yale Press historical series and the Dittmars deep pictures, both typical of the best work along these lines. Advertising and sales films were interestingly shown in various phases, proving the graphic appeal of the pictured facts, and there were some shots of amateur studies made by the De Vry process but with no mention of the Cine-Kodak or rapid growth of the little films, which assuredly should be of interest to all concerned with better films. A shot of the Edison Black Maria led to the complete filming of The Great Train Robbery. Here a sub-title gave an erroneous impression in stating that this was a continued favorite from its inception in 1903 to the five reel days. This is incorrect. The five reel picture came about 1911-12 and in 1909 this writer persuaded William Ham merstein to revive the Robbery at the Victoria Theatre where it accomplished a most complete “flop.” The picture was not then old enough to be a novelty and it was too crude to compare with the better finished one reelers of six years later. The remaining reels had to do with technical equipment and the splendid results achieved through the use of modern apparatus, illustrated by scenes from “The Ten Commandments,” “White Gold,” “The Volga Boatman,” “Code of the Sea,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Volcano” and “What Price Glory,” concluding with the Eastman demonstration film showing the increased use of raw stock until the supply for one year would circle the globe six times where a few years ago the entire output was but four miles of film. Naturally the picture had many faults. It was not possible to spend large sums to assemble film for a single showing, but the three hour film did much to demonstrate the advance made in every line of cinematic endeavor, and we can recall nothing that has been so effective in presenting to the layman some idea of the gigantic strides made in this thirty-year-old art. Now and then “The Great Train Robbery” has been dragged from the cans to give emphasis to the betterment of picture production, and occasionally some old time short length is brought forward to get a laugh from a theatre audience, but in a career covering the entire thirty years of picture progress, this writer recalls noshowing which even approaches this picture in its graphic presentation of progress, nor anything which more completely demonstrates the gigantic strides made toward perfection. It would be a splendid thing if the Board of Review, the Hays office or some similar agency could develop this idea carefully and fully with the aim of keeping a perpetual record of the advancement of the picture. It would be a splendid thing to take through the country for demonstration purposes, and a single showing of such a collection would do more to give the general public the right angle on the pictures than could be conveyed in a dozen books. The Board of Review has done something important ; handicapped as it was by conditions. The picture should be carried on togreater completeness and made generally' available. — E. P. S.