Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

480 MOVING PICTURE WORLD February 12, 1927 r he D reams of Conrad Veidt The Genius from Germany By Charles Edward Hastings OTION PICTURES that will be understood and admired by all the peoples of the earth — that is the aim of Conrad Veidt, the German actor, famous alike on the stage and screen. The topic is discussed under the general heading, “Internationalization of Motion Pictures," as a rule. Veidt, just returned from a hurried trip to Germany, was in New York City for a few days, last week, prior to his departure for Hollywood, where he will be starred in several pictures, under the auspices of Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures Corporation. To the Moving Picture World man, Mr. Veidt said: “After I have made some pictures for Universal, I am going to ask Mr. Laemmle to let me have a woman star and a director, so that I can go back to Germany and make one or two pictures there under American auspices, embodying my own experience in picture making in America and adapting that with a certain German technique and method. “Then, I would like to bring back to America quite a sizable cast from European countries, and make a picture which would be thoroughly understandable by the temperaments and habits of thought of all countries. That is the ideal toward which I have set my face.” Veidt, who began his stage career fourteen years ago under Max Reinhardt, famous German stage craftsman, has made a careful analysis of motion pictures during the last ten years, and, more than any player with whom we have chatted in a number of years, he speaks with a keen regard for all of the facts he has collated. “I have frequently had occasion,” he said, “to remind Europeans that America is different, and more successful, because America considers the motion picture an art and the industry that goes to make them as something serious — as an integral part of the life of the American people — as a national institution. I have told my friends in Europe that everybody in America considers the picture as something which has entered intimately into the life of the masses, and I have pointed to the attitude of press and pulpit, of educators, statesmen of the literary people. “On my first trip to Hollywood where I worked three months in a studio I had ample opportunity to meet leading producers, directors, writers, artists. I discovered that the idea and the ideal which I had cherished for years had also taken hold in America : the internationalization of the motion picture.” “Foremost among them,” Mr. Veidt con tinued, “was Mr. Laemmle, who in his talks with me pointed out that he too has advocated frequently in speech and writings the idea which I have preached. That determined me more than anything else to associate myself with Universal. I, of course, am Conrad Veidt not blind to the advantages which America offers to the screen artist’s earning power, but I did pretty well in Europe, and it was not the dollar in the first place which induced me to forsake, temporarily, my native country. It was the prospect of seeing my dream — internationalization of the picture — coming nearer to realization.” After a moment’s pause, the star of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” speaking very earnestly, went on : “There is no limit of nationality, education, of creed or color, which prevents anyone from thoroughly understanding and appreciating motion pictures. It is the only art which speaks a common language. It builds the only bridge for all peoples to meet in friendly spirit. Gradually they will be brought into closer contact with each other as they learn from the pictures ‘how the other half lives.’ “On both sides of the Atlantic we must give and take. We must have some sort of reciprocity in pictures. The best photoplay made in America may utterly fail in Europe (and I could mention some of your best of last season which did so) because Europeans, while admiring the beauty of the sets, the skill of the players and of the direction, are absolutely unable to get the message the picture means to convey. Arid vice versa. You have had some wonderful German, French and Italian pictures which your people could not appreciate, although everybody admitted that they were firstclass pictures in every detail. “How can that be obviated? I, myself, may have the great privilege of demonstrating that it can be done. I know that Mr. Laemmle will support any plan to bring about the internationalization of the picture. Let me exemplify. If, for instance, a German screen actor of great repute should come to America to make pictures and he should insist that his pictures be made exclusively and entirely in what is known as a German technique, he certainly would fail to understand his real mission. Presumably he was invited to come to America to give something to the American picture, not necessarily because he personified all that is good in pictures, or because he was called upon to reform the American picture from the ground up. By the same token, most of the European pictures can certainly be improved by allowing American actors and directors to supply that wholesome mixture which would make the American-European picture acceptable the world over. “America, for instance, has a type of screen actor — Denny, Lloyd, Gilbert, Coleman— all America’s own. Europe is deficient in respect to young leading men. The strongest element of interest that American pictures have for Europe are the presence of players of this character — wholesome, dashing, handsome men who portray the ideal that all people like to see, who are to audiences the world over, not merely actors but living humans, picturing a life of which the people know. Europe has few of them. For one reason because all Europe has taken a far gloomier outlook on life than young, virile, prosperous America. “But Europe has a fine crop of sterling character actors. Germany and France have had them for some time. Russia is developing quite a number of fine character actors. Of course, you have Jean Hersholt, Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery and others, but character players who, in my humble opin(Continued on page 484)