Moving Picture World (Jan-Jun 1910)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 463 a place in a smoker, but not in a theater. It is a very bad example to our young men and not the proper thing to show to ladies and children. "The Girl and the Judge" offers us a very bad specimen of a jurist, a disgrace to the bar. We do not believe that in any civilized country a judge would be allowed to preside over a murder trial when he was an intimate friend of the afflicted family, an eyewitness to the tragedy and not only a friend of the accused man but a rival for the hand of the girl. No, such a judge could not be impartial in his rulings. In the same production we have another absurdity. If the microscopic lens was arranged so that the rays of the sun could ignite the powder, burn the hand of the judge, burn a hole in a card, the same rays would have burned a hole in the table, and this fact would have been a more conclusive proof. "Politics" would have been a very good picture if the producers had not made a vulgar display of night shirts in the last scene. The story is well worked and very amusing, but the appearance of a minister barefooted and garbed in a long night shirt shocked many persons, as no minister of the gospel would dare perform a marriage in such out-of-place disguise. The audience was further shocked when the parents arrived also garbed in long night shirts. "The Passing Shadow" is an old theme. The production is anti-American, when the producers show us the old feudal style of parents selecting the bride and forcing her on the son. The father could have invited the girl and presented her to his son, but to force the son to declare himself at once produces a very painful scene. As long as the son marries his own choice the father has a right to disinherit his son, but in this case the son should not be left a pauper as the producers take good care to show us that father and son are partners, the name on the door, reading "Carlton & Son." The father^ and partner cannot rob his son and partner of his share* in the business, although they can dissolve partnership. The poverty of the young couple has no reason. The son has good intentions in presenting a Christmas gift to his father, it is a sentiment worthy to be noted, showing a good filial disposition, but the producers should have remembered that, at the' present time, the son was practically penniless, had to pawn the locket of his wife to buy coal, and that even if he had received some money from his sister, he was in no position to go to a jewelry store to purchase a Christmas gift for his father. The producers should have also remembered that a gift should not be considered at its intrinsic value but by the sentiment governing the giver. A single flower, a mere Christmas card would have answered the purpose and appeared more real, showing that although poor and starving they could remember the father. It is very sad that in this picture the producers could not manage to have the sister in the last scene. As she had shown her love for her brother and had deprived herself of her pin money to support him, it would have been a good reward for her to be there at the reunion of father and son. The sister, presenting the baby to the old father, would have made a good finish. "The Livingston Case." — The strongest clue against the boy is the blood on the curtain. If we examine the picture closely, we see that the boy had no chance whatever to collect any blood on his hand. After the murder by the father, the boy appears, he is stunned at the sight of the girl on the floor and at his father kneeling near her, and in horror he steps back steadying himself by taking hold of the curtain. He never touched the body of the girl, nor the hand of his father. How could he have gathered any blood to carry to the curtain? The audience is very keen and at the experiment of the hand mark prints, a lady said: "The prints should not match as the boy had no blood on his hands." When the girl is murdered it is in bright daylight; she is returning from a promenade, as her riding whip shows. Yet the girl is not discovered before the next morning, when the butler goes to pull the curtains and open the window. This sounds impossible that a rich girl, surrounded by so many relatives and servants, should not have been missed before the next morning and it looks very improbable that no one went to close the curtains and close the room for the night, without discovering the body of the girl. Although we cannot control the passions of mankind, we should not show what is most improbable. An old gardener with such a good face would rather show the disposition of ;: faithful servant and not of a villain with an uncontrollable temper. In this case the producers should have selected a man with a less sympathetic face, not a devoted old servant, but a man better fitted for the role of the bad employee, ready to strike the daughter of his master to satisfy the love of his own boy. A devoted servant and good father would have reasoned with his son and not encouraged him in his folly. THE "FREE USHER" EVIL. By Bertram Adler, of the Thanhouser Comnany. In waging our war on evils — real and mythical — in the motion picture business, let us not overlook a very actual and sure-enough evil — that of the "free usher." Here is an evil that can be brought straight home to show managers by our critics, one that is a part and parcel of the picture show management system as it exists to-day. The free usher! How easy is he to secure! And how reluctant to jump the job the way the other employees do! And so cheap — all he wants is the honor of gracing your main aisle! Of course, he often wants some other things, including the chance to pick up acquaintanceship with young women through bestowal of the favors one in his exalted position has at his touch. Sometimes his intentions are innocent, and sometimes they aren't. When they are, they can't harm his employer, except that they interfere with his order of arrangements in a slight measure. When they aren't, he is likelv to bring the employer into unfavorable court notice — together with the motion picture business as a whole. Therefore the exhibitor ought to take no chances. The irresponsible young man who offers his services free nights is not the ideal usher. The cheap usher, he may be, but better a more expensive usher — one who for a few dollars can be held to strict account by the exhibitor. Right here is the trouble. He cannot criticise the actions of one over whom he has no control. This little talk is inspired by a story that has reached me regarding the doings of an usher in a New York nickelodeon— a "free usher." The story isn't a pleasant one — what's the use of repeating it? Necessarily it gained wide reputation in the region of the show where the scamp ushered, and careful parents are keeping their children from the place. Luckily, it hasn't got into the* papers — this time a lone exhibitor, and not the moving picture business as a whole, suffered. No learned judge got a chance to condemn our great institution and no clergyman made the incident serve as a topic. If some such calamity as this had happened, we would have had a hard time showing that the certain usher was not one of Judge O'Sullivan's "hounds of vice that infest these places," since the offender was directly and officially connected with a picture -show. Eventually we would have worsted our critics, but not until their attacks had gained publicity in the great million-copies-a-day dailies — and our answers in The Moving Picture World with its necessarily exclusive circulation. Of course, there are those who usher in nicture shows simply for the sake of the fun the neophyte finds in it, and others — friends of the exhibitor — who obligingly help him out on rush nights. These will exist while picture shows exist. Encourage them while they observe the rules of propriety — and when they don't replace them with paid emnloyees who are strictly accountable to you for their every action every minute in every hour of their working day. High class Independent exchanges are comparatively rare. Within the past twelve months several of these businesses have started and have only flattered to deceive. Indeed, one of the most commonly expressed complaints that we hear amongst the Independent exhibitors is that there is a singular paucity of exchanges giving good service and conducted on proper business lines. No such objection as this attaches to the Paramount Film Exchange, at 61 West Fourteenth street. New York City, of which Mr. I. Goetz is vicepresident and general manager. Mr. Goetz obtained his experience of the business by handling licensed films. He is well known in the film business, having started in at a comparatively early stage, therefore he is extremely well equipped with a knowledge of both sides of the film business, Licensed and Independent. He is with the Paramount Film Company to make it of real use and convenience to the Independent exhibitor in everv nossible way. We, therefore, recommend the Independent exhibitor to get into touch with this up-to-date and progressive film exchange. The Essanay Company's Chicago producers are still devoting their efforts to comedy productions. There are a number of extraordinarily good subjects now made, including one or two big, full-reel comedies, which will probably be booked for early release.