The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

December 23, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 735 Fox Has New Set of Six Super Specials as a Second Series for Season 1922-23 Company Calls Attention to Ex cellent Cast in Each Picture Fox Film Corporation this week makes an announcement of great importance to exhibitors. In January Fox will release a new set of six giant photoplays as a second series of specials for the season of 1922-23. They are: "The Village Blacksmith," "A Friendly Husband," "Paradise Road," "The Face on the Barroom Floor," "The Net," "Does It Pay?" This announcement. Fox says, gives it the distinction of being the only organization to make public its intentions of releasing a second series of six super-special productions as a supplement to the original program of big leature pictures of the current season. According to the statement, this preparation for release of the second list is the result of tlie demands made upon the or•^ inization by the hundreds of exhibitors who have already lienfited from profitable runs with I lie first group of specials. Fox states that a large proporiinn of the important exhibitors in \incrica have already contracted ir,r and played the original set of IMCtures and are now ready for the additional releases. It is in compliance with this demand that Fox Film Corporation has decided to release at this time six special fi atures announced for distribution early in 1923. Exhibitors who have already played the entire or greater portion of the first series, which included "The Fast Mail," "Silver \\ ings" with Mary Carr, "Monte Cristo," "A Fool There Was," "Kcro," "My Friend the Devil," "Who Are My Parents?" and "TJghts of New York," have been insistent in their demands that the 1 ox Company does not hold back the specials hinted at in their former announcements, but release these special pictures for iiiiniediate play dates now while the season is good. "The Village Blacksmith," which is a 1923 melodrama directed by Jack Ford, is based upon the famous poem by Henry W. Longfellow. This, the first production mentioned on the list, recently completed a month's run at the Forty-fourth Street Theatre, New York. William Walling has the role of the blacksmith and has g^iven to the screen a character long honored in the poetry of America. The exceptional cast includes Bessie Love, Virginia Valli, David Butler, George Hackathorne, Gordon Griffith, Tully Marshall and Ralph Yeardsley. "A Friendly HusSand," the feature length comedy starring the agile Lupino Lane, is the second of the series. It was directed by Jack Blystone and is without doubt one of the funniest comedy specials ever offered the exhibitor. "Paradise Road" is the third. It is an adaptation of the widelyread novel, "The Custard Cup," by Florence Livingston Bingham, and was directed by Herbert Brenon. Mary Carr, who is featured, will be seen in a production which is entirely different from the "mother" story which has made her famous. The character of a woman who possesses the rare quality of always seeing the bright things in life and doing all within her power to help others is that of Mrs. Penfield, "Penzie" of the book. The picture has thrills, mystery and melodrama and presents one of the greatest boat explosions ever filmed. With Mrs. Carr is an assemblage of excellent actors including Miriam Battista, Peggy Shaw, Ben Lyons, Myrta Bonillas, Jerry Devine, Ernest McKay, Henry Sedley and Frederick 'Esmelton. Previous mention to "Paradise Road" has been made under the working title of "Penzie." "The Face on the Barroom Floor," which was formerly announced under the title, "Drink," was also directed by Jack Ford. This is a melodrama. The ex terior scenes were all "shot" in an exceptionally picturesque section of the coast, and many of the vistas are on a par with the best of scenics. The story is that of a painter who voluntarily accepts the blame for another man's wrong and who thus loses the one woman he loves. Henry B. Walthall and Ruth Clifford are the leads in a brilliant cast, which also includes Alma Bennet, Walter Emerson, Frederick Sullivan, Novel McGregor, Michael Dark and Fus Saville. The fifth of the announced series is "The Net," from the story by Marvene Thompson and adapted by Olga Linek Scholl. J. Gordon Edwards, who recently returned from the Fox studios in Rome, Italy, after the completion of "Nero" and "The Shepherd King," the latter of which has not yet been scheduled for release, will direct the super-special. In the cast are Barbara Castleton, Albert Roscoe, Raymond Bloomer, Alma Bennet and a long list of well-known actors. The story is of the society-melodrama type. "Does It Pay?" is the seventh of the new list and boasts one of the most prominent casts in pictures. It is a comedy-drama of modern life. Hope Hampton heads the cast, in which are Robert T. Haines, Mary Thurman, Florence Short and Peggy Shaw, the famous Follies girl. Charles Horan will direct. The scenario is by Howard Irving Young. Hergesheimer Story Made Into Picture "Java Head," adapted by Waldemar Young from the story by Joseph Hergesheimer, author of "Tol'able David," is said to be one of Paramount's biggest pictures of the season. The story is laid back in 1850, with the quaint old city of Salem, Mass., as the chief locale. The action, however, carries half way 'round the world, for it was in China, whence he had gone on a sailing ship, that Gerrit Ammidon, Salem shipmaster, met and married his pretty Chinese wife who was destined to lead such a stormy existence back in the old New England town. To make this picture Mr. Melford brought his entire producing unit from the West Coast to the Long Island studio, and in order to get true "atmosphere" he took his company up to Salem where all the exterior scenes were iTiade. Selznick Presents Patten to Industry First National Sends Out News by Radio First National has begun broadcasting fan news by radio, using the station WHN at Ridgewood, L. I., which gives the news a radius of at least 1,000 miles and at times radio fans on the coast will be able to listen in. It is hoped also to reach London where the radio fans have been listening in recently on nights when atmospheric conditions were perfect. The first broadcasting was done on Thursday, Dec. 7, when a fashion story about the gowns given to Margaret Leahy, Norma Talmadge's British prize winner, was sent out. A story on the thrilling horse racing scenes in Tom Ince's picture "The Hottentot," was sent through the air the next day, after a special showing of the picture at Wurlitzer Hall. A talk on "Minnie," Marshall Neilan's new humorous feature of life in a small town, was sent out later. First National is using the radio daily as an exhibitor help in putting the big attractions over. With the Saturday Evening Post ads, and the radio, First National is now reaching millions of picture fans. Thomas G. Patten, former postmaster of the City of New York, now representing the Will H. Hays organization in the motion picture industry in Los Angeles, made his first official appearance before the heads of the big film companies on the Pacific Coast Friday evening, December 8, at a dinner given in his honor at the Hotel Ambassador, Los Angeles, by Myron Selznick and A. G Voick, respectively president and vice-president of Selznick Pictures Corporation. Mr. Patten, who served with Mr. Hays when the latter was postmaster-general, handling the ijiggest job of its kind in the world, recently joined the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc., and has been assigned to the industry's service in Los Angeles. Frederic Isham, laid chiefly in New York and an imaginery kingdom in central Europe. Jack Mulhall is the star. It has the heait'tug will stir the hearts of the world Universal Finishes Another Serial Another chapter play directed by Robert F. Hill has been finished at Universal City. It is "The Social Buccaneer," a romantic serial based on the novel of the same name by ■/ Over theHiir