Moving Picture World (Jul - Aug 1918)

1258 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD August 31, 1918 dear went to six and seven, the rifteen-cent cigarette to twenty, and the tobacco which had retailed at ten cents lor two ounces sold at fifteen tor one and a half ounces. . Automobiles went up with a jump; clothes shed their wool and climbed in price and restaurants halved the portion and doubled the price. Railroad fares went from two to three cents a mile and letter postage has gone from two to three cents, and the poorer and the more unreliable the humble safety match the more one pays for it. Taxe's, shortage of labor, increased cost of material have all been used as profiteering excuses, and what an opportunity the picture trade had to boost prices with equal reason only the picture men know. Bnt. despite taxes on raw stock, finished negatives, incomes and profits, also the tax on each admission costing over five cents, the exhibitor is paying about the same for his attractions as he did in pre-war days, while the audience gets past the box office at the same old rate plus exactly the admission tax on his seat. And, of all the industries which are furnishing the Government with supplies and material, the motion picture manufacturers are the only ones who are billing their goods at about net cost of production. While the picture industry is enthusiastically waving the flag, it is not doing it to make an opportunity to insert the disengaged hand into some one's pocket. Posing By Robert C. McElravv. EXTREME naturalness upon the screen is a difficult thing to acquire, and the work of a performer who does accomplish it stands out with great distinction. The layman, who vainly tries to sit for a photograph at intervals of live or ten years, appreciates the difficulty of the continued posing of the moving picture actor. Reflecting over his own attempts to look pleasant without playing the genial idiot he is able to forgive the lapses of the screen performer when they occur. Complete mastery of self before the camera is tremendously difficult. There is always tin tendency to strain for effect, to look at the camera, to make false gestures, to move about awkwardly; to appear ill at ease. To be sure, the performer has a keen and discerning director to help him over the difficult places, but after all the director cannot give him poise and assurance, for these things come from within — and they are the qualities by which the extent of his gift as a performer will be measured. It is probable that supreme naturalness before the camera is found only among animals. They are so apparently devoid of all borrowed emotions, they never strut or pretend or smile vacuously into the camera. \ cow upon the screen is just a plain cow, as kindly and complacent as you please. A dog is a dog, a kitten is a kitten, a rat is a rat. If an animal exhibits fear, it is real fear, not the "fireman-save-my-child" variety that some of our melodramatic friends give us. Xor arc animals, subject to the delusions that occasionally afflict the human actor. If the monkey suddenly finds the spotlight turned his way he does not immediately get the. idea that he is a lion: the inborn humility that all good monkeys have makes him content to continue in his own role. But the comparison is after all unfair, for as a rrfatter of fact nothing is expected of an animal except to be itself. The human performer has no such happv lot. however great his natural humility or sense of his own limitations. He is never permitted to be merely himself; it is his business to completely submerge his own being and project his consciousness upon the screen in the role of another ! An actor named ( leorge | ones might find it a simple thing to appear as George Jones upon the screen; but when he is expected to be Julius Caesar today and Mr. Micawber a couple of weeks later and perhaps Peter lbbetson the next time, his difficulties loom up distinctly. The marvel of the acting profession is that so many performers are able to carry to us the illusion of these manifold personalities, presenting them in many instances with astonishingnaturalness and ease. Posing, when effectively done, is a sublime art. It is by no means the artificial trick that many people assume it to be. Even where an actor appears frequently in his own proper person, without the aid of makeup, the demands upon his skill are great, perhaps even greater than when he has the advantage of outside aids. Take Francis X. Bushman for instance. There is perhaps not a screen performer in the field who is more frequently accused of mere posing in the invidious sense of the word. The critics who fling off this easy assertion would have us believe that the people who have enjoyed Mr. Bushman's portrayals of gentlemen of leisure and similar types all these years have been deceived. They would give us to understand that Mr. Bushman cannot really act and that he merely walks through his parts. Well, Mr. Bushman does walk through his parts, but he does it with a singular command of whatever role he is playing. He appeared not long since in a little stOT) called "Social Quicksands." In this he played the role of .i young man on a vacation, who falls in love with a girl in the usual way. But Mr. Bushman did not act in the usual way. His portrayal of the fashionable young vacationist was exactly what one would wish it to be. lie did a lot of posing, but it was not conscious posing; although he used no makeup or other aids, he carried the idea of being quite lost in the character he was playing. In this, as in other offerings, he carried to success methods that might well have failed in less skillful hands. However much we may dislike the word, it is not posing which displeases, but the sort of posing which does not quite come up to the mark. DAVISON THANKS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. That the American Red Cross fully appreciated the splendid aid which has heen rendered to it by the motion picture industry is shown in a letter which has just heen received by President William A Brady of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry from Henry P. Davison. Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross. "I wish to thank you for this additional proof of your sympathy with and faith in the Red Cross." writes Mr. Davison. "A tremendous responsibility has been placed upon us. and to us it is of the utmost importance that you aid us in making a proper accounting to the people of America, who have given to the Red Cross without stint." KENT DANIELLS GETS LIEUTENANTCY. Kent Daniells. a well known poster artist, formerly employed hy the World Film Corporation, who enlisted in the camouflage division of the Engineers and now doing duty "Somewhere in France," has been promoted to a lieutenantcy. The camouflage division has been separated from the engineers and is now a distinct unit with the American Expeditionary Forces. Mr. Daniells was made a sergeant a few weeks after he volunteered and his present promotion comes six months after his arrival in France.