The New Movie Magazine (Jul-Dec 1932)

Drifting apart. ana they aorit know tketj eason Can this be the congenial couple whose happiness was once the envy of all their friends? Irritable, impatient . . . they now get on each other's nerves continually. He sulks . . . she grieves . . . never guessing the true cause of their difficulties, though it's pathetically simple. Without knowing it they have both fallen victim of ASTHENIA.* Without knowing it . . . that's the disarming thing about this health-destroying blight. It drags you down . . . slows your mind . . . robs you of your joys and pleasures. Yet you hardly realize you're slipping. Don't think . . . just because you're "regular" . . . that your system is free of those poisons which in most cases are directly responsible for that dull, achy, pepless condition known as ASTHENIA. If you feel tired, listless, irritable ... if your work weighs you down . . . it's time to act and act quickly! Buy a bottle of Pluto Water and take it as directed — one-fifth glass in four-fifths glass of hot water — every morning for 10 mornings. Don't miss a day — for 10 days! You'll be amazed how this gentle treatment will change your entire viewpoint. After that — take Pluto Water every Sunday morning regularly, and you'll do everything with new vim and pleasure. Then you'll understand why for nearly 90 years, from all over the world, people have traveled to French Lick Springs for this famous 10-day Pluto Water treatment. Gentle • Effective • Agreeable • PLUTO WATER ends "ASTHENIA— the want or loss of strength . . debility . . diminution of the vital forces — often due to intestinal micro-organisms. When taken as directed it is virtually tasteless. The bij;pest selling Laxative Mineral Water in the world — recommended by doctors everywhere — Pluto Water is bottled and sealed at French Lick Springs Hotel, French Lick, Indiana — America's Greatest Health Resort. In 2 sizes — 20c and 45c. Take PLUTO WATER and see a HJew World in lO days Jim Tully's Gallery of Men (Continued from page 85) of high talent since the world began. It would help his perspective if but a moment he meditated on the fact that, born a hundred years earlier he would possibly have spent his life as an obscure circus clown. Even at present, without the films, he might still be where he was, a pantomimist on a second-class vaudeville circuit. MACK SENNETT, the man who brought Chaplin to the front, is of different metal. A Canadian-Irishman, whose real name was Michael Sinnot, he has retained his position in the films for more than twenty years. A young blacksmith who later became a member of a chorus in a musical comedy, he at last found his way to fortune in Hollywood. A master of the ridiculous in films, I once wrote of him that "he is capable of turning death into an Irish wake and pouring liquor down the throat of the corpse." Years later, I sat behind him at the ringside of a prize fight. A young Negro had won nine rounds against a stout-hearted white foeman. In the tenth and last round the white pugilist connected with a lucky punch. The valiant dark fighter crumpled and was counted out. The vast audience roared their applause for the white victor as he left the ring. The black boy was forgotten. Still dazed, he was taken from the ring in silence. In front of me I heard the clapping of hands. It was Mack Sennett applauding the defeated young bruiser. I have liked him ever since. AND so they wander in and out . of the vast citadels of the cinema. Each day brings new gossip, a new heartbreak, or a long ambition realized. And if Hollywood seems cold to the outsider it is because he does not realize that the hearts of theatrical folk are the warmest in the world. For they each and all, without an exception, have at some time or another looked blankly into the future and wondered what it held. Like Mack Sennett, they do not forget the loser. Will Hays and the War of the Censors [Continued from page 45) battle did not by any means end the war. Censorship bills crop up every year; in the course of a decade, Hays and C. C. Pettijohn, his general counsel, have dealt with several hundred. They have beaten them all; and they never could have scored this perfect batting average without very active and intelligent aid from the organizations behind the committee. Even before the change, the committee, in its own quiet, conservative way, was boosting those films which suited best its ideas of what the motion picture should be. "Abraham Lincoln" appeared on Broadway for its trial run. Hays went to see it. There were less than a hundred people in the house; as a Broadway feature, it seemed a sad flop. But the tastes of Broadway are not always those of Main Street, and this was exactly the kind of film he was trying to encourage. Through all the channels of publicity which sixty organizations commanded, went the word, "See Abraham Lincoln." In a month, this process transformed what seemed a foredoomed failure into an outstanding success. By similar methods, Hays saved from too early death a series of other films which appeal to the higher instincts— such as "Nanook" and "Grass." "We've just piled one little thing into another little thing — like a coral reef," said Hays once. "That was the only way to get results in this situation. One of those little things had already begun to poke its crest above the waters. Producers and directors were getting educated. The steady flow of suggestions from the public, transmitted through the Hays office, was attending to that. And almost hesitantly, they had begun to ask advice on minor points. Then, early in 1926, came an event which the Hays organizations still consider a milestone on the road to satisfactory control. Voluntarily, a producer came and submitted for their advice the problem of a film which did not yet exist, even in scenario. "Costume stuff" was for the moment in favor; and Metro-Goldwyn was looking into Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" as material for a film. There it was, an American classic; many conservatives still consider it our greatest novel. But filmed with fidelity to plot and incident, it would violate two of those principles which the moral leaders of America had been hammering into the heads of producers and directors for two years. Its real central incident is the birth of an illegitimate child. "The objection to that is obvious. But further, it involves the shame of a clergyman. From time immemorial, the Catholics and Jews had made vociferous objections to plays which cast an invidious light upon their priests and rabbis. Long before the motion picture was born, the show business understood that. But of late, the Protestant element had developed the same sentiment regarding its own clergy and was expressing it by complaints to Hays. What could be done, asked MetroGoldwyn, to eliminate those objections and still save "The Scarlet Letter" for the film? Hays seized this opportunity to prove a higher use for his organization. He assembled a committee of thirty clergy 86 The New Movie Magazine, November, 1932