Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

One oi his greatest characterizations is that of Bennett, the head servant, in Goldwyn s production of Jerome K. Jerome s ■"Strictly Confidential. "" John Bowers is in tweed:. a play and have to wait while they change the scenery? And pictures are getting on the right track because the public taste is improving, i. e. their insistence on seeing the best of actors for even the very minor parts. But the art of cinema histrionism even as yet has not reached its apex, you will understanc from a talk with Standing. Actors still are hampered en scene; aren't given a chance, in only too many cases, to use their originality, to express their individuality. "In England an actor, having arrived." he declared, "is allowed to think for himself and is not dominated by the producer. except, perhaps, by Mr. Augustus Thomas. And the producer here is quite often a glorified call-boy or a ringer up of the curtain who doesn't know stage technique." "Would you like to direct?" I countered by way of discussion. ';Ha. ha I" he laughed. "Huh-////. I was a director — for two days. I said. 'I want to live awhile.' You know, a director's life is always killing." The Standing entrance into pictures was super-induced by a desire for permanent residence until a lawsuit should be settled. And you ask him to be more explicit, and his fighting blood rises. "I went into pictures." he thundered, "because I got out an action against Morosco and was determined to stop here and beat him." He didn't have much respect for the cinema at the time he went into it. but in five years of its steady growth his opinion may be gained by reference to his remark that in three more years pictures "are going to knock )jlays out." We had proceeded thus far when the voice oK Mrs. Standing informed her husband that his immediate zfttention was required to baste the Yorkshire pudding. \ \ Tom Moore, Herbert Sta Leslie Leigh, in "Lord Standing does some of his "Come on into the kitchen. Oh, Joan" (he calls her Jone), "go get this gentleman a chair. Grace, make those children run home. They make so much noise it distracts As has been said before, the Standing sons, Guy, Percy, Wyndham, Harold, Herbert, Jr., Aubrey, and the late Jack, have always been on the tip of their father's tongue, and he took the utmost pains to classify each of hi.s progeny — which arc more numerous than the seven famous Foys. "A man having seven sons might as well have a basket of monkeys. Guy, God bless 'im, was the first of the English actors to enlist in His Majesty's Service in the na\-y. In three years he was made leftenant-commander, and just a few months ago they made him commander and the King decorated him with the Order of the British Empire. He had, you know, a prominent part in bottling up Ostend and Zebrugge, and his hair, which used to be black, they tell me is now as white as mine." While the father doesn't discriminate, it seems that Wyndham, his third son, is his favorite. He talks about his success on the stage, and in pictures. "Did you see him play with Elsie Ferguson? Well, you should have. Mrs. Fiske says he's the finest actor in pictures today, and Mrs. Fiske is always right." "But Mrs. Fiske believes in the rep)ertoire system, too." I again countered. "Oh, she's wrong there," he rejoined. Imagine a fond daddy suggesting any such thing as cutting off the head of one of his sons! Which refers to Percy, but harmlessly, of course. "If you cut my son Percy's head off all the girls would be crazy about him." interposed Mr. Standing amid mouthfuls of Yorkshire pudding. "He looks fat, but he isn't. It's all muscle. My God! but that boy has a wonderful physique. The only trouble is that he was born 10,000 years too late. He ough' to have been a cave man." (Continued on page 123) nding. Alec B. Francis and nd Lady Algy, ' in which most distinctive screen work.