Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1926)

Volume XXIX The Rational Cjuide to ZMotion ^Pictures N u in bet Six lUI't Hl>t PHOTOPLAY May, 1926 Speaking of Pictures By James R. Quirk WHAT is William Fox going to do with "Wli.it Trier Glory?" and "Seventh Heaven" and otluT big Broadway theatrical successes thai he has corralled for pictures? Will he duplicate his rial failure to give US a screen production that carried the spirit and the success of the stage version of "Lightnin'," and the inadequacy of "The First Year," which did not live up to expectations? If these four are not ideal screen material, what is? All successful plays are not good screen material. Not by a jugful. But all four of these are, and we would be delighted to see Mr. Fox retrieve himself with the two that are now going into production. PHERE is a growing tendency among producers to look askance at stage plays. Few of the big money makers have come from that source. But there is still a theory, gradually weakening in the light of experience, that a successful stage play would make a successful movie. '""THE BIRTH OF A NATION" had been produced on the stage under the title of "The Clansman," from Dr. Dixon's novel. But it was no tremendous success, nothing comparable with the popularity of D. W. Griffith's epoch making film. "Hearts of the World" was an original screen story. So was "The Big Parade," "The Ten Commandments," and most of Douglas Fairbanks' successes. "The Four Horsemen" was a novel, as was "The Covered Wagon," "The Sea Hawk," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." "The Miracle Man" was a short story, and "Over the Hill" was a theme taken from a poem. Doesn't it prove that, after all, it is not the source of the story, but the intelligence, the craftmanship, the treatment, and the showmanship, that make the picture? Whatever they say, it is the man at the head of the production forces that makes or breaks a picture. There is a very small group of men in the whole industry who are directly responsible. They choose the stories, regardless of their origin. They select the directors and casts. They have entire charge of the production and the last word with the finished film. Metro-Goldwyn lot. Was it his directors, was it his brilliant supervisors, Thalberg and Rapf, or who or what ? "Well," he said, "Thalberg and Rapf are the fines! men in the business, but I know whom the home office blames for the bad ones. It's Louis B. Mayer." He said it. And Marcus Loew picked Mayer. ' I 'HE trade mark in pictures has come to mean just a> much as the trade mark of a soap or a canned soup. And like these commodities, no amount of advertising can make them popular unless the quality of the product lives up to the advertising. Paramount, MetroGoldwyn, First National, Universal, Pathe, Producers Distributing Corporation, Fox, United Artists, stand for varying standards of quality in the public mind. Every picture you see under one of those trade marks affects your judgment of that banner. All the advertising in the world would not convince you of the superiority of any of them if you were to see a long line of poor productions. Fortunately, the American public is I growing in tolerance with its increasing knowledge of the intricacies of production, and it will come back for more punishment time after time. Then, two or three good pictures renew the faith in the trade mark and the enthusiasm for more pictures. T ONCE sat in a conference at the Bankers' Club in New York with four Wall Street men who were considering the purchase of one of the big film companies. The only reason they didn't buy it was that they could not, for any amount of money, secure the services of a producing head. They had almost closed with one at a salary of a quarter of a million a year. Then they all began to give their opinions of how pictures should be produced. That producer picked up his hat and started to leave. "But we are not through yet," said one of the bankers. "I am," said the producer. "You couldn't pay me enough money to stand the gaff of producing pictures with four men telling me what to do. Too many cooks spoil pictures as well as soups." I" ONCE asked Louis B. Mayer who was responsible ' I 'HE productions of any company are just as big for a number of hits recently turned out on the or as small as the man at the top. 27