Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1920)

Photoplay Maoazinf. — Adxertising Section 107 Murdered Brain Children ( Concluded ) stor\ with a clinch between hero and heroine? Well, in at least thirty stories which I can recall off hand, the general average of the last scene would run about like this: "Scene 313. Closeup of William and Mary. Play for artistic lighting effect as William looks into Mary's eyes and sees the answer to his question. Mary starts to hang her head shyly and as John starts to take her in hs arms, IRIS OUT before thry clinch. "But why. or. WHY:* doc; the last scene usually appear like THIS : "lyiary starts to hang her head shyly and as John puts his arm about her, she snuggles her head contentedly upon his breast. Then he raises her face to his and as their lips meet in a kiss, and he strains her to him, IRTS OUT." Frank M. Dazey. who is furnishing the scripts for .\nita Stewart and Mildred Harris Chaplin, confesses to a weakness for a certain bloodcurdling incident as follows: "My favorite d— d (director deleted") sequence comprises some fight scenes between two turtles. My argument for them i? that 'animal stuff' is always interesting, and that the screening of two turtles alternately protruding and withdrawing their ugly heads to take vicious but hopeless snaps at each other's impregnable shell would be an amusing novelty. The directors — to date — have protested 'It can't be got — and turtles don't fight anyway !' To this my reply, always rejected as inadequate, is that I've seen 'em. And there the matter rests." Rex Taylor, of the Goldwyn staff, has a subtitle in his system that you will see on the screen one day if his health and strength hold out. The idea is that the hero, in hardluck, goes into a small town hotel and .settles himself in a chair. The clerk is closing up for the night and suggests that the hero take a room for the night. Now comes the big title. The hero replies: "I've got insomnia so bad I can't sleep," and settles himself for the night. "A lot of people and directors have told me that this isn't funny," says Taylor. "I think it is, and I'm going to see how it goes with the public some day, if I have to conspire with the cutting department to do it." What has sent .Albert Shelby LeVino of the Metro staff, up in the air more than once is this, in his own words: "In the last few years I suppose I've had to use an aeroplane some ten or more times for various purposes. The hero or the heroine had to get some place in a hurry; or the villain had to gum the works by being first on the job; or there was a military situation ; or it was just a stunt that characterized the person doing it as a bit reckless and sporty. So as a bit of passing comedy, as a cutin to flight scenes particularly when the plane was doing a loop, or the falling leaf, or a tailspin or any one of the numerous anti-prohibition moves a plane can make in the hands of a world-weary pilot, I always have had the mental picture of a worthless, absolutely good-for-nothing indolent negro watching the aerial antics. "And, whether he was just a roustabout at the hangars — or a darky husband basking in the warm shade of his wife's wash-tub — or a soldier attached to the aviation section, the comedy seemed to me there when the lazy coon was jokingly asked how he'd like to take a ride in the sky-tumbling craft. "He looks up at the plane with eyeballs that show the white which is the base of spinal yellow — shakes his head decidedly no — and says: 'I may be a lazy dawg — but I ain't no skye-terrier !' "On one occasion this was eliminated because the director didn't think it funnv; another time the star thought it was and, since the said star didn't have the gag-line, deemed it had better be cut out ; again, the coon wasn't funny; on another occasion, the cutter didn't like darkies on the screen anyhow ; once more it was eliminated for footage. But I'm not downhearted. My child's time shall come.'' Gerald C. Duffy of the Goldwyn scenario department has a pet scene that he has written four scenarios around, sold the scenarios, and still the scene has never been produced. "I have given up hope for production," he says, "so I am sending it to you in hope that, at least, it will enjoy publication and be off my mind. It will never. NEVER be aimed at by a motion picture camera. I offer it to you in the boots" in which it died : 'SCENE? AUDRY'S BEDROOM: Pop is in a terrible fi.\". The tie has at last been placed around his collar, though its disordered arrangement makes it resemble a spattered blot of ink. The Jap is holding up the tuxedo and waiting impatiently for Pop to make up his mind to get into it. In proportion to Pop's regular clothes it appears to him about the size of his vest. He eyes it in disgust for a moment and then, realizing there is no alternative, punches his arms into the sleeve-holes and draws it around him. He wriggles in anguish. INSERT TITLE : YE CANNOT BE BOTH GR.\ND AND COMFORT.\BLE BACK TO ACTION. Pop feels like plum that has outgrown its skin and is about to burst. His collar saws his neck, his .Adam's apple bangs against the barrier for freedom, his clothes smother him." This is a curious companion piece to Miss Johnston's picture of the girl dolling up for conquest. The male of the species has his sartorial tortures. Jack Cunningham, who turns 'em out for Robert Brunton and George Loane Tucker, is not a bloodthirsty gentleman in private life, yet list to his wail : "I have had some pet ideas that I never have been able to foist upon an unsuspecting producer. One of them is a title that I yearn, — with all of the fervor of Bill Nye's famous mule — to see spread across a lurid twentv-four sheet. .And that is: — "'Murdered at Midnight!!!' "I have thought up, I don't know how many, howling melodramas and, at the top of the first, or title, page of each and every one, I have set down the thrilling words: 'Murdered at Midnight!' No one will have it. One or two of the melodramas have been sold — maybe only one — I am unused to figures when talking about the number of stories I have sold. But, some way or another, probably an accident, the title has been lost. "At last, T have given up in despair, and now freely hand this pet title — 'Murdered at Midnight' — to the world, unless the man who reads copy on this symposium dislikes it and shoves in some aenemic desisnation like, 'Sudden Demise at Twelve o'clock'!" There y'are. Jack— in print at last. We shall take great pleasure in watching the screen for the appearance of any of these murdered children, dragged from their tombs by borrowers of ideas, and while the original parents thereof will, perhaps, be glad to see them brought to life, it will be interesting to see whether this exposure of the slaughter of the innocents, will result in belated recognition of their virtues. How to Find the Cream You Need Stand in a good light — examine your face carefully in a mirror, and then — Study this Chart Acne Cream — for pimples and blackheads. Astringent Cream — for oily skins and shiny noses. Combination Cream — for dry and sallow skins. Foundation Cream — for use before face powder. 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