Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1925)

132 Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section Broken-out Skin Cleared by Sulphur Just the moment you apply Mentho-Sulphur to an itching, burning or broken out skin, the itching stops and healing begins, says a noted skin specialist. This sulphur preparation, made into a pleasant cold cream, gives such a quickrelief, even to fiery eczema, that nothing has ever been found to take its place . Because of its germ-destroying properties, it quickly subdues the itching, cools the irritation and heals the eczema right up, leaving a clear, smooth skin in place of ugly eruptions, rash pimples or roughness. You do not have to wait for improvement. It quickly shows. You can get a jar of Rowles Mentho-Sulphur at any drug store at small cost. FREE SAMPLE Send coupon for sample of Rowles Mentho-Sulphur Street Oty SUBSCRIBE /or PHOTOPLAY Subscription rates are listed on page five, below contents. (»-) Play ^ on the (Saxophone Cra"rine?'^Traps Flute Sight Sin Harp Ukulel. . ^, ...,,^v popular person in your "set." // New Easy Method Is a revehitlon. Nothing else like it for thoroughness and rapidity. So simpie that il. No '-trick music" — but actual notes, learned quickly right In your own home. FREE BOOK and Demonstration Lesson offers this wonderful musical opportunity. Send for them today betore copies are exastounded. giog Voice and Speech Cul lascinated. I become c U. S. SCHOOL OF MUSIC. 5610 Brunswick Building. New Yo Send me your amazing free book. "Music Lessons I Instrument thl^lnlt*.?. The Development of the Sub-Title IN the early days pictures misht have been made by pourin? dramatic ingredients into forms, so similar was one to another. It will be remembered that if the villain trapped the heroine in a room a close-up of his hand turning the key in the door always followed; that if a member of the cast needed a pistol he had but to open the top drawer of the nearest desk to find it; and that if a hero of hish degree loved a maid of unknown parentage, a locket proving her the long lost daughter of I.ord and Lady Wiffietree was sure to be found about her alabaster neck before the final scene. The sub-titles of those days also followed conventional forms. Hardly a picture appeared without its quota of sub-titles written along such original lines as "That night," "The next day," "Later" and "The ne.xt morning," with this latter varied now and then with "Came the dawn." We used to review many pictures a day at that time and, to relieve the monotony of the variations of the eternal triangle theme, we bet dimes on the number of words in the subtitles with a reviewer from another paper. We laid the foundation of an excellent savings account by taking "odds," as "Later," "The next morning" and "The next day" recurred with charming regularity. AFTER a while we learned that many companies had these titles made up in thousand foot lengths, as an economy in money and time and, incidentally, in originality. And if the "That night" title happened to be used up a piece of "The next day" title was used to meet the situation. Daylight saving meant nothing in those days. Today we seldom see anything as briefly conventional as "The next morning" in a picture. And to us the passing of bre%dty seems regrettable because the title writers have now swung around to the other extreme. A situation calling for a statement of simple fact such as the passing of a night is liable to blossom forth in such a literarv hemorrhage as ; "Came the sweet-voiced harbingers of a newday, putting to rout the somber blackness of the night." The excuse for emplojdng such a wasteful combination of words is that it provides an alleged poetic touch. .A director once asked us to supply a sub-title to precede a dinner scene. The obvious title to use was the single word "Dinner." But the director complained. " IVant something romantic," he said. For the life of us we couldn't think of anything romantic to write about soup or noisette of lamb. We did offer a line about "soft little oysters clinging passionately to their shells," but the director knew we were joking. We have made an exhaustive study of the elaboration of simple statements into wordy sub-titles that are calculated to induce an emotional frame of mind. We offer some of them below: "That night" becomes: Ink^■ black darkness, dotted with a .mjTiad twinkling lights. . . . Or to suit another mood: Shrouded in the merciful curtain of descending "The next day" becomes: Comes another rising sun and the troubles of yesterday are forgotten in the brilliant new avenue of opportunities it unfolds. The favorite substitutes for "Later" are: And so. with the passing of time. . . . The mills of the gods grind slowlv vet tlicv grind exceedingly small . . . and so on another day. . . . _ Shifting the action of a picture from a large city to the western plains offers a fine opportunity for literary fireworks. These two are the most favored : Out i dralc under the of God's vast cathc Shifting the action from a city to the desert is accomplished with titles reading thus: Sand . . . endless sand stretching away on every side to the horizon . . . the de&trt . . . deachle&s as Only when men and women after striving for tlie unattainable losi heart in the struggle and drink the bitter dregs of helplessness, only then does the deathless desert beckon. -All deserts, it must be pointed out, are "deathless." Introducing New York City is done as follows: New York: a city whose streets are paved with the unfulfilled hopes, the blasted ambitions of countless thousands wlio desperately strive for fame and fortune. This invariably precedes a shot of Times Square, taken from the ninth story of the Times Building at night and showing automobile headlights dashing around like giant fire flies full of bootieg gin. With but one major operation the above title will also suit London. Paris, Chicago, Berlin and Moscow. In introducing a western dance hall the following formula is rigidly adhered to: Nugget Nell's place where no commandment is sacred . . . where things that were men and women blindly bargain for the gold tliat so soon turns to Perhaps we should explain that the excessive use of the period or dot is imperative. It helps bring out the poetic effect of the title. If titles continue to progress from brevity to supen-erbosity we e.xpect to see "Passed by the National Board of Review" appear as: Pronounced \vorthy of the gods and of the great American public by the venerable men and women who make up that great and august body . . . guardian of the public morals . . . the National Board of Review. Cut Picture Pu2;2ile Winners will be fully announced in the January issue of Photoplay. Owing to the tremendous response, the judges are swamped with answers. It will take time to cover every reply in a w^ay that is fair to all contestants Don't fail to ask your newsdealer to reserve your January copy. Out about December loth I PHOTOPLAY MAG.\ZIXE is j