The Photo-Play Journal (Jul 1919-Feb 1921)

June, i 9 2 o THE MAN IN THE PHOTOPLAY A Discussion of the Ofttimes Forgotten Male of the Species Actor By GEORGE LANDY THE actor in the photoplay is a very much overlooked, neglected and forgotten personage, to judge by what one sees in print. News about actresses, interviews with them and photographs of them, fill almost every page of the photoplay magazines and almost every inch of the sections of the daily newspapers devoted to doings of the film world, to the practical exclusion of distinguished performers of the so-called stronger sex. Every photoplay follower knows (almost intimately) every little "if and but" relative to our screen actresses from the babe in arms to the most elderly and motherly character woman. But what do they hear of the men who make the writer's male characters live and breathe on the screen? Very little, if anything ! So the writer has taken up the cudgel in behalf of his brothers and will attempt to reveal some facts and observations concerning not one lone man but will improve the opportunity to write about six of the leading male lights of the cinema heavens. In order to make the most of this rare chance, the writer has chosen as his subjects a star, a leading man, a juvenile, a character man of the so-called straight type, (that is to say, the sort of actor who plays "captains of industry" and roles of a similar kind) an eccentric character actor, (eccentric in that the part calls for characteristics far out of the ordinary), the man who is at his best in Western roles of the "wild and woolly" sort, and the "heavy," who plays the necessary villain. The representative actors chosen for these respective and diversified lines of dramatic expression are John Barrymore, Percy Marmont, Leon Gendron, Charles Lane, Lon Chaney, Harry Carey and Ivo Dawson. When John Barrymore, a representative of America's most aristocratic dramatic family, first brought his exceptional talent, technique and experience to the screen, he was known as perhaps the best light comedian on the American stage. It was only natural, therefore, that his photoplay characterizations were cast in smart, light farces and comedies. Perhaps his best remembered roles for the camera were in "The Man from Mexico," adapted from the stage success written by that acknowledged master of farce, Charles Hoyt, "The Dictator," based on Richard Harding Davis' play in 31 Lon Chancy, beginning zvith "The Frog," in The Miracle Man, has specialized in the abnormal Leon Gendron, who plays juvenile leads, was discovered by Robert G. Vignola at a dinner party which William Collier played the leading part in the spoken version, and "The Incorrigible Dukane," an original photoplay vehicle. It is stage history that John Barrymore later totally surprised the theatrical world by completely deserting the genre in which he had firmly established Jnmself and allying himself with tragedy. That he has made as complete a success of this endeavor — -if not surpassing it — as he made inthelighter field is amply evidenced by the popular receptions of his work in "Justice," John Galsworthy's psychological drama, "The Jest," that wonderful argument that mind conquers matter and that right is always master of might, written by Sem Benelli. and his recent revival of "Richard the Third," acclaimed by every metropolitan critic and the public. When he deserted comedy for drama on the stage. Mr. Barrymore did likewise with his screen delineations, as witness his portrayal of the harassed Englishman in "The Test of Honor'' and the marvelous dual personality in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." This latest dramatic achievement has been unanimously called the finest work in the history of the silent drama to date. Percy Marmont, our choice of a popular leading man, is another distinguished actor who has fully proved his versatility in many screen dramas. The photoplays in which he has ap