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

February, 192 1 55 The Screen-Goer {Continued from page 42) girl. In the metropolis she falls into the clutches of the very woman who had previously almost ruined his life. She becomes a dope fiend, dances an exceedingly daring dance, apparently kills her wicked patron, almost kills her lover, and is finally rescued from the depths of Limehouse, to return to her pagan peace and happiness with her hero in the South Seas. There is much to criticize adversely in "Idols of Clay," and equally much to commend. Mae Murray acts with great skill throughout. She is a pantomime artist of the finest sort. David Powell's acting varies. He is best when playing the character at its lowest moral ebb. Dorothy Cummings gives a fine picture of the villainess. The wicked father of the heroine seems slightly too big a role for George Fawcett. It is in the last part of "Idols of Clay," when Mae Murray is playing the doped girl, in the mansion of Lady Gray, and in the tortuous streets of Limehouse, that the play attains some heights. Utterly unconvincing, however, was the scene in Greece, a studio set, in which the Acropolis was represented by a back drop. And the quick moral changes of the hero were a little too much; either he was a man of complete moral instability or sufficient motivation was lacking. "Idols of Clay," however, is excellent entertainment, a worthwhile picture, despite its faults. Growing Up {Continued from page 26) "People are always asking me about my fads, never realizing that a motion picture actress has less time for fads than practically any other person alive — her work has to be her fad. But at the present time I have an absorbing fondness for collecting old images of heathen gods. One antique shop is getting so much of my salary that I have taken to walking on the other side of the street whenever I happen to be in that locality. In my collection now I have several nice old Buddhas, some Egyptian deities that the dealer assures me came directly from the pyramids to me, some Japanese gods and a fine assortment of carved ivory elephants. "Of course, I like books and clothes and theatres, and practically everything — but there's nothing original about that. After all, I'm not very original except in the way I grew up so fast." But fans say she is making another record now. And if her popularity continues, Martha's mother is due for another surprise at her daughter's progress. Tom, Tom, A Farmer's Son {Continued from page 25) write for the screen, we have done a big thing. It means a lot to the public, and it means a lot to the players. There is certainly more pleasure in working out a worth-while theme than there is in working out one not worth while. It is only possible to get real stories by having them written by real authors — and they are writing for the screen at last. "I think it is safe to venture the prediction that the original screen story will come more and more into vogue. The days of refashioning fiction and stage plays to the silver sheet are rapidly passing. It won't be long before the screen develops a line of creative artists as eminent as any other school working in any other medium. This new school will think in screen terms and their efforts will result in productions which will be lasting. For the screen is peculiarly a medium which can flash lasting impressions on the world, if it is rightly handled, and all indications point to such a state of affairs. "And I guess that's about all. Perhaps I might add that I get real pleasure out of my work. It affords me an infinite expression of myself which never becomes wearisome or boresome, for every day offers some new variety and every new picture some new adventure. Such success as has come to me has made me feel that life is anything but hollow. In fact, I think that Life is a magnificent story and I hope to follow as many reels of it as the high gods will permit. Seeing Sylvia {Continued from page 37) restless, roving spirit of her father — a commander in the British navy. Their home in Sydney, Australia, was the starting-point for many a journey into India and the Orient. Its walls were hung with trophies — spears and boomerangs, taken from the island natives in battle. The picturesqueness of all this has left a subtle stamp on Sylvia. In her pretty foreign voice she told me things that set me dreaming of the lure of enchanted seas and weird music on moonlit nights — this exotic bloom transplanted into a skyscraper canyon — so that I resented it as an intrusion when a new course was brought in. Salad and salt-sea foam are incompatible; and just as I leaned over the rail to look at the stars in the water, I had to decide between lemon and cream. "I should like to have been a sailor man, a pirate," said Miss B reamer. "As it was, I was just my father's daughter." At a sheep ranch in Western Queensland she lived for a time among the aborigines and learned to shear the sheep and to ride. Later, loving adventure, what more natural than that she at an early age should crave the stage? The speaking stage was her original forte and she appeared all over New Zealand and the Orient for several years. Then, — "I longed to come to America. I landed here just four years ago, alone and without friends. How lonely a strange place can be! But now I love it! It is my chosen country." Miss Breamer's first engagement in America was with Grace George in "Major Barbara" at the Playhouse Theatre. Here one of Mr. Ince's representatives found her and asked her to have a test made for pictures. "I was terribly frightened when those tests were made. Pictures were entirely new to me. And then you have no idea what an uncanny feeling it is to see yourself on the screen for the first time." Sylvia is quite a "home-girl." She spends a lot of time reading — especially poetry and plays — Oscar Wilde, de Maupassant, Victor Hugo, Stephen Leacock, and many others whose study must affect her art. It is characteristic of her that she likes old Arabian poetry; and Kipling — I suspect because he writes much of India, whose mystery and beauty so intrigue her. She says she will return there some day. What does one inherit from one's grandmother? Sylvia had an Italian grandmother, and maybe that's why she enjoys going quite alone to a certain little Italian restaurant, just to talk to the people there. "I love the Latins," she said. But then she likes all foreigners — everything strange and occult. Spiritualism interests her. Though she isn't convinced yet, she's willing to be. In her recent picture, "The Unseen Force," she lived her part for weeks, because of her interest in the subject — spiritualism. She's not the kind of girl you talk to about politics. "I don't care what they do if they keep the income tax down," said she. And as for philosophy — it seemed a superfluous and unnecessary thing when a tiger-footed waiter moving on ball-bearing ankles had placed the demi-tasse before us, amid the general cigarette incense, and an orchestra behind the {Continued on page 56) Send no money. Just ask ne to Bend you either of these wonderful, dazzling, genuine Tifnite Gem rings to wear for to days. 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