Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

14 Pictures and P/chjrepver Circle are stories of to-day. The firstnamed is strong stuff — very, and will have to be cut and cut again ere the hallowed eyes of the British fan may behold it. Eric is busy with the shears himself now ; afterwards he is going to enjoy himself making The Merry Widow. The Talmadges are caught fast in the toils of the costumeromance. Norma's Ashes of Vengeance is to be followed by Dust of Theodore Roberts as "Moses." Adolph Menjou mid Edna Purviance in "A Woman of Paris." wmty-Four JOSIE P.LEDERER The year that has passed has been rightly dubbed " the year of Romance " — and other things. The year that has just commenced has been christened by various notabilities — (a) The one-word title year, (b) The year of the return of Valentino, Bill Hart and Will Rogers to the screen, (c) The year of extravagance, (d) The Author's year, (e) The year of the Movie Exodus. You may take your choice ; mine's the last. Most of the great ones of the industry are crossing the ocean to work, and the centre of production may be Europe instead of Hollywood. Griffith's next, after America (the By Request movie), will most probably be filmed in Europe; Mary and Doug talk of building a studio in either London or Paris. Chaplin wants to make his next comedies in British Slumland. Charles Ray is due about March, and there are others. Meantime, we may as well consider the highlights which will gladden the eyes of the fan-in-thcstreet within the near future. They are a well-varied collection, on the whole, although costume stuff predominates at the moment. But Von Stroheim's Greed, Seastrom's Name the Man, Donald Crisp's Ponjola, James Cruze's Hollywood, Tourneur's Eternal City and Lubitsch's Marriage JANUARY 1924 of which is Madame Pompadour, a musical version of which will be played in London at Dalys. Cecil de Mille's The Ten Commandments is in many ways a remarkable piece of work. Its director claims that he was inspired, and cites many strange happenings during the work of production to prove it. Certainly this screenplay introduces a new De Mille, and its message is that neither the ancient world nor the modern can with impunity defy the fundamental laws. There is overwhelming pageantry and spectacle in the prologue, the Biblical story of Israel in bondage; then comes a modern drama, tragic, sordid in places, dealing with one small family, but absorbing enough to almost obliterate the early sequences. Almost, not quite, and it gives Rod La Rocque a place amongst the screen's best. Leatrice Joy and Nita Naldi, too, are excellent ; tlrere is a long all-star cast. Mary Pickford's Rosita and Pola Negri's Spanish Dancer will soon arrive this side. Both are more or less the same as to story, but reports wouk seem to favour Lubitsch above Fitz maurice in the way of direction Mary's is not a star photoplay, Pola'.is, the rest is a matter for individua judgment. Fairbanks has not yet completed The Thief of Bagdad which is " The Arabian Nights," with every fairy " effect " the screen is capable of producing. The Magic xarpet, a fairy vase, and the last word in expensive " sets " and other trimmings, and the minimum of attire, it would seem. This year marks also the advent of Young Doug, whose first movie Stephen Steps Out is ready for release. Doug Junior looks three years older than his fourteen summers and possesses a personality of much charm, and a frank, likeable face. The Abraham Lincoln film will interest all thoughtful fans (in both Continents), and we are promised another Covered Wagon in First National's The Sundown Trail. Jackie Coogan's Long Live the King. is nine thousand feet of costume romance at present. We shall not see Douglas Fairbanks has another screen-fantasy in " The Thief of Bagdad." Desire, in which Norma plays a desert dancer opposite Shiek Joseph Schildkraut, and Secrets. Constance's c h a r in i n g Dangerous Maid is first of half-a-dozen such, the. second Mary Pickford's " Rosita " is the best of the two Spanish Dancers of Nineteen-twenty-four.