Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

JANUARY 1924 Pictures and Pict'xjrevver 51 5HADOWLAND A 11 good things art ^^ three ; hence the advent of Lillian Gish into the ranks of the 1924 Juliets. She will be seen opposite Dick Barthelmess. With Lillian, Mary Pickford and Norma Talmadge all appearing in the same role, at about the same time, critical picturegoers will have something about which to wage a wordy war. No Romeos have as yet been definitely announced. Jane Cowl, the American stage star is the culprit who started this Shakespearean scramble, with her beautiful performance in this tragedy in New York. E*arly in the New Year, Ernest Torrence is to star in a picturised version of W. J. Locke's The Mountebank. We saw Ernest as the "Djinnee" in The Brass Bottle recently, and though he gave a sterling performance we must own we liked our own Holman Clark better. Ernest is a trifle solid for a spirit. Tony Moreno occupied Wally Reid's dressing room until Paramount closed down, and he had a fierce argument with the Powers that Be because they wanted to put him into a light comedy. " Because I dress in Wally's room, it doesn't follow that I can step into his vacant place," said Tony, ^indignantly. " And I shan't attempt any 'such thing." Which sounds not unlike Rudy's passionate plea for suitable roles. UMizabeth Risdon, once so wellbeloved in England as the heroine of so many London films, has just scored a great success in " The Lady," at the Adelphi, New York. She gives a fine comedy performance in eccentric vein, as a London music hall artiste, and though Mary Nash is the star of the play, it is of Elizabeth the town is talking. Al Woods has offered her a five-year contract but rumour sayeth not if she has signed it yet. An interesting visitor to Europe this ^^ year will be Charles Ray, who announces that he is taking The Courtship of Myles Standish on a personally conducted tour of the most important European cities. He may return to the stage again after his visit abroad. |\yjaurice Tourneur is in New York 1 story-hunting. He has just completed arrangements for the world's premiere of Torment, which he describes as a " timely drama," and which stars Owen Moore and Bessie Love. It is by way of .being a hairraiser, this movie, for Moore, and Morgan Wallace, and other male members of the cast were entreated to grow beards as quickly as possible. ITantasy comes into its own in Screen land this year. Besides The Brass Bottle, Destiny, and The Thief of Bagdad, we have The Temple of Venus, which stars Mary Philbin and Phyllis Haver, and is a combination of melodrama, mythology and everyday life. England is not behindhand, and has One Arabian Night ready for February release, an excellent version of Aladdin with George Robcy as " Widow Twankec." t^\i course Sansonia really belonged in serials aU the time, his feature films were more or less tabloid serial fare. Now Universal have enticed him over to Hollywood from Europe and he has just arrived at Universal City. He will direct his own productions. Lucien Albertini, to give him his correct name, is one of the most daring of the screen's dare-devils. He has been in pictures seven years, with Ambrosio, Pasquale and Uci films in Italy and with his own unit, called Albertini Film Co., in Berlin. He was a noted acrobat and trapeze artist originally, and is still a Professor of Physical Culture at Lyons, France. Sansonia was at one time Divisional Gym Instructor in the Italian Navy. l^enneth Harlan, on his personal w appearance tour, told his audiences very graphically how he felt when making his first stage appearance. Oddly enough, it was in The Virginian, the same story in which Kenneth is starred to-day, only the spoken version, not the silent one. " I was seventeen," said Harlan, "And only just out of High School — I'd joined this travelling company, and through a series of accidents was told to go along and play the lead at a very few hours' notice. Was T