Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

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16 Our Horxours List Pictures and Picf\tre$oer FEBRUARY 1924 Clive Brook in " The Reverse of the Medal." his month every district in the land is having its " British Film Week," during which will be shown the pick of British pictures. Our Honours List, therefore, will deal with some of the films that will be shown at this time. Some of them are not new — but they are none the worse for that — but the films that are in this list are, as usual, films that will amply repay anyone who takes the trouble to go and see them. The Picturegoer Critic unhesitatingly gives pride of place to George Cooper's Quality Films, and of these singles out The Letters, Darkness, and Fallen Leaves, as the most interesting and distinctive. They are only one and two-reelers, but George Cooper has put into them as much skill and imagination as his colleagues will lavish on six or seven reels. They are an outstanding example of the fact that footage does not necessarily make features, and that a little artistic perception is better than the largest set ever built in Hollywood. The hall-mark of them all is their direct simplicity. Cooper loses no time in coming to the point. All his cards arc on the table from the first shot — all but the trump card, which he keeps up his sleeve until the very last. Take The Letters, for instance. You feel you know everything about it, you feel that the little drama is moving Mary Price and Chris Walker in Leaves." Fallen Fay Cotnfton, Henry Victor and Constance Binney in "A Bill of Divorcement." swift to its inevitable end — but the end is not in the least what you have suspected. " Madam," says the man, " I was not referring to your letters." The woman gasps in sheer amazement. So does the audience. It is the acme of dramatic climax. Then Darkness — you think as you listen with the old man by the fireside to the intruder's story that you have guessed the sequel. You think you know what the producer has never clearly told you — the identity of the old man. You think you have caught the producer napping. But have you? Just wait till the last shots of all ! A word of warning before I leave them. Quality Films are really different. If the average, overdressed love story contents you, leave them alone. For they are films for the fastidious. Perhaps George Pearson has given more pleasure to British picturegoers than any other producer in our island. He knows all there is to know about making people laugh, and nearly all there is to know about making ithein cry. And in Love, Life and Laughter he proves that he knows just as well how to keep them on the tiptoe of excitement. In this film he departs rather from his " Squibs " tradition, mixing more fantasy with his comedy. Like Quality Films, this story of the little Cockney dancer is different. It is not just that it marks Betty Balfour's highest rung on the ladder to stardom up to date, although her charm and versatility in this film are more pronounced than ever. It is not just that Pearson has filled his canvas with remarkable character types, which might have stepped straight out of a London street on co the screen. It is something more than this, something subtly dreamlike, woven out of fancy.