Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

46 Picture s and Pic hj^epve^ SEPTEMBER 1924 The worse they are the more we seem to like them. Griffith, after surfeiting us with Lillian Gish in all stages of gush, and Mae Marsh tearing up dozens of handkerchiefs the while she bit every finger on each hand, turned his attention to the heroes it was too much. There was Bobby Richard Dix nearly made virtue interesting in " The Ten Commandmen ts." ■ nee upon a tirtu '. we were very , good. We were kindhearted and sympathetic. We liked our heroines to be sweet and simple, and we liked our heroes to be strong, silent men with Marcel waves in their immaculate hair and the light of pure virtue in their eyes. We were dreadfully upset — O, dreadfully— when things went wrong with them. For a long time we thought it was possible, just possible, that the heroine might not escape from the villain, or that the hero might not turn up in the nick of time. In those early and cherubic days our hearts very often did jump right up into our mouths. But gradually our hearts began to go the other way and drop steadily into our boots. Those sweet heroines and immaculate heroes overshot their mark. They were too sweet, too immaculate for interest; too well-beloved by the angels for any hard to befall them. We came to realise that even at the end of the eighteenth reel the heroine would still be alive and kicking — the hero, equally alive and kicking waiting to marry her in the final fade-out. The Exploits of Elaine, The Hazards of Helen — when Elaine and Helen survived in spite of all the resources of scientific criminality what hope was there for the death of smaller fry? It was all right so long as we had heroines like Marguerite Clark and Mary Pickford; at least they had personalities of their own — even if they were too good to live. But when D. W. Lewis Stone in Scaramouche." Patsy Ruth Miller hope to compete in all their pretty innocence with the sinuous villainies of Barbara La Marr and Xita Naldi? What hope has Lois Wilson against the worldly wickedness of Mae Busch? Ramon Novarro in Scaramouche was a goodly hero. No use at all ! Interest and sympathy alike went to the magnificent villainy of Lewis Stone. It was interesting, very interesting to see a grown-up Mary Pickford in Rosita. And she was very, very good. But what a joy it was to watch the smiling wickedness of that old fox Holbrook Blinn ! And who cares what happened to Marion Davies in Yolanda? Holbrook Blinn playing Louis XI steals all the interest, the old villain ! Richard Dix very nearly made virtue interesting in The Ten Commandments, just as he did in The Christian : but Rod La Rocque caught all our sympathies from the first cynical smile. He broke all the ten commandments — and we loved him for it. I think T know why we have all become villains at heart, and why we love the Bad Men — and the. Bad Women too for the matter of that. We have grown so used to the sufferings of the heroine and we simply sit and watch in the hopes that some villain will discover some new way of distressing their tender little hearts. It's so interesting to watch the way they do it. And perhaps some day a villain will arise who will do the job thoroughly and give the heroine and the hero what they so richly deserve ! Lillian Gish, a much persecuted heroine. Rod La Rocque and Nita Naldi in " The Ten Commandments." Harron in Intolerance ; Ralph Graves in Dream Street — but why go on? Any real man would have felt it his duty to take them over his knee and spank them ! Presently, while still acknowledging that virtue was the essential quality of the hero and heroine, our tyes began to stray in the direction of the villains. Not to mention the villainesses. We should .have missed our • good little heroines if they had been taken away from us, just as we should miss the tent-pole if we tried to erect a tent without it, but they no longer hold the centre of the stage. Menjou and Torrence — arch-villains to their fingertips— and Wallace Beery have completely usurped the places of people like Eugene O'Brien and Tony Moreno. How can Mary Miles Minter and