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26
THE PlCTUREGOtR
JULY 1922
Left : Mabel
Julienne
Scntt.
0\?W
Jioikers
Sydney Fairbrother
If there were no Movie Mothers, scenario-writers would
have a very lean time, and the screen would lose some
of its most picturesque personalities.
is curious how one great picture forthwith creates
a vogue for a whole long train of other films with
a similar theme Since the release, in America,
of The Sheik, there has followed, and is following,
a " long, long trail " of screen stories with " love
in the burning desert " for a foundation. After
the big stir made by D. W. Griffith's Orphans
of the Storm, there came announcements from
several film companies of work on scenarios with
French Revolution scenes as a basis
of theme.
Most important of all the " fashionsetting " films, however, is considered Humoresque, which, through the marvellous mother role depicted by Vera Gordon, put mothers in their real place on the screen at last. Of all people in the world, mothers must be reckoned the most important ; yet it has taken the film world a good many years to find it out ! In most pre Humoresque films, a mother was a supplementary figure, and rarely of any great importance to the story as a whole. Very often, in fact, she was just a little bit of padding inserted to fill out the time between more vital scenes !
It was just Vera Gordon's truly maternal personality, coupled with her clever acting, that carried motherhood to star heights in movieland. Before Humoresque, though known in the stage world to a certain extent, she was quite unknown to the average picturegoer. She had no heralding advertisements to prepare the public for her ; her very role was intended by the scenario to be merely a support to an established star — and yet she just walked away with all the honours of the film ! She is really and truly a mother with two bonnie children of her own. Their interests, their education and health, their childish joys and sorrows — these are her first consideration always. And that is the kind of mother she was in Humoresque — big-hearted and sincere, living for her children's welfare. When questioned as to whether she found acting for the screen different from stage work, she declared that what she found the greatest difficulty was getting the right emotion necessary for a close-up. " Once I had to give a close-up — just my face — when I was supposed to be weeping over my baby," she said. " I simply couldn't do it. Then the director gave me a doll and told me to pretend that it was the baby. But it was no use-I just couldn't squeeze out one tear