Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1920 - Feb 1921)

76 Where Do They Get Those Titles? The producers who catch the quarters of the guileless Tommies, the curious Dorothys, and the wives who like to run away in the afternoon to see problem plays, continue to play up the world, the flesh, and the devil. And because there are a lot of people who cannot resist the temptation to know why girls go wrong, these pictures gather in a floating patronage. But take yourself, for instance. We will suppose that you are neither a guileless Tommy nor a curious Dorothy. Perhaps you are simply a person of breeding and education who isn't the least bit interested in why men leave their wives or why girls go wrong. Wouldn't you stay away from a theater that was showing a picture called "Neglected Wives" or 'Why Women Sin?" In the first place, the vulgarity of the title would keep you out of the theater. In the second place, you would be afraid of seeing something rather common and boresome. This particular picture was not as bad as its title. A woman I know who saw it said that it was rather good in its way. It was not made to appeal to the sophisticated, but it did not live down to the title that had been wished on it. The man who had given it its name had a perfect genius for misstatement. There was scarcely any sin and only one neglected wife. When a man makes a good picture and then descends to the expedient of giving it a title that insinuates that it is not a good picture for women and children to see, he does the picture an injustice. For he keeps from the theater the very class of persons who are capable of appreciating artistic work. Personally we think that Cecil B. De Mille would be just as well known and much more highly respected if he had kept the piquant question mark out of his films. Looking over the titles of some recent releases, a man with a censorial turn of mind might believe that there is more sex on the screen than in all French literature. In the last few months you might have seen: 'Why Change Your Wife?"' "A Lady In Love," "The Devil's Riddle," "The Married Virgin," "The Right to Love." "Ashes of Desire," "Man's Plaything," "The Discarded Woman," "The Path She Chose," "Love Without Question," "Mother of His Children"— described as a story of high life in Paris— "Would You Forgive?" Continued from page 1 7 "Love's Harvest," "Stronger Than Death," "His Wife's Money," "A Modern Salome," "The Woman and the Puppet," "The Woman Game," "The Woman God Sent," "Just a Wife," "The Amazing Woman," "Mothers of Men," "Sex." "Madonnas and Men," "Tarnished Reputations," "The Deadlier Sex," "Forbidden," "Paid in Advance," "When a Girl Loves," "The Forged Bride," "When a Man Loves," "The Midnight Bride," "Dollars and the Woman," "Sinners," "Love Without Question," "The Virgin of Stamboul," "Indiscreet Wives," "The Love Expert," "Romany, Where Love Runs Wild," "Love, Honor, and Obey," and "The Invisible Divorce." Most of these films were good productions. In many cases, even the titles are fairly harmless. But DO YOU HAVE TO DIET TO KEEP THIN? Many of the leading stars do, and an account of the different diets which they adhere to has been prepared for us by Fritzi Remont. These may or may not be of any practical value to you — but in any case the story will interest you. It will appear in the January issue of PICTURE-PLAY MAGAZINE. isn't the theme getting a little monotonous ? The discrepancy between the titles of motion pictures and the actual contents of the stories themselves is a wide one. By its names, the screen is continually giving you the impression that it is a fearless breaker of conventions, a merciless exposer of vice, and a truthful mirror held up to nature. Moreover, through its titles, it continually insists that love is the greatest thing in life — and it promises to prove it. As a matter of fact the screen is as proper as your maiden aunt. It is as gentle as your grandmother. It is properly and decently conventional. It believes in law and order and in virtue triumphant. It cannot be cynical ; it seldom achieves sophistication. With all its talk about breaking up homes and ignoring marriage, it believes in the happy ending. The golden-haired darling always unites the quarreling couple in the last reel. Once you get beyond the captivating and tantalizing title of the problem play, you will find that the screen stands for law and order. It must. The screen has not been eminently successful in exposing vice. Nor has it held the mirror up to the darker side of nature. The early "white-slave" pictures were made to fool a trusting public. They were hopeless melodramas. The orgies in cabarets and dance halls were dismal affairs. They wouldn't fool a~ sophomore in a Middle Western freshwater college. Its vampires are unconvincing creations. In spite of its titles the only kind of nature it mirrors with true success is the simplicity of Mary Pickford, the genial humor of Charles Ray, Will Rogers, and Douglas MacLean, the satire of Charlie Chaplin, the ingenuousness of Harold Lloyd, the art of John Barrymore, and the adventure spirit of Hart, Fairbanks, and Mix. As for preaching that love is the greatest thing in the world, you will find no such doctrine in the average picture. The love interest is always present, but you will find little undiluted romance. There were two conventional adaptations of "Romeo and Juliet," but the screen gives us no "Tristan and Isolde," and no real "Romeo and*w«Juliet." The screen caters to a practical public which believes that while love is undoubtedly, a great institution there are mamother important things in life. If you will think over the pictures you have seen recently, you will find that love not unmixed with other motives. The love interest is generally served up with such exacting additions as train robbers, business, murders, prohibition, politics, ambition, shipwrecks, racing, and assorted fights. But the love part is the only motive that figures in the title. When persons who do not understand the dark and mysterious ways of the film makers, see the name? of pictures without seeing the pictures themselves, they judge the screen by its scarlet labels. And then they agitate for censorship. Producers who have titled the films to catch the careless quarters are obliged to put up larger dollars to prove that motion pictures really need no censorship other than public opinion. All this juggling only goes to prove the now bromidic expression that it is a young industry. Incidentally, Cecil B. De Mille's newest picture is called "Something To Think About." We hope he doesn't change his mind about it. because we do not believe that it will scare any one away from the box office.