Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

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Right Off the Grill 91 Continued from pag« 53 Anita Stewart, recently returned from her summer vacation in the East, has begun work at the Mayer studio in "The Woman He Married," which sounds as if it were another one of "those things," under the direction of Fred Niblo, who, since "The Three Musketeers," is fast winning a long-deserved recognition as one of the screen's sincerest and ablest directors. Incidentally, Anita's contract with her present producer expires with her next production. Just what is going to happen after that is still on the knees of the gods. Said producer favors all-star casts to the extent that he recently paid Mildred Harris twenty-five thousand dollars for permission to reduce the display of her name to the same size type as the other members of the cast. I understand that he desires to renew his contract with Anita without starring honors, but Anita isn't very happy over the idea. It may be that Rudolph Cameron, her husband, will form an independent company for her, and she will become her own producer, a la Nazimova. The migration of the Talmadges from their Forty-eighth Street studio, in New York, to brother-in-law Buster Keaton's lot in Hollywood, was the occasion of considerable rejoicing on the part of the film colony and the Los Angeles chamber of commerce. Norma has done no producing on the Coast since the time she ran away from Vitagraph, following her first great success in "The Battle Cry of Peace," and joined forces with Triangle at many times the Vitagraph stipend. "Connie" is fairly familiar with the Coast, having spent her early picture career here. The fact that Mrs. Natalie Keaton is now making her home permanently in Hollywood, and that Mr. Joseph Talmadge Schenck is the owner of the Keaton studio and head of the Keaton company may be regarded as the principal lure of the Talmadge entourage westward, rather than the climate. The sisters were homesick to see Natalie, and Mr. Schenck decided that he could combine business with pleasure by closing his New York studio and operating all of his companies at the one place. I hope that the change of environment will have a salutary effect upon the quality of the stories which are selected for the Talmadge sisters. I know of no other screen stars who have suffered so grievously from wretched stories as have these famous sisters during the last two years. That these two clever girls have survived the weaknesses of their pro duction is convincing testimonial of the personal esteem in which they are held by the public, but even the gods may sometimes tempt fate too far. Another recent arrival in Hollywood is William Farnum, who changed his mind about staying a year in Paris, and after getting rid of the aeroplane he purchased over there came back to his old stamping ground, the Fox fold, where his brother, Dustin, is holding forth also now. "Bill" is doing one of his popular "he-man" roles, under the direction of Edgar Lewis, of "The Barrier" fame. Although Charlie, Farnum, Donald Crisp, and Paul Powell are again in our midst, a dozen others have left since my last report. These include: "Jimmy" Kirkwood, who is playing the title role in Booth Tarkington's famous play, "The Man From Home," now being made at Paramount's London studio, with exteriors taken in Italy. Rubye de Remer, who is playing opposite Kirkwood, and will also appear in other English-made productions. Anna Q. Nilsson, who, after completing several pictures in London, will go to Sweden, her native heath, to be starred in a series of Ibsen plays. Ann Forrest, who has already completed her first London picture, "Love's Boomerang," and for whom I am offering a little prayer daily that she will be chosen to play "Peter Pan." Elliott Dexter, the sincerest and most convincing actor the cinema boasts, who is playing opposite Miss Forrest in her English-made productions. Norman Kerry, best known for his work in Cosmopolitan features, whose first English picture, under the Paramount banner, was "Three Live Ghosts," supporting Anna O. Nilsson. And now comes word from "Papa" Laemmle, of L^niversal, who recently arrived in Hollywood to see why Mr. von Stroheim's "Foolish Wives" don't get busy and start cutting up, that he is going to send Priscilla Dean and a company abroad within the immediate future to do a big costume picture. The production will be made either in Vienna or Berlin, but will have scenes photographed also in France and Italy. By the way, Mr. Laemmle started the vogue for foreign-filmed productions away back before the war, when he sent King Baggot and Leah Baird across for a series of pictures. They made "Absinthe" and "Ivanhoe." Unless present plans miscarry when this appears, Cecil De Mille will already be in the wilds of northern Africa, after which Paramount's director general will go to Europe to look over the ground there with a view to doing some producing abroad later. Mr. De Mille will visit Tunis and Algiers, in Africa, and from thence will motor along the Riviera to northern Italy, and then across Switzerland into southern Germany, arriving in Berlin for the premiere in that country of "Forbidden Fruit," scheduled to occvir the first of the year. Other well-known directors now abroad include : Albert Parker, who will direct Fairbanks in his first Europeanmade picture. George Fitzmaurice, director of "Experience," "Peter Ibbetson," and other special Paramount pictures, who filmed "Three Live Ghosts" in London, and who is now engaged on "The Man From Home." Ouida Bergere, in private life Mrs. Fitzmaurice, who wrote most of Mae Murray's pictures, and who is now pictvirizing the productions being niade by her husband abroad. Lois Weber, producer of "The Blot," "Shoes," and other domestic dramas, and discoverer of Mildred Harris, Mary MacLaren, and Claire Windsor, who expects to make a number of pictures abroad with European casts exclusively. John Robertson, artist extraordinary of the megaphone ; producer of "Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Sentimental Tommy," "Footlights," and other' exceptional Paramount productions, who will direct "Peter Pan." Harley Knoles, long identified with the screen over here, now the head of a large English film company which produced "Carnival," being shown extensively in this country at the present time. And, lastly, I learn that even little Jackie Coogan has been infected with this voyaging virus, and that as soon as he has two or three pictures completed he will make a tour of Great Britain and the Continent. I am assured by Jackie's managers that as a result of his sensational success in "The Kid" and "Peck's Bad Boy," the English public is "clamoring"— yes, that is the word — to see Jackie in the flesh. But with Mary, Doug, Jackie, De Mille, Rubye, Anna, Jimmy, Priscilla, little Ann Forrest, Elliott, and a number of others constituting the cream of our cinema elite regaling our foreign cousins and allies, it certainly looks as if it were going to be a very dull winter in Hollywood for those of us who are forced to content ourselves with such Volstead antidotes as can be had.