Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1928)

72 Hollywood High Lights National had the sets and costumes on their hands, and didn't know just what to do with them, so decided to make another production along the same lines. Louise and Charlie should imbue this with wild hilarity. Hst! Help! Police! This must be the year of the underworld and mystery story. We count no less than a dozen on the release list, and the stars have all acquired a vocabulary of crook slang from speaking the titles in the course of making the pictures. Among the films are ''The Crimson City," "The Eig City," starring Lon Chaney; "Partners in Crime," with Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton ; "Ladies of the Mob ;" "Feel My Pulse," with Bebe Daniels ; "Dressed to Kill," with Edmund Lowe and Mary Astor ; "Square Crooks;" "Something Always Happens," with Esther Ralston and Neil Hamilton, and "Tenderloin." The melodramatic thriller has been very popular this season on the New York stage, which has probably given impetus to the same sort of film on the screen. . Man Proposes, But Momentarily, everybody expected an announcement of a wedding at a, party Ruth Roland gave early in February, and Ben Bard was kept busy answering telephone calls all day from reporters, who queried him about the supposed engagement. It turned out, however, that Ruth was just playing charming hostess to her many friends, and a large group of stars were present, including Corinne Griffith, Patsy Ruth Miller, May McAvoy, Claire Windsor, Anita Stewart, Billie Dove, Lawrence Gray, and Lloyd Hughes, among others. Mr. Bard mentioned in conversation during the evening that he would be shouting it to the world if it were an engagement party, but Ruth maintained a provocative and enigmatic silence. When West Meets West. Ernest Torrence and Tim McCoy, the Western star, are very close friends, so Ernest couldn't pass up the chance to extend a unique greeting to Tim upon his arrival from New York, a few weeks ago. Ernest thought he would make the reception very appropriate. And as McCoy for some years has been an authority on Indians, Torrence induced half a dozen extra girls to dress costumes and be down at the station to Tim. When McCoy alighted from the train, the girls rushed up to him shouting. "Welcome, Husband Tim." Tourists, looking on in dazed wonderment, puzzled over this seeming revival of a strange and primitive pol)-gamy. A Favorite in the Race. Every second season seems to be dedicated to the success of some particular and individual film company, whose achievements stand out above the others. Louise Faz&ida dressed up for her role, as a maiden of the '90s in "Tillie's Punctured Romance. " up in Indian meet Colonel Two years ago it was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but now everybody in Hollywood is saying, " 'Ware the P'ox company !" For a long time this organization produced nothing but small-time program films. A year or so ago they came forward with "What Price Glory," and have since followed this with "Seventh Heaven" and "Sunrise." "Seventh Heaven" was hailed as a huge success, and "Sunrise" was considered a notably artistic production. Fox has also taken over one of the largest theater circuits, the West Coast, the deal involving $100,000,000. We found the company's latest big picture "Four Sons," rather disappointing. It was too long and tedious. Margaret Mann, the mature extra raised to stardom with this film, is a sweet and kindly type. However, one miss will not perhaps stand seriously in the way of the present Fox ascendancy. An Unexpected Explosion. Ridiculous incidents are frequent on the studio set but one occurred during the making of "Laugh, Clown, Laugh," which is still being chuckled over. It was in the nature of a practical joke and Herbert Brenon, the director, and Lon Chaney we're the instigators of it. One of the players in the picture, in the role of a clown, was required to wear a huge, bulging costume, and a balloonlike system of inflation was employed to give this the proper proportions. The inflated portion of the garb was made of rubber, and prior to the scene it was filled from a compressed-air reservoir. The actor was in the midst of this procedure, when a bright idea hit Chaney and Brenon at once. "Keep on forcing the air into the costume," said the director. "Hey!" said the actor, "this thing is getting too tight ; it will blow up. Hey! Pley ! Hey!" — registering frantic excitement. With that, Brenon whipped out a revolver that he intended to use to add to the atmosphere of one of the scenes in the film, and fired a shot. The effect was too much for the actor. He thought that the balloon had exploded, and imagination conquering, he shot straight up into the air, and then landed in a sitting posture. Bang! went the rubber costume,' actually exploding from the impact, while Chaney and Brenon looked on amazed and chagrined at the sudden twist of reality that their practical joke had taken. After things calmed down, the actor who was the victim saw the funny side of it, but Chaney and Brenon decided that this would be enough pranks for one picture. ailments gives Dolores Endures Dolors. The record of Hollywood's ills and every promise of growing into a perpetual chronicle. We can't even keep track of the minor ones any more, Continued on page 94