Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

114 Advertising Section The Brand of a Good Book IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Chelsea House Popular Copyrights The biggest and fastest selling line of cloth-covered books. Ask your druggist — your bookseller to show you any of these latest titles. There's somethins: doing all the while in a "CH" book. These books which have never before been published were written for men who love the sweep of the great West, the mysteries of big cities, the conquest of man over his environment. THE QUICK-DRAW KID George Gilbert THE "GOLDEN DOLPHIN" Joseph Montague "LOOKOUT" LARAMIE Paul Bailey THE TUNNEL TO DOOM Roy W. Hinds THE VALLEY OF THE MONQUtS Arthur Preston THE BLACK SANDER Loring Brent GUN GENTLEMEN David Manning BLUNDELL'S LAST GUEST Albert Payson Terhune THORNTON THE WOLFER George Gilbert THE COASTS OF ADVENTURE James Graham OL' JIM BRIDGER Joseph Montague THE SLEEPING COP Isabel Ostrander and Christopher B. Booth THE BAYOU SHRINE Perley Poore Sheehan THE SILVER SKULL George C. Shedd THE TRAP AT COMANCHE BEND David Manning HIDDEN OUT Howard Fielding YOUNG LIGHTNING Charles Wesley Sanders THE GLORIOUS PIRATE James Graham SCHEMED AT SANDY BAR George Gilbert THE HOUSE OF DISAPPEARANCES Chester K. Steele ISLAND RANCH Thomas K. Holmes STRANGE TIMBER Joseph Montague THE FLYING COYOTES Raymond S. Spears THE THUNDERBOLT'S JEST Johnston McCulley THE MUSTANG HERDER David Manning MUTINY Frederick R. Bechdolt 75c Per Copy TIELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHER 79-89 SEVENTH AVE. NEW YORK CITY 5 Are tke Mo Vies Scorning LoVe? Continued from page 19 than that of romantic love," who further said. "All things considered, it is not so much the nature of the theme, but the strength of the story that really counts. Great stories, I believe, can be built around father love, and the father-and-son angle in pictures can be worked into many dramatic situations that would be new to audiences. I have often thought of an idea along this line, which some day I hope to write as a play. From an actor's point of view, roles like these are far more interesting to play. Then, too, there is the drama of men in some struggle, as for example, in 'Tell It to the Marines,' where the love element was subordinated. I think that my role of the sergeant was one of the most satisfying to me that I have ever undertaken." George Bancroft, another very popular character actor, has a different version. "Just once in my career I should like to play in a great love story," he said. "I have never had such an opportunity; perhaps that is why I have the desire. However, I should be running a big chance of making a picture that would be a failure, for experience has taught me that recent films that have left love interest to the imagination have proven most successful. Perhaps the character I like best to portray is that of swaggering cocksureness." "Naturally, I am especially proud of a love story like 'Lilac Time,' " Colleen Moore related. "I cannot think of anything more wonderful for screen purposes than an out-and-out love story, and a sincere one"— this from Edmund Lowe. "Our magazines have thrived on sexy stuff at times, but it is not more than a passing flair. It is passe in the movies, too. But there is always room for a picture like 'Seventh Heaven.' I think that is my favorite of all." Another devotee is Norma Shearer. "I like good, old, hot romance on the screen," she said. "I like pictures with love interest, but these days the audience must believe in the situation. The love story must have depth and sincerity, or else the surroundings and circumstances must be unique. The characters must be interesting people, doing interesting things — not just dummies, embracing. "I think that any human struggle makes a most interesting theme — whether it be a struggle for achievement, fame, money or even existence, as in Griffith's picture, 'Isn't Life Wonderful?' — one of my favorites." Curiously enough, there is one character actor who is all for the Cin derella theme, and that is Victor McLaglen. "It is as tender to-day as it was thousands of years ago, and we will continue to react to it throughout time," he averred. "There will be passing' fads, of course, such as heaving chests and red-hot kisses, but this is not love as we understand the finer things of life." He, too, mentions "Seventh Heaven" as having a great theme, and describes this theme as being courage rather than love. "To me it is much more interesting and worth while to do pictures where love is not the principal emotion, but since it is an integral part of human existence I do not believe it can be ignored," declared Jack Gilbert. "In most pictures the love interest should be distinctly subordinated. For example, in 'Man, Woman, and Sin,' the principal theme was the reactions of a young man in encountering the vicissitudes of life. In other words, the story mainly concerned itself with his experiences, among which his affair with a society editress was only one of several. In 'The Cossacks' adventure and contest were preeminent— also the devotion of a father and son was very important. The regeneration theme prevails in 'Four Walls,' which I recently made. In fact, heart interest, as personified by Joan Crawford, furnished an obstacle to the success of the hero, deflecting him from his endeavor to reinstate himself with organized society after a prison term." The great love story is perhaps still to be told on the screen. "Seventh Heaven" is an approach thereto, but it lacked the really heroic, adult mold. Its naive charm — wonderfully graceful, however — was very enthralling. It had the delicacy of a Pyramus and Thisbe lyric brought up to date. Its theme of spiritual elevation was enchantingly expressed. The models for the great love plays would, it seems, go back to Dante and Beatrice, Paola and Francesca, Hero and Leander, Tristan and Isolde, and Romeo and Juliet. These are reckoned among the mighty of the past. Perhaps some time they may be reproduced filmwise, in all their radiant and beckoning glamour. The screen, too, may achieve its own method of rendering such prototypes both poetical and real. Possibly "Seventh Heaven," in its springlike way, is the bud from which will mature the flower. It seems to be the present climax, in any event. For it is singularly free from the dross which has hung to many purported revelations of great romances on the screen.