Lady of the Pavements (United Artists) (1929)

Advance and During Run 5 —Two Col. Scene (Mat 10c; Cut 50c) Motion Pictures Make All the World Kin Says Producer-Director D. W. Griffith GOWNS IN GRIFFITH FILM COST FORTUNE Jetta Goudal and Lupe Velez can boast, if they want to, of the dis¬ tinction of having worn the most ex¬ pensive gowns ever shown on the screen. The picture is D. W. Griffith’s “Lady of the Pavements,” which is to open at the.theatre .. and the cost *of the gowns is estimated exactly pit $13,500, with accessories totaling $4,650—not a cent of this was in stage money. Miss Goudal’s dresses cost $7,500 to make and are certainly the most distinctive creations ever screened. Jewelry amounting to $2,000, stock¬ ings and accessories costing $400 and shoes valued at $250 completed her wardrobe. Miss Velez, who appears in bal¬ let costumes during the early se¬ quences of the picture, wears gowns costing $6,000 with jewelry stock¬ ings and shoes valued at $2,000. Costuming is one of the most elab¬ orate items of cost in motion pic¬ ture production, but the mere mat¬ ter of fresh flowers sometimes rolls up huge charges on the cost sheets. Jetta Goudal Says 18 Is Woman’s Time to Marry Jetta Goudal who appears with William Boyd and Lupe Velez in D. W. Griffith’s “Lady of the lave¬ ments,” at the. theatre, firmly believes the average woman should be married by the time she is eighteen, “In Youth,” says the star, “love is spontaneous, asking no whys or wherefores, existing for itself alone. That is the stuff of which happy marriages are made. Later a certain cynicism is bure to develop and love is apt to Pe diluted with monetary and social considerations. She who hesitates cannot really be in love. And she who marries at eighteen seldom hesitates.” Is Film Dog’s Day Here? Is it a coincidence that Karl Struss, who photographed D. W. Griffith’s “Lady of the Pavements,” the current photoplay at the. .theatre used a “K-9” filter in filming scenes of Lupe Velez and a dog actress named Flossie? Medals Weigh Boyd Down William Boyd wears eight separate uniforms in D. W. Griffith's “Lady /’of the Pavements,” showing at the . . . ’.theatre. He didn’t mind wearing the uniforms, he said at the time of the filming, but the medals weighed him down. D. IV. Griffith, the movie genius responsible for “Intolerance” “The Birth of a Nation,” “Broken Blos¬ soms” and “Lady of the Pavements,” his latest United Artists picture com¬ ing to the . theatre on .. in this article sets forth his ideas on the motion picture as a world force. By D. W. GRIFFITH You know we hear all sorts of things about motion pictures. Some people like them and some don’t, but 1 am very glad to say that most people like them, and why not? The motion picture I believe, has done more to bring all the scattered people into one family party so to speak than any force that has ever been known since the beginning of time. I remember when I was a poor boy down South, like one of the many millions, living in the country or in a small village, I dreamed and longed to see the great cities of the world-to know about for¬ eign countries: France, Italy, the Orient-the great cities, London, Paris, New York, and how I won¬ dered how the ocean looked and how I wanted to see a ship moving upon the sea, but that was impos¬ sible then. Now, there is no community so small - no village so unimportant but that it has its motion picture theatre, and this great medium | brings to everyone the city, the streets of the city, all the nations, I the life of all the nations, the par¬ ticular human beings that live in all the nations, the sea and the ships that are upon the sea. In fact, the motion picture brings all the world to all the people in the world, no matter how isolated their lives may otherwise be, and in doing this, I believe the motion picture has accomplished that which more than any other medium has ever done in bringing sympathy, tolerance and tenderness to human¬ ity. When the people in the motion picture theatres - say in France or Germany — see pictures of American or English mothers with babies at their breasts; when they see them going about their daily work with their every day cares and troubles they are bound to realize that they are just ordinary human beings like themselves. The motion picture is teaching daily to all the world that there is no such thing as a foreigner, that the French, the Germans, the Eng¬ lish, the East Indians and the inhabi¬ tants of East, V^est, North and South are all human beings very much alike in their hopes, in their dreams and in their loves. There is no such thing as an alien or a foreigner; all are chil¬ dren in the one great family of hu¬ manity. Incidentally, the motion picture can be a great force—per¬ haps the greatest of all forces-to wipe out the most childish, the most absurd, the most hideous of all crimes-War. GRIFFITH STARTED SLIM FIGURE FAD It was D. W. Griffith, producer- director of "Lady of the Pave¬ ments,” the feature attraction at the.theatre who made the slim and slender woman fashionable in the old Biograph days of twenty years ago when he introduced Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish to the world. The director recalls that he had some difficulty with the Biograph officials because he insisted on giv¬ ing Mary Pickford a leading role. The executives believed audiences would walk out on her and based their arguments on the successes of the Lillian Russells, Eva Tanguays and the Lillian Langtrys-all plump and with well-rounded forms. Griffith persisted and Mary Pick¬ ford rose to stardom and an eminent place in the world. Since then, however, the slim and slendor form of beauty has starved itself into what is generally termed a “boyish figure”—an angular cari¬ cature of woman at her loveliest; even the dimple is going. “This is all wrong,’’ said Griffith, “because from the dramatic sense alone the thin and curveless figure suggests a drooping, worn spirit, like a bored expression of the face. The very essence of womanly beauty is vitality; as for instance with the bride when her vital forces are na¬ turally at their highest.” Griffith believes that if curves and dimples have really gone away un¬ der the influence of an affected mas¬ culinity, they will shortly come back. He suggests that the world would be happier if they did. I fear motion pictures have been an unfortunate influence in empha¬ sizing thinness, because the screen so exaggerates the human figure that a curve beautiful in life becomes conspicuous when thrown upon the screen—sometimes to triple and quadruple size.” Griffith doesn’t lament his early experiment in exploiting slenderness at the old Biograph studios on West Fourteenth Street in New York, be¬ cause since then he has been largely instrumental in bringing fame to at least twenty of the most famous stars of the day-all slender. His latest “find” is Lupe Velez, whom he and Douglas Fairbanks consider the most beautifully formed young woman in films. Miss Velez, who appears in “Lady of the Pave¬ ments, is the physical representa¬ tive of that large class of girls who came immediately before the era of the “boyish figure.” She has curves and dimples and is vibrantly alive—all good photo¬ graphic qualities. In addition she has a contract with United Artists which forbids her indulging in stren¬ uous diets or reducing exercises.