Lady of the Pavements (United Artists) (1929)

Good Ones Before Opening W I L LIA M'BOY 5'wl .LUPE VEI.EZ i*IT~ D.W GRIFFITH/ 'LADY GF THE PAVEMENTS'^ ' _ 6—Two Col . Scene (Mat 10; Cut 5Oe) Griffith Declares Arts Most Perfect When Dependence Upon Each Other Most Evident GRIFFITH’S LATEST IS MAMMOTH MOVIE Director’s Current Film Biggest He Has Made in Many Years With all the wealth of the French Renaissance, the gilded palaces of the Third Empire and. the almost medieval luxury of a decadent dynasty as his background, D. W. Griffith has made one of the most noteworthy pictures of his career in “Lady of the Pavements” coming the .theatre. W With the single exception ot “Intolerance” with its acres of sets and thousands of “extras,” the set¬ tings for “The Love Song” rival in magnitude and expense anything the pioneer producer of epics has done in recent years. One ball¬ room scene alone accommodates 500 dancers and rises to a height of I 00 feet with” huge swinging doors 20 feet high. Griffith does not rely solely on properties” to make his produc¬ tion an outstanding one. Ever an exponent of that school of directors who believe in “hand-picked” tal¬ ent, he selected William Boyd to play a role for which he was con¬ genitally and artistically suited-an idealistic romanticist in Prussian uniform. Jetta Goudal-she of the enigma¬ tic countenance who is Hollywood’s eternal maid of mystery-fits naturally into the environment ot regal splendor of Napoleon’s court. Lupe Velez whose talents turn to acting, dancing and singing is given I the opportunity to display her mastery of the latter art in those sequences of the picture which are synchronized to her voice. The rest of the cast includes such tried and true performers as George Fawcett, Albert Conti, William Bakewell (incidentally Bakewell does what Griffith considers one of the best bits of suave comedy in re¬ cent years), and Henry Armetta who lately rose to fame for his person- Ifction of the circus owner in “The ^Street Angel. “Lady of the Pave¬ ments is released through United Artists. _ Lupe Velez’s Chauffeur Original "Yes” Man Lupe Velez who plays and sings in D. W. Griffith’s “Lady ot the Pavements” coming, to the. .theatre, has discovered the original “yes” man. He’s her new chauffeur. She asked the ann'ican f “Do you know Hollywood?” He raid yes’ in a tone that implied he knew it from one Los Angeles City Limits” sign to the last—some feat, if you happen to be acquainted with those far-flung notions. “Drive me to my dentist on—” mentioning a number on the Boule¬ vard. Closing her eyes for her afternoon siesta, Lupe woke up among the tortuous trails of Cold Water Canyon. The chauffeur is still on the job. His alibi was that he /had been told that “no” was a word never to be mentioned in the Cine¬ ma City. To listen to D. W. Griffith, whose sensational new film, “Lady of the Pavements,” is to occupy the screen of the.theatre starting next . is to compre¬ hend something of the high ideals for which he strives in the new art for the growth and uplift of which he has already done so much. “I believe,” he said, “that one of the first duties of a man who de¬ liberately tries to bring home a new form of art to the people is to emphasize the affinities of beauty which lie so deep in nature, and which reach so far back into the mysterious history of mankind. “Literature can not wholly ex¬ press these; nor music; nor sculp¬ ture; nor painting; nor even pot¬ tery; but all these arts, in some phases of their being may be used as aids in the new art of the photo¬ play, and bring it thus step by step nearer to perfection. “It is by grouping thus that mo¬ tion picture producers have been able to raise the cinema to the standing of a fine art.” So far, commented Griffith, producers for the screen have been following more or less closely the oaths of a stern and often unlove¬ ly realism. “I believe,” he explained, “that if we are indeed to be artists our finished art-product must not only be true, but lovable; we must not only be able to convince, but to en¬ chant. “It is not through the med¬ ium of the screen alone that any producer can hope to vision the wonders and beauties that are hid¬ den in men’s souls. “You may remember what Ste¬ venson said: ‘We admire splendid 'views and great pictures; and what I is truly admirable is rather the mind within us that gathers to¬ gether these scattered details for its delight, and makes out of certain colors, certain distributions of grad¬ uated light and darkness, that intel¬ ligible whole which alone we call a picture or a view.’ It is pre¬ cisely in that way that all art speaks to us, by suggestion; by the stimu¬ lation and inspiration of our better qualities. The true realists are the artists, who devote their talents to searching out life’s joys and point¬ ing out to us the sacred places where those joys abide.” “Lady of the Pavements” marks a new departure for the man who has more cinema innovations to his credit than any other one indi¬ vidual. Besides putting his theories into actual practice in this produc¬ tion, Griffith has treated his subject in the spirit of the modernist, ac¬ quitting himself, it is said, of an epical production geared to the tempo of the day. Lupe Velez, who. shares acting honors in the produc¬ tion with William Boyd and Jetta Goudal, has the role of a cabaret girl which advance reports have it, gives her ample opportunity to ex¬ hibit the fascinating dances which netted her star contracts at the age of seventeen and eventually the fem¬ inine lead opposite "Douglas Fair¬ banks as the Gaucho.” GRIFFITH SCENE HAS THIR TEEN WM . BOYDS Screen Columbus Again Makes History With Multiple Exposure Feat Believing it to be a technical tri¬ umph as great as the close-up, soft focus photography and the flash¬ back-all of which he pioneered— D. W. Griffith now presents multiple exposures as his latest contribution toward the advancement of the mo¬ tion picture art. The director of “Lady of the Pavements,” the feature attraction coming to the.theatre, next., has achieved what studio technicians declare to be the most astounding camera feat % of the past five years—the showing of 1 3 representations of a single figure in one scene, at the same time. William Boyd, upon whom the trying experiment was made, is made to merge into the personalities of thirteen characters seated about tables until the room is literally filled with him. At the end of this truly remarkable scene, Boyd’s thirteen selves rise and merge into one. It took nine hours to accomplish this camera illusion of exactly 75 feet of film. The negative was ex¬ posed through the camera 3 6 times in the taking and required more than four hours to develop in a slow chemical mixture. Ned Mann, who succeeded four other “effects directors” in attempt¬ ing this difficult shot, was paid the sum of $1,000.00 for his day’s work; the highest amount ever paid a cameraman for a single scene. “Lady of the Pavements,” with William Boyd, Jetta Goudal, Lupe Velez, Albert Conti, George Faw¬ cett, William Bakewell and Henry Armetta, is a Griffith special with the intrigues and passions of the third Empire for a background. Borrowing Boyd Takes Griffith 2 Months If demand is any criterion of an actor’s worth, then William Boyd, who plays the romantic young Karl von Arnim in D. W. Griffith’s “Lady of the Pavements,” coming to the.theatre this week, should be more than ordinarily proud. So marked was Boyd’s success m “Two Arabian Knights” for which he was borrowed from Cecil B. De- Mille that Mr. Griffith and United Artists again contracted for his serv¬ ices to play the leading role in * Lady of the Pavements,” the pio¬ neer director’s first movietone pro¬ duction. Borrowing some actors is easy. Borrowing Boyd took approximate¬ ly two months of time before con¬ flicting picture schedules could be altered. In “Lady of the Pavements,” Boyd forsakes comedy roles for the first time in eight months to portray a vivid, romantic characterization.