The Devil Dancer (United Artists) (1927)

News of the Personalities GILDA GRAY PICKED “DEVIL DANCER” The seven-league leap from the South Seas of “Aloma” to the Tibetan temples of “The Devil Dan¬ cer,” hidden high in the Himalayas, may seem quite a feat. Even with a pause at a “Cabaret” on the way. But to Gilda Gray, the “Pearl of Poland,” such world-girding jour¬ neys are all in the day’s work. And, to tell the truth, they required no more travel than is necessary to reach the United Artists lot from Paramount studios. “The Devil Dancer,” which comes to the . Theater next .. is only the third pic¬ ture in which Gilda Gray has appeared. It is her first Samuel Goldwyn picture for release through United Artists. It is the jump that follows the hop, skip. And it includes her in that select company boasting Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, Corinne Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and other most luminous lights of film- dom. It was Gilda, herself, delving into many sources in search of a locale for her picture, whose imagination was arrested by the unknown vast¬ nesses of Tibet, and its mystery- swatched capital, Lhassa, “the for¬ bidden city” of the age. At the time Gilda didn’t know about the Devil Worshippers of the Tibetan lama¬ series, or monasteries, nor about the vestal virgins of the East, who are confined to the temples, slaves to the Gods of Darkness. But research soon uncovered the dramatic story of the Devil Dancers. Gilda consulted with Harry Hervey, the Oriental authority, who has spent years studying the mysteries of the East. The result is the origi¬ nal story by Hervey about “Takla,” a real Devil Dancer who fled South to Bombay, India, from the dreadful f ibetan lamaserie of Lakhang- ompa. From Takla, prior to her unexplained disappearance, Hervey learned much of the Devil Dancer ritual, and something of Takla’s own strange story. And with Gilda Gray’s aid, the threads of the dra¬ matic romance were woven into a motion picture fabric. Miss Gray and Samuel Goldwyn, who produced the picture, secured authentic objets d’art for use in the photodrama. Treasures which could not be procured were exactly repro¬ duced by experts. Gilda Gray plays the role of the Devil Virgin, or The Devil Dancer, as she is known, and has taken the name of the real Devil Dancer, Takla, for that of the heroine. In the picture she executes an authen¬ tic Devil Dance. In the Bombay sequences of the picture, Miss Gray does the nautch dance of India, which has never before been shown on the screen. ^ Life with Clive Brook is just one blinking palm tree after another. He had just finished dawdling in the South Sea sunshine of “Hula” with Clara Bow, when Samuel Goldwyn grabbed him for the lead opposite Gilda Gray in “The Devil Dancer,” now at the . Theatre. REVIEW A unique locale and a fast mov¬ ing melodramatic story formed the very adequate background for the presentation last evening of the ever popular Gilda Gray at the . Theatre. The vehicle was Samuel Goldwyn’s production, “The Devil Dancer.” In offering Miss Gray as a sacred temple dancer of far-away, myster¬ ious, romantic Tibet, the author and the adaptor, Harry Hervey and Alice D. G. Miller, have handled their story materials in an adroit and clever manner. Miss Gray’s international fame as a dancer draws thousands to any theatre— and in “The Devil Dancer” we find a very acceptable combination of the Gray terpsichorean talent at its best—and a logical melodramatic story simply loaded with action. Clive Brook appears opposite the star. This leading man climbs stead¬ ily and surely upwards on a firm foundation of consistent, careful, forceful characterizations. As the English explorer who finds the white dancer in the sacred halls of Lhassa and effects her rescue Brook gives a delightful performance. The star enters the picture as the successor to the sacred dancer, killed with her lover by being buried alive for the sin of unfaith¬ fulness. The superstitious natives look with awe at this white woman amongst them, the orphan of a mur¬ dered missionary, left at the temple many years before. With the death of the previous dancer as a menace, the love affair and elopement of Stephen and Takla take their place in a procession of events which in¬ clude humorous and pathetic inci¬ dents of Tibetan manners, in con¬ flict with British-Indian society, the kidnapping of Takla by Hassim, an itinerant showman, the dancing of Takla in a nautch house, the pur¬ suit of both Stephen and the aveng¬ ing minions of the Grand Lama— and the climax in a striking fight between the contending factions. The well-knit plot is illumined at regular intervals by the colorful, exotic, always fascinating dancing of Miss Gray. In the devil dance she gives us a new and most inter¬ esting conception. The direction by Fred Niblo is, of course, flawless. In his handling of the crowds in Lhassa and at the nautch house Niblo shows that same true and beautiful technique which has made “Ben Hur” the film sensation of recent years. Niblo, always a good story-teller, shows in his work definite enjoyment in the romance, color and thrills of this entirely different story. Riding 4,000 miles on horseback across a snow desert in the dead of winter is hardly a sport to become universally popular. And yet it was the means by which Serge Temoff escaped from Siberia to eventually land with Samuel Goldwyn in “The Devil Dancer,” which stars Gilda Gray, at the . Theatre. Harry Hervey, author of “Con- gai,” “King Cobra” and other novels, wrote “The Devil Dancer,” an original scenario of love and drama in Tibet, for Gilda Gray’s first Sam¬ uel Goldwyn Production. “The Devil Dancer” is at the . theatre now. BIG NAMES IN FILM “THE DEVIL DANCER” Samuel Goldwyn, Gilda Gray and Fred Niblo—here is a combination of entertainers who for.days at the . Theatre are giving . playgoers a show of infinite variety, well-con¬ ceived plot and deft direction. “The Devil Dancer,” a decidedly different story, provides, an excel¬ lent frame for the great dancing talent of Miss Gilda Gray. Fred Niblo, director of “Ben Hur,” has taken the story and adaptation by Harry Hervey and Alice D. G. Mil¬ ler, mixed it in the alchemy of his own genius, and serves up to the public a melodrama which moves fast, and is completely logical and at all times entertaining. The plot of “The Devil Dancer” concerns an orphan white baby brought up by the Black Lamas of Tibet to be a sacred temple dancer, her escape with an English explorer, her misunderstanding of and flight from him, her dancing in a nautch house and her final reunion with Stephen after a series of exciting events concerned with the vengeance sought by emissaries of the Grand Lama. •Such an exotic background is en¬ tirely suited to the personality of Miss Gray. She swirls her way through it, a colorful, dominant, al¬ ways interesting figure. As “Step¬ hen” we find the always capable Clive Brook and other players who give excellent performances include Anna May Wong, Michael Vavitch, Serge Temof, Sojin, Clarissa Sel- wynne and Kalla Pasha. Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis helped Gilda Gray perfect “The Devil Dance,” which Gilda introduces in her first Samuel Goldwyn Pro¬ duction, “The Devil Dancer,” at the . theatre . Miss St. Denis recently returned from Tibet, where the action of “The Devil Dancer” is laid. Gilda Gray’s “The Devil Dancer,” which comes to the . theatre .represents the first film to be produced by Sam¬ uel Goldwyn since he was elected an owner-member of United Artists. It is also Miss Gray’s initial film under the Goldwyn banner. Fred Niblo, director of Gilda Gray’s “The Devil Dancer,” at the . theatre, is also di¬ rector of the final co-starring Ronald Colman-Vilma Banky film, “Flower of Spain.” Thus, Mr. Niblo will have directed the first two films produced by Samuel Goldwyn for United Artists release since Mr. Goldwyn has become an owner- member with Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith and Joseph M. Schenck. The first name of Sojin, Japanese character actor, who plays the role of Sadik Lama in Gilda Gray’s “The Devil Dancer,” at the . theatre, is Kamiyama, — which sounds like either a Yale cheer or the name of a new cracker. It was not generally known that Sojin had a first name,—but he has. WILLY POGANY DID “DEVIL DANCER” SETS Designing the scenery for Sam¬ uel Goldwyn’s production of “The Devil Dincer,” which stars Gilda Gray at the. Theatre for.,. days, opened a new field for Willy Pogany. The famous Hungarian mural painter and decorator had achieved an enviable reputation along lines so varied as the illustrating of books, the decoration of a theatre and the designing of a hotel. His murals adorned some of the most beautiful institutional buildings of two con¬ tinents. But it was Samuel Gold¬ wyn, continually searching for new talent and new personalities, whose work could be projected on the screen, who conceived the idea of bringing Pogany to Hollywood for Gilda Gray’s first picture for re¬ lease through United Artists. Pogany’s task in “The Devil Dan¬ cer” taxed the ingenuity and inven¬ tiveness of the famous artist. The Himalayas and the uncharted table¬ land of the little known Tibet are the scene and the background of Miss Gray’s picture. Giant moun¬ tains, crowned by turretted monas¬ teries, had to be built. Fantastic altars for the performance of weird, mystic rites had to reflect authen¬ tically the ceremonies of Devil Wor¬ ship. Such was Pogany’s work in the new picture at the . His career began early. At the age of 18, Pogany abandoned a ca¬ reer of railroad engineering to pur¬ sue art as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. His un¬ usual talent enabled him to make an early impression in the world of art with “The Holy Trinity,” a re¬ ligious work for the Archbishop of the Hungarian Catholic Church. Following the fashion of all young and ambitious painters on the Con¬ tinent, Pogany joined the Munich colony. His youthful efforts there earned for him an invitation to at¬ tend the Ecole Nationale in Paris, where Pogany painted portraits of many of the leading members of the Academy and other notables. London was his next conquest. In the English capital, he took up the work of book illustrating. He did a new edition of Goethe’s “Faust,” Wagner’s “Tannhauser,” Hans Christian Anderson and Grimm’s fairy tales, and others. A few years later the outbreak of the war saw him in America, in¬ volved in the intricacies of theatri¬ cal and operatic design. One of his first creations was for Max Rein¬ hardt’s New York production of “Sumurun.” Less dignified but cer¬ tainly no less interesting was his scenery investure in Ray Goetz’s “Hitchy-Koo.” He created the set¬ tings for thirty operas, including such notable works as Massiurgsky’s “Coq d’Or” and Rossini’s “Italiens en Algiers.” This type of work ap¬ pealed to his sense of creation. He planned and designed a number of theatres and hotels in rapid succes¬ sion. The Heckscher Children’s Theatre on Fifth Avenue stands as a tribute to his skill and inventive¬ ness. Most of the new Chanin Theatres were designed by Pogany. He executed murals at the Sesqui- centennial, for John Wanamaker and for the new Fifth Avenue Hotel.