Screenland (Apr–Sept 1923)

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so Screen la nd officials, regarding his keeping the "morality clause" in his contract lends an aspect of truth to his statement. There are vendettas carried on in every studio. Miscast ! S canning the lists of new releases and pictures in production, the thinking observer cannot escape the idea that some directors must cast with their eyes shut. Why do they choose misfits for a role, when the obvious choice is in plain sight before their eyes? Echo answers "Why?" Louis B. Mayer is to screen The Virginian again. Good news. The Virginian is a fine story that should make a fine picture. But whom does he choose for the title role ? Kenneth Harlan. Harlan is a good, substantial young actor, but he is not the Virginian. He has the parlor finish, the evening-dress flair that Winston Churchill's hero of the plains never had. Monte Blue would be ideal for the role. He has the softness of the Southerner, along with the virility of the plainsman. The Virginian has been read and fondly re-read by hundreds of thousands. To see its beloved character miscast prejudices such an audience against the picture from the start. A further grievance is that none other than Russell Simpson has been chosen to depict Trampas, the little, wizened, miserable half-breed villain of the story. Alas, that Frank Campeau, who portrayed the part so nobly on the stage, was not chosen. And Frank was right in Los Angeles when the mis-casting was perpetrated! Simpson is a splendid actor, few better, but he is not the type. Even his villainies have dignity, and Trampas had none. In Memory of May McAvoy C3 nce upon a time there was a lovely little girl, with pansy-like eyes and rose-petal coloring. She was petite and graceful and in fact was so pretty that few could believe she could have any brains. In addition to these blessings, she could ^ct. She proved it in Sentimental Tommy. But she was never called upon for an encore. Because she was small and pretty and graceful, she was made tc ippear in saccharine romances, in stories of no plot or value. And when she was offered a real part, unless it was a very big part, she refused it. Which went to prove that maybe ihe sceptics were not so far wrong. Fred Niblc offered her thz part of Carmen in Blood and Sand. But because it was not the leading role, she would have none of it, and Lila Lee got the plum. Then, as the star system gave way to the all-star cast vogue, Paramount offered to co-star May with Bobby Agnew, in a series of light comedies. You remember how delightful May and Bobby were in Clarence? The situation had possibilities, but May wanted to star. So she refused, and left Paramount by mutual agreement. There ought to be a moral to this somewhere ; let's try to find it. A real actor probably has this motto pasted in his hat : "Acting roles are few and far between. When you find one, even though it is a small part, freeze onto it." Bebe Daniels cherishes such a motto. She has no illusions about stardom. The play's the thing with Bebe, for she has had experience. For two years she starred. She didn't act, but she starred, in spoiled baby, pouting roles in pictures like Nancy from Nowhere. At first she flourished like the green bay tree, because she had personality to burn. But Lttle by little she learned that her following was diminishing. She asked not to be starred, but to be featured in allstar casts. William deMille took her in hand, gave her a faith in her own ability, brought out her real self. A new Bebe appeared in Nice People and The World's Applause, no longer the pouting flapper, but Bebe the Woman. She had a siege of the "Black Death," but thanks be, she is convalescing. Alas for La Clavel D orothy Gish has a will of her own and knows how to attain her ends. So when she decided that she would like to play the part of La Clavel in Richard Barthelmess' The Bright Shawl, she got the part. Richard stormed and raged and even ceased speaking to Dorothy, but to no avail. Dorothy donned mantilla and patches with the gay insouciance with which she wore the rags and tatters of her gamin roles. The result — but you saw the picture? Dorothy Gish was charming and mischievous and alluring and Dorothy Gish. At no time was she other than a Yankee girl dressed up in a Spanish dancer's costume. Natacha Rambova was the woman for the role. She was Barthelmess' .choice. Another dreadful case of mis-casting and another good play gone wrong ! Pola Negri's prestige suffered a severe blow, after the showing of her denatured Bella Donna. It wasn't her fault, poor girl. The producers insisted on making the lady censorproof. But all the fans who had been looking to see the widely advertised Pola Negri in an American film, and all the critics who feared that Pola was being "conventionalized" came to pray and remained to scoff. The Cheat only confirmed the impression that Negri was Lubitsch. And The Spanish Dancer according to dark predictions, is going to deal the fatal death blow. After that, it will be "Thumbs down" for Pola, say the wise ones. The Spanish Dancer is a jinx play, anyway. It was purchased and adapted from Don Cesar de Bason for Valentino. When he deserted canned drama for cosmetics, the piece was hastily revamped for Charles DeRoche. But so much hostile comment was evoked by DeRoche's advent that it was thought best to turn the French actor into a "heavy." And the jinx script was again revised, making the leading role out of a small feminine part and mutilating the real part, which is the male lead. Will Pola survive it ? We hope for the best, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a pulmotor on the premises. A Hero Doing Villains L/eon Bary spends his days doing dire deeds in pictures. He is a villain of the deepest dye. Yet he has a potent eye and a wicked smile. We won't condemn him by putting him in the would-be Valentino class, but it is a pity that some producer has not capitalized the foreign vogue by giving this polished French actor a chance to break hearts. His potency is evidenced by the fact that in Susanna, in which he played the "heavy," we found ourselves wishing that he would get the gal, instead of the hero with the spit curl and the low comedy grin. Bary is an actor to his finger tips. He supported Rejane and Bernhardt, both in Paris and America. Manhandling Nita N ita Naldi is being slowly but surely ruined. She is contributing somewhat to the disaster herself, by letting herself get unduly buxom. She is no longer merely luscious; she is corn-fed. Nita Naldi as Dona Sol in Blood and Sand was allurement itself. She has the perfect vampire's mouth, cruel as a Medusa's. But since that tragic masterpiece of Ibanez', Nita Naldi has done nothing worth while. At present her attraction is wholly physical, but beneath it she has a subtlety, a depth that has not yet been plumbed. We would like to see her play a Medici, or a Lucrezia Borgia.