Screenland (Oct 1923-Mar 1924)

HJD. W. Griffith's Struggle for Independence — From page 57 The Wolf at the Studio Door Night and The White Rose as pot boilers. There was still the studio overhead to be met — and yet Griffith could afford no real casts, no real producing staff and no real stories, for real stories cost money. In fact he had to sell some of the stories which he had secured, such as Java Head and Wild Oranges. Stakes Future on New Film uch is the Griffith story to September, 1923, when he launched upon his production of America, his Revolutionary spectacle, staking his future upon it. America will either make or break him — and there will be nothing indefinite about the outcome on that point. The spectacle of the one big screen producer hounded by creditors is really an astonishing commentary upon the making of pictures. It is amazing that no financial interests have gone to his aid. It is equally amazing that Griffith accomplished what he had. At any point Griffith might have alhed himself permanently with some big producing organization, after the fashion of the Cecil de Milles and the Rex Ingrams, but he would have lost the very freedom for which he has fought since the first days of pictures. Griffith is Film's One Independent . ms is not a defence of Griffith, despite my great personal admiration for the man. It may well be that Griffith is a bad business man and that all the obstacles that had blocked his path since Intolerance are ones of his own making. But it must be remembered that Griffith, save for Chaplin, is the one and only fearless independent in the woild of picture-making. And we need independents! Griffith actually does everything him self. Where other directors have batteries of assistant directors, huge technical staffs and elaborate scenario departments, he fights a lone battle. And he has never taken over six months for any single production in his whole career. While Griffith has thrown himself completely into America, I think there is just a certain tinge of cynicism about him now. . "I'm beginning to worship the dollar, too," he told me the other day. "After all, it means a kind of freedom. It's maddening to always need money. Sometimes I wish I could leave picture-making forever. Yes, I think a little place somewheres along Chesapeake Bay would be the spot to dream away the days, with a sailboat and never a mention of motion pictures. What Lies Ahead of Our Photoplay? Sometimes I think that I never want to see another picture — and most of the time I feel that I never want to make another. They exhaust and consume you. And yet I probably couldn't stop. "Possibly I couldn't becaus. I want to find out what lies ahead of our pictures of today. We have proven that the field of the spectacular is ours — that the stage is no match there. I wouldn't be surprised if we ultimately proved that the screen could be far more subtle and intimate than the stage in revealing the inner human. "And yet I wonder. Does the public want the photoplay to go on? Is the public ever going to be big enough for that, the mass of the public, I mean? Who has ever combined a great popular success and great art? Shakespeare, perhaps. Art is a thing apart, I fear, for the few. The multitude is too busy fighting for its existence. . . . Still, who knows?" CLAre you reading George Jean Nathan ? ©.SCREENLAND has secured George Jean Nathan to write of the spoken drama each month. CLJVIr. Nathan is the foremost critic in the United States — and the most readable. CLMr. Nathan is the best informed and most authoritative commentor upon the stage today. ©.His caustic, humorous and brilliant comments on footlight events will be found in SCREENLAND in future. 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