Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

82 SCREENLAND New Screen Plays— Continued from page 49 of Byron Haskins. He used to be a camera man — and now he is a director having just completed his first picture "Matinee Ladies". And a good job he has made of it, too. In what other industry, I ask you, are the opportunities so great as in the films? In what other industry — outside of the oil business — can you be a feather duster to-day and a rooster tomorrow? Since this is so, why don't boys and girls ever think of the executive end of the game. Why do they bemoan the fact that there aren't a hundred million starring jobs open — one for every inhabitant in the United States. Go to see Haskins' picture "Matinee Ladies". Watch the way this budding director handles the heroine. May McAvoy, — and Hedda Hopper and Malcolm McGregor and all the others. Yesterday a camera man, to-day a director, and tomorrow— why who can say what height will be scaled by a man who has accomplished what Haskins has already done in such a short time? He did an unusually competent job be' cause he didn't have a particularly original theme for his story — just the same old idea of cradle snatchers. You know what they are — women who play around with younger men in the afternoon while their more mature husbands are hard at work earning the noiseless limousines and infinitesimal platinum wrist watches which the spoiled American woman seems to consider necessary before she dare stick her kinky head out of her luxurious house. Just go to see this picture and watch how May McAvoy and Malcolm McGregor team up under Haskins direction. Look at it — not from the angle of a beautiful, sentimental romance but regard it from a technical viewpoint. This Haskins' swift climbing to competent direction is an inspiration to anybody. THE NIGHT BRIDE I'd hate to be in the fix that Marie Prevost gets herself into in "The Night Irene Rich is always busy, she finishes one picture and starts right on another. Her next is "Dearie". 'C[ Fay Wray twill be Emil Jannings leading lady in "Hitting For Heaven". Bride". How would you feel if your father came into a strange house and found you in a strange man's bed, wearing the stranger's pajamas? And just suppose you made your father believe that you were married to this stranger while all the time you weren't. And then suppose still further that the stranger is a woman hater who loathes the ground you tread. You'd be in pretty bad, now wouldn't you? To say nothing of the way you'd feel when your father left you alone in the bedroom with stranger and went out and locked the door. As our friend, Rene Adoree would say — some contretemps! That's just what happens to Marie Prevost in her latest film. And while I've never been a Prevost fan, after seeing her in this newest picture, I've joined her ranks — one hundred percent. She is so lovable and amusing in this "Night Bride" melee that it would take a heart lots stonier than mine to hold out against her. And that's not all. If Marie hadn't been so altogether charming Franklyn Pangborne would have walked away with the picture. He gives the best character performance you ever saw as a sissified secretary and wet nurse — almost — to Harrison Ford, said woman hater. He's simply grand and will ring a bell in you that's not often rung. He's a real actor, that boy, and the oftener he's cast in a picture, the oftener we'll get the rare thrill that comes from watching somebody superlatively funny. NAUGHTY NANNETTE If you're dead tired of seeing perfect young ladies go through their tricks in pictures which are often impossible and sometimes downright silly, go hunt for Film Booking Offices' latest film, "?\[aughty 7s[annette" and watch a regular girl, Viola Dana, speak a forkful. She's good. It's all very well to quote: "Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low — an excellent thing in woman" and it's all very well to have a voice like that. But, honest, sometimes don't you just yearn to see a girl act human. Well — that's Viola Dana all over. Viola is an extra girl in Hollywood fighting her way along like a gallant soldier. One day she stumbles over another poor little drowned rat of an extra and takes her home. This child — Helen Foster — is starving and Viola sets out to get her rights for her. Does she? Well, you can always depend upon Viola and Rin-Tin-Tin to bring home the bacon. This is a picture within a picture. You see a film actually being shot out in Hollywood and you follow the director in all his difficulties. And with Viola horsing around and bursting up his most emotional moments — he has a plenty. Helen Foster for all that she has a small part, appealed to me vastly. I believe she has the makings of a really serious actress. Her finely shaped head and earnest patrician little face all seem to proclaim it. But you go and see her — and if I'm wrong, the sodas are on me. But maybe not! Because if you don't agree with me on Helen you will on Ed. Ed who? Why Ed Bronell — Viola's boy friend. See if he's not more striking than any leading man you've seen this month. THE SEA TIGER When somebody says: "No Mary, can't be called beautiful but she has such a sweet disposition" you know there is something radically wrong with Mary. Well that's the same way I feel about "The Sea Tiger". In this film of really wild and picturesque loveliness made on the Canary Islands, Milton Sills stars with Mary Astor. But why they call Milton a Sea Tiger is beyond anybody's imagination. He gave a grand account of himself but he wasn't even first cousin to tigerish. Instead he seemed a rather tolerant, mild-mannered, phlegmatic fisherman — taking all the time in the world to make sure of Mary Astor. Mary Astor was superb, I thought, even. C Edmund Burns has temporarily deserted us to ma\e a picture abroad.