Screenland (Nov 1930-Apr 1931)

for N ov e m her 1930 17 THE EDITOR'S PAGE I HAD this page practically written. It was going to be all about the new trend in picture making. I began by saying : "No longer are you — the Public — interested solely in emotionalism on the screen. Now, it's acting. Once, you went to see a pretty girl or a handsome man, or an all-star cast ; or a sob drama ; or a girland-music revue. But these days you're demanding more. "Look," I went on, "at the big 'new stars' of talking pictures. George Arliss. William Powell. Richard Barthelmess. Clive Brook. Otis Skinner. Walter Huston. Men who know their craft. Actors who subordinate their personal charm to the story. The women, too — Ruth Chatterton, Kay Francis, Ann Harding — beautiful women, but actresses first. There are exceptions, surely. But the stars of today's and tomorrow's screen are character stars, not personality stars, in pictures which appeal more to the mind than to the emotions." There was more like that. And I believed it. George Arliss in "Old English," John Barrymore in "Moby Dick," Walter Huston in "Abraham Lincoln" were running on Broadway — actors worthy of the name in screen-plays that give your brain a little gentle exercise and your emotions a brief rest — a unique experience in a movie theater. Oh, yes — it was all settled ! And then — the Roxy Theater announced that "Common Clay," the screen version of the good old stage play that served Jane Cowl so ably in the palmy days of the 'legitimate' stage, would be held over in the 'Cathedral of Motion Pictures' for a fourth week. It upset everything, that announcement ! Now, "Common Clay" is a well directed, well acted picture. It is good entertainment. It features Constance Bennett, one of the loveliest ladies on the screen, with Lew Ayres, the boy who has made such a swift flight to film fame in the past few months. But "Common Clay" is also a tear jerker of the old school. It's the story of the 'wronged girl' with trimmings, for all its modern sets and acting and tempo. When the heroine's little old mother takes the witness stand in defense of her erring daughter; when the girl, her baby in her arms, turns on her tormentors ; when the boy tells his father he will stick to his sweetheart through thick and thin — well, then the audience, between sniffles, cheered ! Judging from audience reaction at the Roxy, "Common Clay" is one of the greatest pictures ever produced. It's an emotional feast. It sends its audiences out red-eyed but happy. What's the answer? It seems to me the answer is that it came at the right time. The smart film producer is the man who anticipates. While the theaters are flooded with war dramas, he peers around the corner and sees or senses or smells that a crook picture would be a welcome change. He produces one and it's a smash. And then there's a flood of gangland films. But this same smart producer stops short and looks in another direction — in fact, he looks straight up — and orders an aviation spectacle. And when the imitations begin to appear, he makes a nice, sophisticated little drawing-room comedy — and packs them in again. As an example of that, I give you MetroGoldwyn-Mayer, the company that made "Anna Christie." Before audiences had time to digest Garbo's accent, M-G-M confronted them with the vision of Norma Shearer in "The Divorcee," a 'dressy' — and daring — film. Then came "Caught Short" and "Let Us Be Gay" and "Romance" — all highly successful, all different. Fox is smart, too. It offers "Common Clay" to audiences who have been watching the war fought in the air and in the trenches and in gangsters' row. And the next 'smash hit' at the box-office will be as different from "Common Clay" as "Peter Pan" from "The Cock-eyed World." D. E.