The talkies (1930)

Record Details:

Title:
The talkies
Date:
1930
Publisher:
London: Crosby Lockwood and Son
Volume:
The talkies
Leaf #:
000264
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
March 28, 2024
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184 THE TALKIES "It is astonishing," said Mary Pickford, who has become so tired of being the "World's Sweetheart," and who has made a sensational comeback in Talkies, "how the new medium rounds out personality. It is as if audiences had been seeing only one side of artistes' faces and now see both. It causes the artiste to become an almost different person. I am making my debut again. For years I have been seeking a departure from the type of character I normally play, but in every picture up to Coquette, I have had to compromise because people would plead, 'Don't destroy that little girl with the golden curls and the innocent heart.' In the development of talking pictures I see all the obstacles that the earliest silent productions had to overcome. In the pioneer days we were troubled with film breaking and with pictures shown backwards; now we get unwanted bizarre effects with sound. We actors are at the mercy of the operators. I am always afraid that they will change me into a bass or baritone. The marvellous thing about the 'Talkies' to me is that they can do away with the two great weaknesses of pictures, close-ups and subtitles. Written titles are always an interruption, a foreign element ; they have nothing to do with pantomime. On the other hand, the spoken word plays a vita]