The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Jan-Feb 1923)

January 6, 1923. Succumbing to the Shriek. NOTHER point which Sir Oswald raised deserves A attention. He protested against the inclinations of some exhibitors to ‘‘ disregard their own natural good sense and to succumb by fits and starts to the methods of a few astute American speculators whose whole activities are, as it were, a huge gamble performed to a loud and continuous advertising scream.’’ It is right and necessary that the man with goods to sell should announce that fact with sufficient emphasis to ensure it being heard. It is quite another thing to indulge in a gamble and endeavour tc stampede a possible buyer into a purchase by deafening shrieks. Mr. Goldman’s Bereavement. £ HE sympathy cf all his friends within and without the film trade will go out in large measure to Mr. Montagu Goldman, manager of distribution for Famous-Lasky, in the loss he has suffered through the death of his wife. Such a bereavement is poignant at any time, but at a season such as the present, which is usually associated with joy and high hope, the loss is felt much more keenly. Whatever of solace is derivable from the -condolences of friends Mr. Goldman is assured of, and I join most sincerely in those expressions of sympathy. a sae s ed_ that Advance Licences. HE mamager of the Electric; Torquay, is a . forward-looking man. He has already, I see, approached the local magistrates in regard to his Good Friday licence—-and got it. This may be a good tip to other exhibitors to get busy with their licences for next even fuller Christmas Day. If they only heretofore. walk up early enough they may so stagger the bench that the latter will forget to insist on the programs being ‘“‘ suitable 2? Five Weeks at the Regent, Brighton. Tis encouraging to see that, whatever the new year may have to offer us in the way of brilliant film productions, some exhibitors are beginning 1923 by putting on the best of the old. In this respect the program ct the Regent, Brighton, for the month of January is as good as anything I. have seen billed as yet. For the current week’ there is ‘‘ The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ’’; next week ‘‘ Oliver Twist ’’ is the big attraction; and following come ‘‘ Monte Cristo,’’ ‘‘ The Sheik,’’ and -‘‘ The’ Good Provider.’’ This makes what may truly be called a unique list of attractions for five consecutive. weeks atome house. By the way, the advance description of ‘‘.The Good Provider ’’ does not err in any lack of comprehensiveness. After telling us that this ‘‘ wonderful heart drama ’’ ‘‘ made of the-joys and tears of plain folk,’’ will ‘‘ fill your heart with a glowing gladness,’’ the program informs us that the film is ‘‘ even funnier than ‘Potash and Perlmutter.’ ’’ This niust indeed be a ‘‘ good-provider.”’ OUR THANKS are tendered to the whole ofthe kinematograph industry for the hundreds of letters of appreciation of our last week’s issue. It has generally been acknowledgthe Supremacy Number has easily lived up to the description we gave it as the greatest edition im are of any trade journal published in the kinematograph industry. It will be our earnest endeavour to serve the trade in 1923 to an for that occasion. THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. & “« Loyalties ’’ for the Screen. ERBERT WILCOX, the controlling genius of the Graham Wilcox Company, continues his triumphant march, and has followed up the sensational capture of ‘‘ Chu Chin Chow ”’ by securing the world’s rights for ‘* Loyalties,’’ the famous Galsworthy play which is still packing the St. Martin’s Theatre. Produced on ambitious lines. this picture should have an enormous success, not cnly here but in America, where the play has created a furore, and it is extremely pleasant to record that a British company are to make the picture. Mr. Berney’s Breakdown. ; T is with real regret 1 learn that Mr. Sam Berney, the popular general manager of the Rose Film Company, has had a breakdown in health, and has in consequence had to go in a nursing home. I know that his many friends in the trade will jcin me in wishing him a speedy recovery and a complete restoration to health. The Deaf Mutes’ Decision. T is amusing to read that I boxing experts are still quarrelling over the Carpentier-Siki bout, and that the film of the encounter is still being screened and eritically examined to determine whether or not the charges levelled by the Sengalese against his white opponent have any foundation. The latest experts tc be called some deaf mutes, whose business it was to determine the words spoken by Deschamps when the match was going against Carpentier. Tt is thought that their life experience in lip-reading will prove of great value. *“ When other Lips — -.”’ HIS experiment opens up possibilities of an interesting kind, and a reviewer having to view an extraordinarily bad film might be preserved from nervous prostration by reading the words from the lips of the artistes when sufficient skill had been obtained. What a delight it would be to find them muttering to each other at a particularly heartrending point, ‘‘ That producer’s a fool; he ought to be boiled,’” cr words to that effect. I have my suspicions that much might be learned of the hectic habits of Hollywood could we but reach the deaf mute’s standard of lip-reading. ; third Trade extent than Bovine Blackness. KINEMA has been opened in Kirkintilloch, Seotland, with the name of the Black Bull Picture House. The inside of a cow is a proverbial phrase CT: of, . for darkness; but think of the inside of the Black U2 Bull! aa