Variety (August 1913)

VARIETY IS FILM FLASHES "TtaaWt Dub to Liberty." In four reels, la announced ready by tbe Fair Film Co. Bousa baa entered tbe film field with "Tbe Flftb String" announced by Bellg. Sol Leaser, film buyer for tbe Golden Oate Film Co. of San Francisco, is in town. Tbe Exhibitors' Feature Booking Agency, an Innovation designed to Inform exhibitors about feature films, has taken offices in *New York. Gertrude Robinson's first picture with the Biograph will be finished next week. John Noble, injured by an explosion while directing a picture, expects to be ab>e to re- sume work this week. Wlllard Newell, of the Newell Twins of the regular theatre, has signed to produce for the Selig Polyscope In Chicago. "Doc" Wlllat's own film company, Just started. Is incorporated at $20,0U>. The Negro Business Men's League of Phila- delphia has promoted a $100,000 Afro-Ameri- can movio company, Incorporated in New York, for up-llft films for negroes. Thomas H. Blair is suing Klnemaoolor for $163,000 damages, alleging Infringement of the Blair Viventscope, a projection device Blair claims be holds the rights to exclu- sively. George W. Lederer's first film essay for the Reliance, "Once Upon a Time," will be ready for release Sept. 7. Joe Brandt, assistant treasurer and general publicity manager for the Universal, has ssl.ed for London to establish a foreign Uni- versal publicity bureau. "Back to Life" is announced for early re- lease by Warners Features. Oscar Wilde's "A Florentine Tragedy" will follow It. Director "Bob" Daly and bis assistant, Frank Smith, of the Imp, are taking a pic- ture at Saratoga. The new Vltagraph stage will be ready for use Sept. 1. Fifteen players have been added to tbe stock company. Charles Slmone, general manager of the Centaur and sales manager of the Venus Feautres, has resigned both posts. Henry Gsell, leading support of Lily Lang- try during her last American tour, has Joined the Chrystal Film stock. "A Vegetarian's Dream" (the Eclair), shows lemons turning Into pigs, and other vege- table dream phantasmagoria: 35,000 draw- ings. It Is said, were required to accomplish the Illusions. Helen Martin will be seen In "The Wolf," the Eugene Walter play which the Eclair photographed recently In the Adlrondacks. Win. Sheerer will be a hoot mon in the Eclair's coming "Rob Roy" 3-reeler. Much of tbe Imp's blgest work Is now be- ing assigned to the stage direction of George L Tucker, who is gathering about him a corps of exclusively scenario writers. Director James Klrkwood, formerly of the Imp. Is now directing a new three-reel fea- ture for the Biograph. Thomas Jefferson is In the cast. D. J. Chatkln, until recently In charge of the Universal offices at Toledo, O., has been appointed manager of the Warner's Features Buffalo office. Another new Warner's ap- pointee Is Jarques Spiegel as head of the New York rental offices of the Features Co. The territory east of Chicago Is now handled for Warner's by Samuel, Grant, formerly directing the Gordon theatres In New Eng- land. Jane Gall and Win. Shay, leads at the Imp, are shortly to appear In a new realistic fea- ture written by Walter McNnmara, which Di- rector George L. Tucker will stage. Julius Stern, manager of the Imp, Is ex- pected back from tbe other side next week. Charles H. Green, associate director at the Imp, has signed for another year with that studio. Director Green managed the the- atrical tours of Andrew Mack for five years. Lightning killed James La Veils, movie oper- ator at the Sixty-third street Hippodrome movie theatre Aug. 22, striking the theatre's roof and running down to the feed wire to tbe booth. James Nelll will direct hereafter for the Universal, operating through the company's plant at Los Angeles. "The Pride's Key" Is the title of a Unl- versnl release, with Florence Lawrence. Har- ry Salter Is staging It. Cart. T*slle T. Peacock, scenaro writer for the T*n'ver«al. is writing a musics.! piny ert'tle* "T*e Mermaid, with Annette Keller- tnann for Its star. The Eclectic Is now releasing two fi-reel features monthly. John Bunny will be Coney's Mardl CTrae king this season. W. H. Lawrence has left the Unlco Fea- tures uepartment of the Eclair to take charge of Warners Features in Indianapolis. Helen Gardner's "A Princess of Bagdad" is ready. George Stevenson is holding down Joe Brandts publicity chair at the Universal. "Peg of the Polly P," a romance of canal boats and inland towpaths and water locka, will have Vivian Preacott in the title role. The Reliance releases It. Robert H. Grey has Joined the Essanay's Niles, Cal., studio. "Kissing the Blarney Stone," a multiple taken in the Old Dart at tbe ramous olu Irish landmark, with scenes In the vicinity will be me iirst subject u>med by Oene Uauntler and tbe nucleus of an organization which she took a croud last week. Chas. H. Green, who managed Andrew Mack's tours for six years and who has re- cently been associated with the dlrectora' de- partment of the Imp, is planning to sail for boutb America about tbe brsi of Jaonuary in the interests of his present employers. Mr. Green, after leaving theatricals, spent two years In mine development in Central America, and while there got information from the natives of a picturesque South American Indian settlement, in a region offering good material tor the camera as weil as for gold mining. Nell Shlpman, photo playwright, has moved from San Francisco to New York, with offices in the Candler Building. Tbe Mutual will soon release "Sappho," In five reels, with Florence Roberts in tbe original O.ga Netbersole role, also "Moths," in four reels, with Maude Fealy in the old New York Lyceum theatre success. "One Round O'Brien's Flirtation," a suc- cessor to the unusually successful "One Round O'Brien" film, showing a false-alarm flBtlc aspirant's bout with a professional tighter, will shortly be released by the New Majestic. Other "O'Brien" films will follow. The Venus company will shortly release "Prince Ahmed and the Princess Karlblnou," adapted from tbe Arabian Nights tales. "The Secnt of tbe Sea," Including a realistic picture of a fishing village, is another Venus nltn In preparation. Benny Singer, once of New York, Is man- aging the Photoplayers' Club of Los Angeles, and report says making a success of it. The latest census of M. P. houses In America lb 17,040. Dan Mason of the Edison confesses a yen for the town-to-town/trail of tbe regular trouper, facing new /audiences and condi- tions from week to week and night to night, as In the good old days. Dan's friends says be gets the longing every autumn. "Pelleas and Mellsande,' without Msry Garden, of course, will he circulated by the Universal September 2. The 101 Bison pro- duces it Laura Oakley has been appointed a real bonest-to-goodnrss cop at University City, Cal. A badge, but no salary, goes with the Job. Eugene Moore of Thanhouser will shortly direct himself In a new Thanhouser plavlet. "The Spartan Fnther." Frank Grimmer Is now Director Monro's principal assistant at the New Rochelle studio. Press-njrentlng a town Is being done by the Roard of Trade at McKlnnev, Tex. Besides a press publicity bureau, the business men have motogrsphed the principal Industrial, amusement and social Interests of the cltv, and will keep the rpel a-rolllng through sections where they seek colonists. Doris Mitchell will not he seen on the regu- lar stage this season.. She hns Ju*t signed with the Eastern Stock of the Essanay in Chicago. The Ttala's "TlgHn" features two equip- ments working In Iowa. "nil!" Deverv In now managing the Charter Oak Feature Film Co. K. Ouozzone. the Ttall«»n staee director who put on the PlnoB "Quo VfHls," Is estinllshlnK a permanent studio in Rome for new Clnes features. Marenret Pusslng. who made her first st;»ne appearance in "A Oentleman from Missis- sippi"' In Chicago several seasons ago. ha« signed with Sellg. R. C. Beerv Is In charge of tbe • n« ▼ branch the Mutual has opened in Chicago. The WMMsms TTrnthcrs, who showed the plans of their piibmsHn* nhotoe r anhlc out- fit "t the recent New Yirk fiend fentnl Ex- position, have a charter for their companv to carrv on the hu«!nes« of pnotoirrnphv under w»te'r. Capitalized at $nv»nnfl. the company will he known as the Submarine Film cor- poration. DOOMED TO DIE, There must be a market In this country for feature films or the sort of "Doomed to Die." or "The Vial of Wrath," or Importers wouldn't be bringing them In ao freely. "You have made clandestine love to my wife. When you sent to me for a prescription for your Indis- position, I sent you a tincture charged with the virus of rabies, and now you are doomed to die like a dog." Is what the doctor hero of the story says to the villain In the climax. And the false friend and Illicit lover suffers the fate prophesied for him. And such a death. The victim snarls and barks, rolls bis eyes and rushes abdut snapping at any- thing and everything. At one time he even falls to his knees and chaws orfully at the arm of a fine carved oak chair. The phy- sician, who conceived this diabolical revenge as a fit punishment for one who would tempt a good wife astray, doesn't stop at a single victim. Othello's Jealous frenzy was sooth- ing syrup compared with the fiendish reprisal planned for his suspected spouse by this Jekvll-Hyde physician. At tbe height of the rabies paroxysms of the friend to whom he administered the bacilli of dog madness, the humiliated husband entices his unsuspicious wife to the door of the chamber In which the victim Is Incarcerated, flings open the door, thrusts her within, draws the door closed, locks It, and then stands grim and gloating with the shrieks of the dying false friend and the cries of terror of the caged wife serving ae sweet music for his soul. The husband re- lents at the last moment, and frees the wife Just In the nlok of time, although he himself gets a chaw from his dog-mad rival, and be- fore be hit* the high places of the hvdro- nbobla he has circulated, becomes contrite, learns that the wife, though weak and flirta- tious, did not actually sin, and foralves her. The feature la in three reels and was staged In Paris. The photography Is (renerallv good through- out, particular attention having been given to clear facial play. The presentation be- fore the onenlne of the n'aylet of the orln- clpals of the cast. In their own personalties, bowing and smirking, as thoush to sav. "Pretty soon. now. you will see me aetlnw. and In one of mv best roles." handicaps the feature at the outset, as su^h practice must eyer tend to detract from the realism of any play, movie or remilar. nmountlntr. as It does, to a prac- tical announcement that what follows Is not life hut r pupn^t show. ( Union Features. ) Corb. NEW FILM CORP*N8. Sea-on-land, Brooklyn, $15,000; Wm. H. George, C. R. Marimts, G. W. Scho- field. 874 Dean St.; Willat Film Mf* Corporation, Manhattan, $20,000, May, Edwin W. and Carl Willat, 320 W. 11th St.. N. Y.; Pompeii Film Co., Manhattan. $10,000. Alex. Fiesch, A. J. Case, E. E. Stubenvoll, 575 E. 139th St., N. Y.; J. H. Center Co., Newburg (screens and curtains for protection), $10,000. J. H.. Helen C. and Wm. Gen- tel, all of 23 Montgomery St., New- burg. N. Y.: K. & E., N. Y., $4,100,000, C. B. Dillingham, Joseph Klaw, W. Harris, New Amsterdam theatre, N. Y. VTTAORAPH SAFETY FTTjMS. A novel series of pictures to be re- leased by the Vitagraph this week shows the possibilities of accidents to pedestrians and car passengers from encounters with trolleys, automobiles, trucks and other street vehicles. Working in conjunction with the B. R. T. and the directors of the National Museum of Safety. Stage Director Ned Finley has had about a score of members of the Vitagraph forces busy this week counterfeiting the accidents common to city thoroughfares. The rew feature will show little Helen Cos- tello. of the Vitagraph feigning a fall in front of a fast-moving surface car, to be saved from injury by the car's frnder. Paul Kellv. of the company, anoears as the victim of an automo- bile knockdown, and Frank Keppler is shown as the driver of a vegetable v aeon which gets jammed between an "T-" pillar and a nassing surface car. Non-nicture folk who saw tbe "ac- cidents" sent in calls for ambulances and tbe police. If v«„ *nn«* advertise In VARIETY, don't advertise al all. WAR CORRESPONDENTS. Theodore Kremer In his busiest days ss a blood and thunder melo-drnmaiist bad noth- ing on tbe author of "Tbe War Correspond- ents," an Imported four-reeler. . Any kind of blood-curdilng sensation you may desire is in this film tale of two rival war reporters, each of wbom wishes to be first in sending news of battles. There's a girl in tbe case, and, of course, she falls In love with tbe bet- ter looking of tbe Journalists. This berlone is a model for her Indolent sisters, for there's scarcely an InBtant when she's in view that she's not winging to succor someone or do something to speed the plot a.oog. Son I a. she's called, and she's Turkish, though you'd never know it from the filmed program of the feature. The picture bears a Danish trade- mark and was presumably staged within the purlieus of HamU-t's country, but the bat- tles which tbe Journalists are assigned to re- port are presumably Turkish-Bulgarian en- counters, a fact, also, that you'd never learn from tbe synopsis. Sonla Is a peasant girl who lives in a one-room hut on the Turkish frontier with ber aged fatiier, who Is a wood gatherer. She Is fairly tali, passably comely, has an athlete's development of ber muscles. You know she's strong when you see her drop to the side of a ravine from a precipitous declivity, and step by step, support, pull, push and boost back toward the summit tbe good-looking war correspondent, who has been shot; also, when you see ber leg It llckety- spllt after a speeding train to catch tbe hand rail with a flying leap and pull herseif aboard ; also, when you see ber seize and bind the villain reporter, and position him for decapitation by an oncoming train. Sbe lends the support of her lithe young body to the hero a second time, after he fled a tent In which he's Imprisoned as a spy suspect, and she does a cross-country sprinting stunt on another occasion, this time to soothe ber dying father, that St. Ives or Longboat or any of tbe crack Maratboners must certainly approve. Katie Emmett's best exploits In tbe melos never had anything on the realistic achievements of this Sonla of the movies. Despite her designedly thrilling and certainly picturesque activities, several effects of The War Correspondents" escape her Inclusion. One of these U the explotdnn of a warship, a bit of staging admirably done, for, although you know a real gunboat could not have been used for tbe picture, you get the vralsemblsnce of a big marine catastrophe. You see tbe host disintegrate and sink, and later get a Riant upheaval of water about the dlsmem- ered sections that you're told I 1 * the explosion of the vessel's boilers. The dynamiting of a train speeding over a high trestle, with the climax showing the trestle riven, Its rails bent, and a great gap In the span, Is an- other startling bit of realistic havoc suc- cessfully counterfeited. The shelling of a theatre during a performance, and Its event- ual destruction by fire, with tho dead and dying of the audience and company among the interesting items, also the storming by the enemy of the private headquarters of a Turkish commander nt a moment when that amorous warlor is beseeching his favorite odalisque to serpentelne for his pleasure are other bits of strenuous life nf the feature. Rut Sonla's is In at the death of an air bird, a giant airship which her lover uses to escape, when he Isn't rldimt a horse, with Sonin In front of him, the air bird catching Are from shells hurtled at It as It soars over the en- camped soldiery. Some atrociously bad acting mars one of the Important roles of the plnyet. and bad casting another. The publisher of the hero's paper appears In three scenes, each time puffing at a cigar as though It were a llfe-or- dcath Job. and bobbing up and down all over the editorial sanctum and composing room In a St. Vitus Tango, while the vlllnln of tho piece who should preserve at least some of the treasured characteristics of the tvpe of man In plays who is mean, cruel, crafty and cunning. Is naively as fast and Jolly as Frank Mclntyre. (Exclusive Features.) Corb. TILIKUM A FINK MOVIE. Los Anodes, Aug. 27. The Tilikum. Los Angeles's newest photoplay house, opened Monday. It is a fine little theatre. w & v PHonrcTiov film. "Around the World" will be the sub- title to the first film production of the Weber Si Fields-Kinemacolor Produc- tion Co., as the new venture of the re- cently joined comedians and colored photography people is called. "Around the World" will centre the two comedians, surrounded by a chor- us of 75 girls. Il will contain the mom amusing "bits" the German laugh mak- ers have been connected with during their stage career. Roy McCardell, the humorist, is writing the picture scenario, which will reel out to 7.000 feet. Harry Cullen, will handle the paste- boards at the new Cohan Si Harris theatre in the Bronx, due to open tomorrow night.