Judge — January 22, 1921 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

First: the picture that makes no money is regarded as a poor picture, no matter how good it may’ be Second: of two pictures equally good, the one making the more money is regarded as the better picture Thire he picture making the most money is regarded as the best of all—a pat- tern for the others to follow With proposition Number One we have no quarrel. That is as must be. in the long run. Unless a thing is self-supporting, is econom- ically justified, it can not live. Money spent in producing films that no one would pay to see would in the end be money thrown away But with propositions Two and Three, and all their unpleasant little descendants, too humerous to mention here, we have a very great quarrel indeed. For if the really fine film, that gave a moderate return on the investment, rated above the poorer but more popular film, among the producers—as is to at least a slightly greater degree the case with books, and magazines and the practice of medicine and sermons, we would b more rapid development of the art of motion pictures in this Not the business merels sa business must ultimately rest country. industry All nice theory, but rather tiresome. but the art, on which the and abstract, and inap: Pictures Worth Watching PASSIO. ‘Spectacle-drama. NOT GUILTY Agoin the twin accepts the crime. WHAT DO MEN WANT? Observations on love, sex, and marriage BILLIONS Nazimova in comedy. MIDSUMMER MADNESS ‘Should a husband forgive? DINTY Excellent entertainment ISOBEL Mostly snow stufl HELIOTROPE Unpleasantly good. THE MISLEADING LADY Comedy drama with laughs, WAY DOWN EAST. The work of Griffith, artist and showman. KISMET Oriental tale with elabo tings OVER THE HILL* Sob-story of ingratitude *Exceptionally good lots of able to count on her foot! plicable? Not on your honorable life! Just get down to cases, anc see how it works: D. W. Griffith, the greatest individual producer of them all, “Way Down East.” He can make any kind nd people will pay real mone f the line, won makes a picture of a picture he wants But he wants to retain his position at the heac through making not neces: profitable pictures—the biggest money getter he doesn’t dare heads of too many ple he can in this line, and that line, but then throws out as a sop to popularity a cross-cur- rent work that far below his standard, to make the picture (theoretically) pay still more. To that extent existing motion-picture conditions press him to be less of an artist and more of a Barnum: The so-called “comedy relief in “Way Down East” isthe result—with a hen laying an egg on the hired man’s hair. The whole picture cheapened, not to make money, for it would do that anyway, but to ¢ money. nphasis were on‘ How did you get it?” instead of ‘How much peo- he does as well as of is Drawn by So B. Wainer Whur cor oxe ily or alone the be » the best he can, for fear it will go above the corner house. to see it. but the most Accordingly THOSE HOME MOTION-PICTURE OUTFITS FOR CurisTMas did you get?” Griffith would have been spurred to set a new high level, not alone in box-office receipts, but in all-around excellence, in “Way Down East,” and the cheap slapstick that mars an otherwise wonderful picture would have been ruled out. As it the general standard excellence of the entire industry is lowered by just so much. “Way Down East’ is the biggest money-getter of them all: let us all make hens lay eggs on the heads of hired Would You? By Maper NOW would you so oF would you not, Or would you if you could, you know, Do all the things that you forgot When precept said you should, you know? Or would you would that precept should Be relegated to the dust, So that you could do what you would With no such frenzied word as “must”? is, of men! Haveurox Cottyer At the Dance First Flapper—Why is Betty so excited? Second Flapper The Prince of Sighjam has just trodden on * But, my dear—how thrillin Out in the Suburbs ‘That certainly is a strange couple that have moved into the They have a Pekinese and a Twin-Six, and yet I saw him dry the dishes last night. Marriage Marriage is a state that lovers look forward to, widowers look sick to, bachelors look out for, and no one but the mother of twelve sturdy children understands Sometimes with a K “Father,” said the youthful secker after knowledge, every chureh has a nav hasn't it?” “Um—how do you spell it, my son?” de. manded the cautious parent. Reflections Nothing gives so much pain and pleasure as a mirror, Superfluous “I have here a book entitled: ‘The Success- ful Chicken Raiser,’ ”’ began the agent. “LT don’t need broke in Uncle Hopkins. “All children are boys.” it,” Cy my comicbooks.com