Judge — February 26, 1921 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

NEW MOVES IN So THE MOVIES ~— The Celluloid Dollar By Myrox M They eat it up! HAT'S the stuff to give ‘em! . the movie-producer’s We at random from credo A dollar tods “Fetch out the old scenario, chances.” “What I've seen the other fellow do and make that’s good enough for me Or, to sum it all up in a somewhat cynical formula attributed to the large but late Charles Van Le The fellow who tells stories has to do three things: he has to amuse, he has to instruct, and he has to get the kale—which is the only one of the three that counts.” Taking, then text evening, motion-pic brothern and cistern and followers and fans, the dangers of the immediate dollar, let us consider the case of Betty Compson in “Prisoners of Love. The lovely Miss Compson, it may be recalled, first rode to favor in a bath-tub. Not in Pennsylvania, | understand, but elsewhere. In “The Miracle Man” she laid the foundation for a seemingly secure success, by her rise from the tub and the tenderloin to a convincing screen repentance. At that time—and indeed, for the matter of that, at this time as well, still, vet, or now—she seemed a very fortunate young lady, with a full share of youth, beauty, attractiveness, ability, as Well as the vital and legitimate sex appeal that has been a part of the scheme of things since the start of the race So it becomes right and natural to clevate Betty to stardom. But when the “vehicle” we note the tuming that wheel within “is the result the promotors of the pro duction 1: “We can't afford to take chances; Betty is pretty, and she can act- but others are pretty, and also able to act Where our Bet has in her sex-appeal; that and we can't miss! So they play beautiful girl (of quote is worth two next week.’ Bill—we can't afford to take money at for our th So far, so good. for the lady is chosen of the celluloid dollar wheel. Prisoners of Love ve Domest Cinderella. THE OATH ‘em all skun is stuff to play up. 1 fall for it! up. The story is of course) whose wicker double-life rounder of a father drives her from his home because she encourages men to fall in love with her, Wonderful situa: striking character—etc., etc. Then our lovely lady, f to the other coast of the country, to make her own way in the world, falls in love with a lawyer and dec to live with him, refusing to marry him because his mother wants him to remain unmarried. When mother dies, our lady's lawyer-friend he is tired of her, THE DEVIL Good photi CHICKENS PASSION* Very DEAD tions THE_KID* Pickford. decides STEARNS Pictures Worth Watching FORBIDDEN FRUIT difficulties of a married Dramatic problems growing from the gulf between THE LAST OF THI Beautiful tragic metodrama. cting in a slightly novel MAN, WOMAN AND MARRIAGE American spectacle-fillum. Cambric-tea comedy. Fine impersonal spectacle-film. HOLD YOUR HORSES ¢ farce EN TELL NO TALES Spectacular melodrama. Charles Chaplin. Esq. les THE LOVE LIGHT Narrative melodrama for Mary OUTSIDE THE LAW Good crook melodrama. ‘Exceptionally good. a are | 2 “LENso’ so crosses the continent, instead of marrying her, and falls in love with her sister. Wonderful situations—wonderful! Hero- ine comes East with her gen‘leman fren’s partner, sees the mar riage of her pure sister, is reconciled to her—er—impure father, 1 goes into the eventual clutch of the noble partner for the live-happily-ever-after finish, Let's pick off a few of the feathers. The double-life father gives opportunity for opening the pic- ture with cabaret scenes and a sex-atmosphere of deceit and licentiousness that emphasizes all the more strongly the lure of Betty’s own personality. ‘The father is of course an impossible, or at least very unlikely, character, with his insistence that his innocent daughter is lowering the honor of the family—under the circumstances of his own pictured life Almost without exception, the box-office reports of the new picture that come in are satisfactory—great! And the reviews of the picture, making no appreciable mention of the fact that the characters are not true to life, that the numerous situations are “motion-pictury’? and unreal, are lenient and favorable, dwelling on e charm and beauty of star, and the fact that the sex-appeal is strong. Sure-fire stuff! Now, I ask you, as fan to fellow-sufferer—is that or the lovely Betty either? To be sure the picture will be a box-office success. Couldn't be otherwise. Miss Compson gets away to a “great” start as a star in her own right from the standpoint of the celluloid dollar, But how about her future? How about the far-sighted dollars—the dollars of next year and the year after—are they coming her way, too? Or is she, by this “box-office start,” compelled to go on playing sexy parts, relying on the cheaper appeal—that almost sure to lose in the long run—to brin ‘emin? “Why,” [heard one of Miss Comy son’s admirers say after watching “Prisoners of Love,” “It's though they adver tised a beautiful society girl to appear in tights in a ch cabaret; sure people would pay to see her—but think of the girl's future!” Maybe he was right, After I, a big box-office start is by no means to be despised. An unsuccessful picture, as the first offering of a new star, is perhaps almost as much a calamity as one of cheap appeal that offends the better instincts. But it seems to me, to paraphrase the grand old mixed metaphor, as though the people who planned Miss Compson’s first starring vehi- cle are cutting so much wool off the sheep that lays the golden eggs that they're in danger of pumping it dry. 1 fair way to treat us: jew and Gentile. MOHICANS maybe not comicbooks.com