MODERN KINEMA A FAIRGROUND

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 181, 26 April 1924, Page 15

MODERN KINEMA A FAIRGROUND

SOME FILM AND MUCH MOTLEY The modern kinema is a fairground ton which all sorts of drummers cry their wares. Any one of the bigger .theatres will offer you a playlet, a couple of dancers, a troupe of singers, or a beauty prize winner to speak a prologue (writes C.A.L. in the “Manchester Guardian”)- .At intervals throughout the film, if the scenariowriter has given them the ghost of a chance, these same singers will rend the air with sound. And what they shrink from doing the “effects” man in the orchestra will do most adequately for them. . . . Yet they call it the Silent Stage! The “lobby” and corridors of our kinemas are frill of atmosphere. This takes the visible form of coinmissionaries and programme-girls in fancy costume,exhibits from the film, copies of songs or books from which the picture has been adapted, souvenirs, photographs. In one lobby recently there was a monkey in a cage, in another a hooded falcon. A certain theatre gave away white roses, another gave away red. In one there stood a handkerchief stall, with bits of fine linen inscribed, “You will need this handkerchief for. the tears you will shed when watching ,” the pathetic performance of the star. Competitions are showered upon the happy client. He has been asked, within the last few months in London, to write a description of a leading player’s work, to vindicate the high moral purpose of a certain producer, to pick cut nameless stars from a crowd of “extral,” to recognise isolated bits of film and fit them into their proper place. There was one film going the rounds of the picturehouses in which patrons were invited to guess the original ending, known only to one person in the world. There was another which wanted a new title, and a third which offered) a prize for the best reproduction of the make-up of the start Oh, it’s a composite affair, the kinema, a glorious fairground ! It only needs a few coconutshies to make the resemblance complete. The film industry is shrewd, and has lately hit on the happy idea of making the audience 'Sart of the show, so that still more may stand and gape at the, gates. The picture-goer has become an exhibit; he has taken the place of the Fat Boy of Peckham. The general public can have the ineffable pleasure of watching a covey of politicians driven in to the fair, a neatly marshalled school of Royal Academicans giving up their identification cards at the door. To “Cornin’ Thro’ the Rye” on Friday will troop two hundred grandmothers (whose total age, we are told, will aggregate more than ten thousand years—a great fairground attraction) with fifty Chelsea Pensioners as a guard of honour. Two hundred politicians came lately to “The Fighting Blade,” and two hundred cleryinen (the real figures evade me. but let us stick to two hundred; it is a good round number) to “The White Rose.” To another film came two hundred mothers-in-law and to “Anna Christie” two hundred authors. The interest in this last exhibit was considerably heightened by the fact that five of the number had never entered a picture-house before. The two hundred clergymen were pressed into service again for “Sodom and Gomorrah,” and two hundred Alsatian wolfhounds viewed the first performance of “Where the North Begins.” There is no report up to date of the dogs’ appreciation. My only complaint is that the managers do not go quite far enough. There are other things I should like suggest for the. kinema. A revival of “The Kid” in which perambulators are given free to every mother in the audience. .A revival “Shoulder Arms” in which' every* hundredth patron is presented with a tin hat. A special performance of “Way Down East” for the Poplar Guardians. Entrance to “Why Worry?” granted only on production of an_ unpaid income-tax demand note .more than two years old. Patrons specially called for by camel to all sheik films. ...

More interesting and more entertaining than all the million-dollar productions put together is “Tiger Rose,” a Master Picture based on the well-known play. It is especially adaptable to the screen, because it has love interest, suspense, melodrama, and last, but by no means least important, it has the vivid Lenore Ulric in the title role.

William S. Hart, whose return to the screen was announced recently, will offer as his first attraction “Wild Bill Hickok.” This is a story of American Western days, and has something of the elements of history in it. Several well-known historical characters are portrayed in this picture, including General Custer. Ethel Grey Terry is the leading feminine player.

Whethjer it was Nelson’s perfect climate, or the charm of its citizens there is no doubt that Annette Kell<\rman has never looked so attractive nor given such a marvellous display of swimming, diving and underwater gymnastics as she does in “Venus of the Southern Sea'j,” the wonderful New Zealand production.

The recent rumoured engagement of Hope Hampton, the popular screen star in “The Gold Diggers,” a Master Picture, has been denied by no less a person than the lady herself. She declares, with a rly twinkle, that she is wedded to her art. To which the only reply is—lucky wril

Magnificent work is done by Fay Compton, the talented Jxmdon actress, in “The Bill of Divorcement,” the play that beat the London theatre slump. She plays the part of Margaret Fairfield, who got a divorce from her husband ou tho grounds of