Exponent Of Action, As In Silent Days

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 86, 5 January 1940, Page 5

Exponent Of Action, As In Silent Days

QOME motion picture directors command “Action” and get a camera record of a charming love idyl. Some get a musical spectacle, full of tunes and tire rhythm beauty. But there are directors who say “Action” and get action. Lloyd Bacon is one of these. Perhaps that is why he bears the reputation of “sure-fire director.” Bacon says. “Long ago I learned that the public wants action in its motion pictures. So I don’t beat around the bush. I see that the public gets action in my pictures. Some others may use motion pictures as a vehicle for a psychological study. I haven’t the patience.” Bacon learned his business in the old and lively school of the silent films. He started with Broncho Billy Anderson in 1915, but enlisted in the United States Navy in the Great War, and worked up from enlisted man to the rank of lieutenant. His term in the navy whetted his fondness for action.

Leaving the navy after the Armistice, Bacon worked for Charlie Chaplin for a while,' directed the old Lloyd Hamilton comedies, and then went with Mack Seimett and Universal. This was a lively and exacting school. Since then, Bacon has started several trends in picture popularity, probably the most important of which is his series of action pictures with navy themes.

Bacon has directed four pictures of the sea service for the Warner Studio, and each one was a hit. These films were “Here Comes the Navy” with .Timmy Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Frank .McHugh ; “Devil Dogs of the Air” with the same trio; "Submarine D-l” w’ith George Brent. Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh; aud his latest is “Wings of the Navy,” the Warner Bros.Cosmopolitan production with Brent, John Paylie and McHugh. ' Bacon directed the famous film, “The Singing Fool,” which set a fashion in films at the time, and he also set a precedent: with his outstanding “Forty-Second Street.” This hit started 100 subsequent musical comedies on their way. Bacon showed what he could do with the comedy theme in “A Slight Case of Murder.” But his preference is action pictures about the navy.