THE PICTURE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 101, 28 April 1917, Page 11

THE PICTURE WORLD

"The Vicar of Wakefield" has been successfully filmed in America, with Frederick Warde as the vicar.

"Joan 1, the Woman," a wonderfully humanised adaptation of Joan of Arc's life, was one of the big picture draws in New York when the last mail. left. Miss Geraldine Ferrar ,is the Joan of the cast. '

It is stated that at least 1,000,000 people are connected with the motionpicture industry in the United States, and that 2O;0O0,00O view the films daily. Transportation and agriculture only surpasses the movie in the volume, of business.

Alice Joyce, the popular leading lady of a year or two ago, has returned to the screen. Her first picture is "The Courage of Silence," produced by the Vitagraph Company. George Randolph ChesteT, the author of "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingfqrd,;' has allied himself with the Greater Vitagfaph Company. His first play will.be "The Enemy,"' in which Charley Kent and Peggy Hyland have the leading roles. The play will probably receive the approval of- temperance advocates, as it assails the liquor evil with great vigour. From the, English ..branch of the Pathe Company over 200 men have joined the colours. But it is not only in men that the French firm is contributing to the success of the Allies. The Pathe Gazette has placed its whole resources at the command of tlie British Government for war films, or any other purpose. Qver 1000 copies of tlie Pathe Gazette are now published weekly for British use alone, and 200 for the oversea dominions. ■

Nowadays one notices the number of well known and successful novels that are being adapted to the screen. The last American mail brought, the news that tlamlin ,Garland's story, "Money Magic," has been made into a photo-, play by the Vitagraph Company, while the same company has produced Robert W. Charnbers's novel, "The Girl Philippo.," giving Anita Stewart the title role. Thomas Dixon, outlhor of "The Birth of a Nation," contributes a fine .story, in "The Foolish Virgin," in which Clara Kimball Young will next appear, while the same star has commenced work on "The Price She Paid," which will be' a pictorial adaptation of David Grahame Phillip's novel. Marie Dressier, the inimitable Tillie of "Tillies Punctured Romance," is now ;with the. World Company, and has produced a comedy entitled "Tillie Wakes Up." In this piece the heavy-weight comedienne is supported, by Johnny Hineai Most' of its scenes are laid on Coney Island, where the two stars participated in all the festivities usually incidental upon a trip to, that scene of jollity.. „'...■.-.,■■ •:

Film censorship continues to be a burning question wherever the fascination of the "movie 1' has established iteelf in the affections of the people; and so many and conflicting have been the views expressed on the'subject that by the time the bewildered , censors . have absorbed only half of them there will be scarcely a yard of the "flickergraph."* on which the censorious finger may not be placed with obliterating i force. The: Cinematograph Commission of Enquiry, which sat at Westminster, under the presidency of the Bishop of Birmingham,, brought forth a prolusion of evidence, some of which' was of widespread importance. The views of Mr. John D. Tippet, mana-ging-director of the Trans-Atlantic Film Company, are interesting because of the broad and sane outlook they evincie.. He could not speak too'strongly in fay'v our of film pictures being censored, he said, though it was not by any means so easy as would appear at first sight. Today no manufacturer in. his senses would invest his'money in a picture which was on the face of it indecent or immoral, and as a matter of fact such pictures could not- be said to exist. The real crux of censorship lay in discriminating as to the effect a picture would have upon all kinds of audiences, old and young, and whether the methods sof presentation employed were such as not to offend t}ie canons of good taste, or to present life from such an angle as to glorify crime or wrongdoing. Subjects destined for presentation before AngloSaxon audiences, of the mixed type needed very careful pruning, and the picture trade had had so many ill-founded aspersions cast upon it by narrow-minded bigots and busybodie's that it behoved them toj be particularly careful not to lay themselves open to the charge, of presenting anything which might be construed into evil by prejudiced folk. Of course, they must not.be debarred from presenting a powerful story, or facing sex problems of vital import to the future of the race; but >it was. certain that all this could .be done with propriety, decency, arid proper dignity.

A private view was .giveri in Sydney of Miss Enid ; B'eiinett!s first Triangle picture play, in which the '", dainty little Australian actressi appears in the leading, role of "The Little Brother." •■• Miss Bennett, who will be'remembered here chiefly for her work with Fred. Niblo and Josephine Cohan; gives a charming characterisation of the girl, who dons boy's clothes, and only confesses to the change when confronted with the difficulties of an. academy for lads, to which she is sent by her benefactor; and if she shows a truly feminine inclination to weep on all possible occasions, and a tendency to drop her head .on the first masculine 'shoulder ( that comes handy, she does. it very charmingly, and only succeeds in . "putting herself away" to the auditorium. " The hero remains oblivious as to how matters stand till confronted by the pretty young engenue returning from school to assist him in his chemical experiments. The story closes in the conventional way, after a series of dramatic situations.

Interesting evidence was given in London before the Commission of Enquiry appointed by the National Council of Public Morals. The London Times report; of the proceedings contains the evidence of the managing director of the Transatlantic Film Company, Ltd. He said that the talking picture had, so far, not met with any, great success, Several attempts had been made to perfect a machine (generally a small ■ phonograph placed behind the centre of the screen and worked electrically from the operator's box) to get the people acting in the pictures to present the illusion of talking. The object was to make thn phonograph voice synchronise with the corresponding movements on the screen, but this had so far proved a, failure, bo cause it was impossible to create the illusion that the voice was proceeding from the people acting on the screen. When the time came that a picture could be projected on the screen the size of the average stage proscenium, 20ft to 30ft wideband the voice could be thrown from one character on the extreme left to another on the extreme right, probably a great advance would be mado in talking pictures. Having sketched the history of the rise of the motion picture industry in the United States, he said the difficulty about making a success with anything that pertained to education was that, as the showman declared, " there is no money in it." The objections raised against'the cinema for school purposes on account of the defective ventilation and doubtful hygiene of the picture houses would not hold water. They compared favourably with other public places—indeed, they were more comfortable and healthy than mo»t theatre*,. ■