CRAZE FOR IMITATION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 20

CRAZE FOR IMITATION

HAPPENINGS IN THE FILM GAME HOW. THE CRAZE FOR INCIDENT CHANGES. Unfortunately, there lias been for several years a tendency on the part of producers to emulate others who have made a successful production. This is done to an extent in motion pictures which possibly does not exist in any other line of business, declares the "New York Times."; Now and again some shrewd individual makes something that can't'be imitated; and if this particular picture is a success it is a subject of deep chagrin to the imitators. And in quite a number of instances the imitative quality is not confined to rival producers, as the man who has made a successful film every now and again believes later on that another on the same idea will still attract motion picture enthusiasts.

Since "The Covered Wagon" met with high praise in the newspapers there has been a lot of scurrying around to get stories of the days of '49, and wherever possible to have something from the pen of tho late Emerson Hough. These productions have just started to come.

Western stories were favourites for some time, until the patrons of theatres showed their apathy for them. Then came a flood of crook stories, with a touch of the serial in them. They lived for some time, but the public became bored with seeing the courageous exploits of a man in a glossy silk hat and cape covering an immaculate dress suit and expansive white 6hirt, and he gradually dropped from the screen, although every now and again he crops up. Costume plays were a source of annoyance to some of the smaller exhibitors, because they did not know whether they would appeal to their audiences. But when some of the big producers like Douglas Fairbanks showed their temerity in making- costume pictures, these theatre owners decided that after all their patrons might like them. They became keen for them after Fairbanks came out with "The Three Musketeers," and latterly with "Robin Hood."

When Fox produced "Over the Hill' it wa3 not thought at first that this picture would "mop up" all over the country, until it had run for many weeks in a New York theatre. Gradually the exhibitors saw that he had a wonderful audience picture, and the producers went to aIV such heart interest affairs. They had various types, from the drink pictures to the ailing mother productions. Fox found he had tapped gold in "Over the Hill," and decided. that it would be a fine thing to put out a picture of a man in the same plight as the mother in the big success. He therefore thought up things, let. his mind wander to poems, and eventually lighted on "The Village Blacksmith." He made the story of a muscular man .who is made to suffer much, but it did not touch "Over the Hill."

Another company produced a little while before "Blind Husbands." It had ' a vogue, and this was appreciated by Fox, who went after such productions, eventually discovering "My Lady's Dress," a beautiful play, but limited in interest as a picture, which Fox called "Blind Wives." Ibanez's books were at first thought to be worthless for the screen until Rex Ingram produced for Metro "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Instantly the marked success of that picture became known all the other books of Ibanez were snapped up as fast as possible, Famous Players buying "Blood and Sand" and Cosmopolitan getting "Enemies of Women."

D. W. Griffith is a leader, in motion picture thought, and when he first made 6oft focus close-ups, the exhibitors, and distributors for that matter, thought there was something wrong with the print. Soon it was explained to them that this was a new style of Griffith photography, and it instantly became the fashion, so much so that some of the; producers. whose camera men did not quite get the idea of the! bigger producer, ' attempted to make almost all the close-ups on the same order, and even some of the other scenes. Men like Frank Lloyd. Fred Niblo, Ingram, James Cruze, Marshall Neilan, and a few others are not tarred with the imitative brush. It is a source of satisfaction to them to do something that stands out as original and almost a pleasure when they observe the other directors imitating them. This craze for imitation is not confined to productions, titles, and specially photographed close-ups, but it went to the manner in which a story was developed, and naturally to a sequence of scenes. It was done in the beginning of the filmproducing business, and it is still done to-day. One of the really good productions which it was hardly possible to imitate was "The Yankee at the Court of King Arthur." It was a good, subtle film, one of rare quality, and a production in which the director did not seem to have missed the mark on any scene. So the exhibitors from-a small town after a. yawn, decided that in their lofty opinions the production was "a pretty good little comedy." No wonder some of the producers ' are given to imitating something that ha 6 been successful!