THE WHITE SHEET.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 104, 3 May 1919, Page 6

THE WHITE SHEET.

CINEMA NOTES

(By Condenser.)

Admirers of Mac- Marsh will be interested to know that she has presented her husband with an addition to the family. History does not relate whether it is a, boy or a child. Humor unintentional: The authorities at home who closed the picture theatres on account of the flu', are now using the same houses to advertise and r.ropagate knowledge of preventive measures.

Everybody knows Bruce Bairnsfather's cartoons, "Fragments from France." He has Avritten a play round them, "The Better 'Ole," which has run for over two years with conspicuous success. Now it has been filmed and the film is being '.screened in New Zealand. The film is far ahead of th« play. It is the romance of Old Bili, and his two inwparables Bert and Alf. It can truthfully be called England's masterpiece of film production. A clever j admixture of laughter and tears, the i rivirth and pathos are so cleverly mingled that before you have time to notice ihe huskiness in your throat mid your attempts to swallow the lump that won'b gee, you are shrieking with huitxht^r at the next inci-i dent. As symbols of the Old and the 'Nvw Army, tbf.\uc three characters arc immense. They actually exist in

all our armies, and the incidents from which Bairnsfather derived so much humor are all actualities, which he himself lived. jNo one should miss seeing this master picture when it comes along.

Scenario Editor: "Tommy, what is that moving in the waste-paper basket?" Office Boy: "Please Mr Editor, it's one of those throbbing passionate photoplays." "Empty the water bottle on it, Tommy. This place isn't insured."

Mrs Charlie Chaplin^ (Mildred Harris,), although only 17, is a cannie kid. Her next picture is "The Price of a Good Time." One i§ tempted to ask how did she know.

"What a frightful cold you've got!" "Yes; I went to the pictures and it was such a breezy story." "I went to see Theda Bara last night." "Did you like her?" "Why, 1 never saw Theda Barer."

Manager: "TV>. audience in the Dress Circle seem very re3tlass tonight." Doorkeeper: "Yes; that's because of the tax on their seats."

Five girls, all of them with coppercolored hair, arc implicated in the murder tangle which forms the plot of "Knipty Pockets," a film-version of the famous and daring novel by Rupert Hughes. June Elvidge is undoubtedly becoming one of the most prominent, as she is one of the most beautiful, of screen-r.ctresscs. She is ajgo becoming :; remarkably fme artist. The Australian critics all agree that no

•one has seen her at"'her best until they have seen '"Hie Strong Way," which has been showing over there recently. Picture f°ns should certainly not niiss the opportunity of again seeing Gi'ac© Darmond, who by her beauty and acting crgated such a sensation in "In the Balance." She is now appearing in the Vitagraph drama 'The Other Man," and plays opposite Harry Morey. American producers are not to have the monopoly of film making; any longer, even in their own country. The first storming of the American market with a British film has actually taken place and the first foothold been obtained. Some time ago Mr Edward Godal, of the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company, Ltd., made up his mind to launch right out. He was • prepared . people in tfte trade thought him mad) to spend from £8000 to .£IO,OOO on a film if he could assure himself that it was going to be "the goods." He argued that the best..producers are in America, not because America produces the best producers, but because she pays them best. Pie accordingly got in touch with American pioduoers. If he needed justification for this action it lay in the similar action of the British Government when it brought Mr Herbert Brenon from America to produce the areat National film which Sir Hall Came wrote, paying him and his camera man at American rates. The idea that was suggested from that was ■obvious. Was not Mr Brenon the very man ho was wanting? Mr ■Brenoo. is an Englishman. An Englishman producing an English film, what more did lie want? To obtain the services of the right actress, naturally.

how the great thing to be borne in n;j'nd was. the fact that Americans are not out to boycott British films, as seme think. They want British films, for they are realising now that wo are getting tired of the eternal American theme and scene, and that, as the Exhibitors' Trade Review, of New York, recently pointed out, if they bar out British films from the States, American films will soon bo barred from Britain. What has been the root of the matter up to the present is that they have not had confidence in British films. The problem before Mr Godal, then, if he wanted to secure the financial success of his film by getting it taken up in America, was t© make certain that Americans would have confidence m it. He had secured their confidence in the producing side. To secure their confidence in the acting side he approached Marie .Ooro, who had made great film successes in America of her parts in "The Morals of Marcus," "Oliver Twist," and ' Diplomacy." Moreover, Marie Dero is as well known here as over there. The result was that both Mr Brenon and Marie Doro were engaged. The venture justified itself immediately. The output for the next year was sold, both here and in America, before the first film had been started on.

Mr Brenon was quite keen to start in England. He had every confidence in British acting and photography, and as to the climate lie realised, what so many people overlook, that one can get to sunshine from London in less time than one can get from New York to the slopes'of California, where the American producers assemble for their big scenes. London ought to be the centre of the lilm world. Londoners have the real Paris at their doors, -the real Europe. They can get to the Riviera or to Morocco in the same time that it takes to get from New York to California., a journey which is travelled daily. In California they have to spend thousands of pounds to build up scenes which are in Europe ready at hand, quite apart from the constant danger of anachronisms. Mr Brenon, who has brought with him his camera man, his technical director, and his assistant producer, was once an actor in England. Going to the States, he ran :i picture palace. Later he wrote scenarios, and this led to producing. Once started on that, he could not make a failure. His great successes have been in his imaginative films, such as "Neptune's Daughter," "Daughter of the Gods/ and 'The Lone Woif."

He started work on his first British and Colonial film three days ago. It is called "Twelve-ten," and is a ir-ysfcery story full to the top with thrills.

The National film is still to be produced, I hear. It is being altered to make it fit in" -vith the changed trend in affairs caused by the armistice.