Less Talk in Talkies

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6838, 20 April 1932, Page 5

Less Talk in Talkies

DRASTIC CHANGE PREDICTED BY ERNST LUBITSCH. A new trend in talking motion pictures in which dialogue is used only to enhance tho dramatic value of a story has gained movement in Hollywood. This revolutionary change is strikingly exemplified in Ernst Lubitsch’s first dramatic talkie undertaking, "The Broken Lullaby,” a Paramount picture whicii wil Ireach the screen with, far less dialogue than other big films made since the advent of sound.

"Dialogue is important when it means something; that is, when it is vital to the explanation of the story,” says Lubitsch. "Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, and the other characters in ‘The Broken! Lullaby’ talk when it is logical that they should. They do not talk, however, where the story can be better and more rapidly developed in terms of action and use of cameras.”

Page after page of script for this after-the-war romance laid in France and Germany is bare of dialogue. It is in some places quite like the scenarios for silent pictures, following the for* mula which film authorities say is the new trend in providing the kind of entertainment demanded by the public. Paramount’s "The Broken Lullaby,’* adapted from the European stage success by Maurice Rostand and Alfred Savoir, is destined to bo one of the greatest contributions to tho talking screen. In support of the principals are Lucien Littlefield, Julia Swayno Gordon, 'fully Marshall and Zasu Pitts.