IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 8 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

A Bill has been introduced into the Minnesota State: Senate providing for the payment of a State license of £400 a year by every cinema in a city of over 50,000 people.

I Mr. Joseph M, Flannery. who is said | to own 80 per cent, of the world's supply of radium, lent one gramme to the IJniversal Company for vise in the production of a serial film called " The Radium Mystery.'' Many people in the film business are discussing news from Berlin of a German film campaign, organised to compete with America for the markets of the world. It is said that Hagenbeck's zoological garden, near Hamburg, is in the occupation of a film company, who will construct scenery on an ambitious scale and use the animals where necessary for big " wild " scenery. For instance, in addition to a film of "Madame Butterfly" taken in the Japanese garden, where special Japjuiese scenery of a more or less permanent nature is being erected, the company -are- just now preparing a jungle fire with the animals, or some of them, as actors. British producers seem to be quite alive to the efforts Germany will make to capture the markets, but they say that shortage of material will hamper the Germans considerably for a time. Captain Daniel Owen, of the Roval Air Force, has taken ten thousand feet ot films at an altitude of 2000 ft above the unexplored timberland along the Ax Aleois River, Labrador. ! A story of how a general is said to have delayed a great operation until the light became good enough for cinemato. gKiph purposes is taken from " How I Filmed the War," by Lieutenant Geoff rev Malms, 0.8. E., who took the pictures of the battle of the Somme. Malins heard, in 1915, that the Hohenzolleni Redoubt was to be blown up at 4.30 in the morning, when it would not be light enough for a photograph, and proceeded to headquarters, where he succeeded in getting Mxess to the general. "I hear vou're blowing up the Hohenzollem Redoubt to-mor-row at 4.30, sir," said Malins. " Well " i said the general, looking at him sharply, what about it?" "1 can't take a photograph at 4.30, sir. Would you mind putting it off for a couple *of hours?" Malins suggested. Th general jerked round in his chair as if Malins had struck him. " Who is running this war, you or the Government ?' he demanded. " Get back to vour post." And Malms, feeling that the tide of was running against him, withdrew. Later in the day cam the order that the rsdoubt was to be blown up at seven o'clock.

An English producer has been lucky enough to hit upon the grateful subject o- "Mary Queen of Scots" before anybody else had appropriated it, says the Daily lelegraph. Mr. Walter West, who is making the film, has a wonderful opportunity to capture a world audience. There is probably no name in history more universally known or round which clings so many romantic associations. Miss Violet Hopson, too, who is to play the role of the unfortunate Queen, has "an opportunity such as comes seldom in the way of an actress. The art of producing films nas made big strides in the few years that have elapsed since the late Mr. H. B. Irving made his solitary screen appearance in a picture version of "The Lyons. Mail." Even so, however, the fact brings vividly home to us how the screen perpetuates what a few years ago perished for ever when the artist passed away

The Canadian public, whose feelings of comradeship with the rest of the Empire, and especially with England, has been \ infinitely increased by the events of the , last five years,* has shown its unmistakable preference for British films lately in .place of the American films, which have been accepted faute de mieux, says the Daily Telegraph. No serious objection was taken to the American films before the war. They represented conditions and expressed sentiments which were practically indistinguishable from those prevailing in Canada. With the coming of the war, however, there, was a noticeable change. Quite naturally films made in the United States were made exclusively from the point of view of the nation. A large proportion of them were based on incidents more or" less directly connected with the struggle in progress, and the "doughboys" of Uncle Sam were apparently the only soldiers who had done any real fighting. The Canadian audiences, particularly the men who had been in France, strongly resented this, and a vigorous demand for British films was the result. There was no intention on the part of the American producers to misrepresent or give a wrong complexion to facts. It was simply that they looked on the world with American and not with British, or rather not with cosmopolitan, eyes, sis they do in making their ordinary films.

The steadily increasing demand for shorter films is a natural sequel to -the efforts of many producers who have packed their films with wearisome "padding" to make them reach the requisite length, says the Daily Mail. A sign of the growing popularity of the shorter picture is that the greater "stars" are now realising its possibilities. Miss Constance Talmadge, for instance, has completed two comedies of one part each with "Smiling Bill" Parsons, and such names as Mr.- J. Warren Kerrigan and Miss Violet Mersereau are to be -seen in twopart dramas. The short film of Scenic and natural history interest is also in treat demand at present, and is eagerly ooked instead of being taken on sufferance to fill a gap between the larger films. Many of these pictures show that film audiences are quite ready to enjoy so-called "educational films" if they are produced in an original way. A British company has been formed whose sole object is to make educational films and they are negotiating with the Board of Agriculture to produce a film showing the necessity of the campaign against rats. "One of the heads of the Natural History Department of the British Museum is already at work writing the 'scenario,' " said a member of the firm recently. "The film is" to show the damage rats can do and the manner in which they become disease carriers. I personally believe in the necessity of such a film to impress the dangers of rats on the public because I saw, during the war, the effects of them at the bread store at Havre." The aims of the company are to produce purely educational films on historical, natural history, and scientific subjects. Thev have already completed a picture of Hampton Court t a]ace showing jt s historic associations, and also a telescopic study of the moon. They are arranging with publishers to produce text-books which can be studied in conjunction with the films.

The British American Film Company of Vancouver is completing a very interesting moving picture film for the Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment of Vancouver. The theme of this picture covers the numerous classes in which the returned soldiers are receiving tuition, namely, telegraphy, steam engineering, typewriting, shoe repairing, accountancy, furniture, upholstering, salesmanship, architect in e, iron working, book-keeping, sign-painting, and many other trades and provisions. The British American Film Company has also been awarded the contraei from Mr. Davidson, publicity commissioner of British Columbia, to "take a reel of pictures to he used for publicity purposes and to show those in other provines the beauties of British Columbia and to attract tourists and home-seekers to this territory. Miss Mary PickforJ is at present engaged upon a screen version of the successful novel "Pollyanna." Mcsico DEAiIATICCS.

I ■ D I